Chapter 12
TWELVE
TEN YEARS AGO
Adam
When Jason gets home from swim practice, he walks into the basement through the garage, dumping his bag by the door and flopping on the couch beside me.
His hair is still wet from the pool, and the scent of chlorine drifts over to me.
It reminds me again that I really ought to learn to swim.
I know Jason would teach me, but it’s embarrassing to basically be a grown man and need your best friend to help you float across a pool like a toddler.
But if I’m ever going to learn, I should probably just suck it up.
“How was practice?” I toss aside the biology book I was pretending to read, grateful for the distraction.
I’ve been trying to focus more on schoolwork, but mastering the concepts of cell division after skating by on the basics is proving to be about as hard as I expected.
I could probably ask Jason for help with that, too, but then I’d feel like a complete loser.
“Eh, Coach is being kind of a dick.” Jason tugs open the drawer on the coffee table, revealing the remote control and a half-eaten bag of Skittles. “Where’s my weed? ”
I hitch my chin toward the dresser where I keep my clothes. “I hid it under my socks. I didn’t want your parents finding it.”
Jason crosses the room to root around in my drawers. “Ew, dude. I don’t want my weed smelling like your dirty socks.”
“I do wash them before I put them away. They smell way better than that skunky shit you smoke.”
He pulls out his bag and rolling papers, and I get up to open a window.
We settle back on the couch, and Jason lights up his blunt. Once he’s inhaled and exhaled, he offers it in my direction. I shake my head.
“I’m kind of over swim team,” he says. “I’m thinking of quitting. I don’t really need it for college applications, so why bother?”
After struggling with that biology book all evening, I can’t help but feel a tinge of resentment.
He has no idea what it’s like to have everything go easy for him.
His dad went to Princeton and is now a generous donor, so Jason has a pretty good shot of getting in.
And he has about a dozen different backup plans.
Jason takes another drag. I wave away the smoke and lean forward to light a candle on the coffee table. I wish he’d go outside with that shit.
“If I quit the swim team, I can get a job,” Jason continues.
My eyebrows raise. Jason has never had a job, and he’s never really needed one.
His parents are pretty generous with his allowance, and college is fully funded.
Maybe he wants to get some experience for when he starts applying for internships and jobs after college.
I know he’s planning to go into business.
I guess companies may not be impressed by his parents supporting him.
Still, I’m a little skeptical that he’s going to work a typical high school job.
He’s not really suited to serving demanding customers at a place like a coffee shop.
And he loves to give me shit about my job at the autobody shop.
But still, I say, “Broadway Automotive is looking for another assistant. You want me to talk to my boss?”
I can tell the weed has started to hit him because this suggestion cracks him up. “Dude, thanks, but no thanks.”
I felt like I should make the offer, but I’m secretly relieved when he passes.
I don’t think he would have lasted more than a couple of weeks, and if he quit, it would have reflected on me.
I need that job. Jason’s parents won’t let me pay for rent or food, even though I’ve offered a dozen times.
But my minimum wage income at Broadway Automotive covers all my spending money, and since I met Madeline, I’ve been trying to save more.
She deserves someone who has more than ten bucks to his name.
“So, what are you going to do, then?” I ask.
Jason lays his head back against the couch cushion.
“I was offered a job at a local electronics company. They need somebody to deliver equipment to their satellite offices, run errands for one of the owners. It will be really good for my resume since I plan to go into business. Plus, I’ll make connections and get some good references. ”
I’m impressed that he’s found himself a job like this, and I can’t help but feel a sense of inferiority.
Jason is savvy enough to plan for his future, while mine feels vague and uncertain.
I hope to work my way up to be a mechanic, but I haven’t really thought through the details past working as an assistant.
“They’re actually looking for a couple of guys,” Jason continues.
“All you need is a car. They just text you when they have an errand, and you go and do it. It pays a lot more than Broadway Automotive, and it could be an opportunity to work your way up in a company where you don’t have to come home covered in grease.
” His gaze drifts to my hands. “I seriously don’t know how you manage to keep a girl like Madeline when half the time you look like a coal miner. ”
Jason gives my shoulder a shove to let me know he’s joking, but I can’t help but feel the dig anyway.
Madeline doesn’t seem to mind my hands looking dirty.
But I wonder if she’ll feel the same when she’s off at college and I’m still in Maple Ridge under the hood of a car.
Maybe having a few options for my future wouldn’t be a bad thing.
Plus, I’m intrigued by pays a lot .
“How much are you talking?”
“Listen,” Jason says, “just do one job for them and see for yourself.”
The next evening, I get a text telling me to pick up a package from a company called CyTech Electronics Systems on the east side of town and deliver it to an address in Glassport, just over the border in New York state, about two hours away.
I have a brief pang of worry about filling up with gas and how much this is going to cost me, but Jason said the pay covers expenses.
So, as instructed, I pull up to the loading dock in the back alley and knock on a heavy steel door.
A young guy with reddish hair and a pale face answers and hands over a nondescript medium-sized cardboard box marked with a red logo. I’m guessing it’s computer equipment.
Two hours later, and after a stop for gas, I pull up to another CyTech Electronics Systems warehouse. Another youngish guy answers—this one is beefier, with wide shoulders and a thick neck. I confirm his name and hand over the box. He gives me an envelope in return.
I wait until I’m back in the car to open it, and I’m stunned when two hundred dollars in twenty-dollar bills falls out into my lap.
Two hundred dollars for a little over four hours of driving.
That will definitely cover the thirty bucks I just put into my gas tank and still leave me with close to forty dollars an hour.
It’s mind-blowingly more than the minimum wage paycheck I earn at the autobody shop, and this is under the table and tax-free .
With that thought, I hesitate, staring at the money in my hands. Is it too much money? I would have happily done the job for half of this. How can they afford to pay so much for a simple errand? I pull out my phone to call Jason.
“Hey, dude, did you make the delivery?” he asks through the phone speaker.
“Yeah, I’m sitting here in the parking lot.” I set the cash on the dashboard, still staring at it. “They paid me… a lot .”
Jason chuckles. “It’s great, right? I told you, easy money.”
“Yeah, but… are you sure this is legit?”
“Of course it’s legit, the owner is a friend of my dad.”
Jason’s dad is a corporate lawyer who’s probably represented half of the large businesses in the area.
Every time I’m out in public with him, people come up and shake his hand and want to chat.
He’s definitely what I’d call well connected, and I could see him pulling strings to get Jason a job.
My gaze drifts to the CyTech Electronics Systems sign on the building.
It looks like they have multiple locations in different states, and if they’re well-connected with Jason’s dad, they’re probably successful.
“This kind of money might seem like a lot to you,” Jason says. “But it’s a pretty middle-of-the-road amount to pay a professional driver to handle expensive electronics equipment.”
I pick up the cash and shuffle it into a neat stack. That’s probably true.
“The problem is that you think of yourself as a kid who’s only qualified to do menial jobs,” Jason continues.
“But people are willing to pay for good help. You prove that you’re a hard worker, and you could make a lot of money.
You could go far with this company. I was willing to vouch for you, so you already have a huge leg up. ”
I’m reminded again of how smart Jason is when it comes to planning for his future.
It makes sense—he’s watched his dad make connections, build his business, and earn a boatload of money.
My parents were too busy struggling to pay bills to ever think beyond the day-to-day.
But maybe I don’t have to follow in their footsteps.
I remember my mom coming home from the diner every night, exhausted and smelling like french fries, and my dad covered in grease from the autobody, his back aching from leaning under the hood of a car all day long.
Just because we didn’t talk about planning for my future doesn’t mean they wouldn’t have wanted a better life for me than they had.
But as I stare at the cash, the doubts ripple through me again. “Why do they pay under the table?”
“Big companies do all sorts of things to avoid paying taxes and doing extra paperwork. They probably bury it as some random expense on their books. It’s really not a huge deal.”
At my hesitation, Jason lets out a heavy sigh. “If you’re not sure, I can ask one of the guys from the swim team…”
“Don’t do that,” I say quickly.
“Look, just try it out. Keep working at the autobody and do this on the side. Don’t even mention it to anyone. If you’re not feeling it in a month or two, you can quit, and your girlfriend won’t even have to know you gave up a good corporate job to fix cars instead.”
There’s no harm in trying it out, right?
This could be my chance. I’m lucky to have Jason and his family to open doors for me.
I should grab this opportunity with both hands and use it to learn how to get ahead, to move up in the ranks of a company where I could have a career and not just a back-breaking job.
And in the meantime, I could save so much money.
Hundreds of dollars a week, maybe more if I’m willing to work even harder.
After graduation, I could afford to get my own place.
A nice apartment and not just a friend’s basement.
Someplace that’s mine . And maybe someday, I could even afford to go to college myself.
My grades aren’t great, but I could start small, a few classes at the local community college .
Maybe someday, I could become the kind of successful man a girl like Madeline deserves.
For the first time, my life stretches out in front of me in what could be a clear path if I’m willing to take a chance on this job. “You’re right,” I say to Jason through the phone. “I’m in.”
If I go to college, get a good job, maybe someday I could even buy a beach house on that island Madeline loves.
Sandy Harbor. She says she doesn’t think she’ll ever go back, but that’s because she’s still reeling from the heartbreak of leaving.
But I don’t think it would be hard to change her mind.
I can tell how special that place is every time she talks about it.
I know I’m getting ahead of myself; we’ve only known each other for a few weeks, but I’ve never felt this way about someone before.
On the drive home, I switch the radio to the rock station and turn it up loud.
Cruising down the highway with the windows down, I shove away the last of my doubts about the job.
I’d be an idiot to get nervous and pass up this kind of cash and opportunity.
Just because good things have never happened to me doesn’t mean they never will.