“Oh! His finger is moving and… oh look, it’s spitting the money back out because he’s taken so long. What a dork.”
“I’ll be out of prison before he decides.”
I grin and watch as the kid finally picks some things before coming over.
“Did you fall in love over there?” I ask.
Waylon looks confused. “What?”
“You couldn’t stop staring at the vending machine, so I thought maybe you fell in love with it. Or could you see your own reflection and realized how messy your hair looks?”
“Funny. This is in style. And I couldn’t decide what you guys wanted. I just… I got multiple things so you guys can pick,” he says.
“But did you get my favorite?” Bennett asks.
Waylon looks at him in shock. “You told me anything!”
“I thought you knew me better than this,” Bennett teases.
Waylon pulls all of the junk food to him. “All mine. Every single piece. All mine.”
“He’s greedy,” I state.
“No surprise there,” Bennett says.
“Hey! Don’t you two gang up on me! I have enough trouble with all of Leland’s weirdo friends!”
“The only friends I have are The Fence and Blow-Up Randy.”
“You’re so embarrassing! Go wait in the car.”
“You want to leave me in the car in the hot sun to bake?” I ask.
“Kind of.”
“It has been determined that you’re evil, Waylon,” I decide.
“I’m the only nice one at this table!” he declares, which is probably true.
SIX
LELAND
“Okay… so I know that you said that you invited Everly over for dinner… but you also got a kiddie pool?” Jackson asks.
“Sure did,” I respond as I stare at the groceries on the counter. “Not quite sure he’ll even show up, but if he does, we’re going to have a brawl. It’s already scheduled.”
“Oddly I feel like that’s less surprising than the dinner,” Jackson says.
“That’s what the kiddie pool is for,” I explain.
“Why?”
“I thought if we filled it with whipped cream or mud and got down to our underwear, we’d be able to sort things out better. It’d be like a metaphor. Like look, we’re both the same under these clothes.”
“I feel like maybe all of that is wrong and strange,” Jackson says.
“Nah, not at all.” My phone rings and I see that it’s Waylon, who just got out of school like twenty minutes ago. He said he was walking to the mall with his friends and would need us to pick him up from the mall before dinner.
