“See for yourself.” He sighed.
I gave the door a loud knock before I let myself inside. Angelo was in the bed, his back facing me, and I could see his tan skin was dripping with sweat.
The apartment was somewhat stuffy, but it felt much better than it did outside. I set my hand on his head, expecting him to be burning up, but his skin was clammy.
He tried to bat my hand away but cried out instead.
“What’s going on, Angelo? Tell me. Now.”
“Nothing,” he barely got out. His voice sounded pained, like it took everything inside of him to get the one word out.
I looked at Phoenix, who was standing inside the doorway.
“His arm is broken.”
Phoenix and Angelo were total opposites. Angelo would go down for a secret. Phoenix would tell it because he just didn’t care that much to keep it. Angelo was more like our dad, and I could see his traits developing more and more every day in him. It worried me.
Not that I wanted Phoenix to be a snitch, but if it meant keeping Angelo in line and out of trouble, I was glad Phoenix would tell me things.
“How did he break his arm?”
“Fell off my bike,” Angelo breathed out. He shot Phoenix a death glare.
“Why didn’t you tell Linda?”
“Leonora…” Phoenix gave me aduhlook.
Duh, because Linda was probably passed out by the time Angelo had snuck out. And she wouldn’t have done anything anyway. She was indifferent to them to the point where they almost didn’t exist to her. They were only there when they ate the last of whatever was in the cabinets.
“That still doesn’t explain why you were out past curfew.” I looked down at Angelo.
Two tears slipped down his cheeks, and he let me run my fingers through his saturated hair.
“Get up.” I helped him to a sitting position. “You need to go to the ER.”
“They might think you’re unfit.”
“Kids break bones all the time.” I kept my voice even, even though the thought made me a little nervous too. I worked nights, and Linda wasn’t exactly present. It didn’t matter, though. I’d do whatever needed to be done. I’d also get the true story out of Phoenix once we got there. I knew Angelo was lying to me. But I wanted to get him out of pain.
Phoenix rushed to get dressed, telling us he’d meet us in the car. Angelo moved away from me when we started to make it down the steps. He didn’t want me to help him.
I sighed as we moved around my mom. She didn’t even ask me where we were going. It was hard for me to blame her, since they were the living proof of my father’s infidelity, but I still felt bad the situation was what it was.
Our dad was at the root of this, and sometimes I wished I could pummel him.
Angelo took the passenger side. I started the car, turning the air conditioning on, trying to cool it off. He was sweating as bad as Vinny was the night before.
Phoenix jumped into the back seat and I took off.
“What’s that noise?” Phoenix asked after a minute. He sniffed the air. “And what’s that smell?”
Angelo scrunched up his noise at it when Phoenix brought it up.
I’d smelled it too, but I’d been ignoring it. It smelled like a chemical was burning off. Like when water boils out of a pot and the bottom’s about to start melting.
“Damn, Leonora.” Phoenix waved a hand in front of his face. “It’s fuck—hotter than the devil’s balls in here. Do you have the heater on?”
No, I didn’t. The AC must have crapped out.
