“I didn’t know that was him!”For the first time, Daniel sounded like what he was: a teenage boy in deep shit.The mixture of outrage and defensiveness was so unexpected, so…normal that Jem almost smiled.
“Maybe if you hadn’t acted rashly you would have,” Tean said.“We were coming to talk to you.”
“My mom wouldn’t have let you.”
Tean nodded, but what he said was “What about that apology?”
More color flooded the boy’s face.He stared somewhere around Jem’s sneakers and mumbled.“Sorry.”
“And?”
“Thanks.”But even Daniel must have felt this wasn’t enough, because he added, “Thank you.”
“And you knocked me down,” Jem said.“And I think I jacked up my shoulder.And I got kicked in the back when I was saving your life.”
“Jem,” Tean said.
“What?He thinks he’s such hot shit.Where’d you learn that thing with the pen?”
The question must have caught the boy off guard; the fixed, sullen resistance on his face flickered, and he said, “My dad.”
“That was dope.”
“Jem!”
“What?It was.You’re fast, too.”
Daniel gave a thin-shouldered shrug, and he sounded like he was trying not to sound pleased when he said, “You’re faster.”
“Well, yeah.”And then Jem grinned.
After a moment, a half-smile shifted the shadows on the boy’s face.It didn’t break them up.It didn’t brighten anything.But it did move the darkness around a bit, and that, more than anything so far, gave Jem hope.
“Do you want to tell us what you think you’re doing?”Tean asked.
The wariness dropped into place again, and Daniel’s gaze unfocused.
“Start with the part where you had Brennon’s phone,” Jem said.
But Daniel looked past him, through him.
“Bonehead,” Jem said, “we’re trying to help you.”
“And your dad,” Tean said quietly.And even more quietly, he said, “And Brennon.”
Daniel blinked, but not quickly enough to keep back the tears.One fell and landed on his cheek and ran slowly down.Another traced a path along his nose.
“Kid—” Jem said.
“Don’t call me that.”He didn’t exactly help himself when he snuffled and wiped at the tears with his wrist, but his voice was hard when he said, “I’m not a kid.”
Tean wanted to argue the point, Jem could tell, but he gave a tiny shake of his head to discourage the doc.“All right,” Jem said.“Fair enough.You’re making adult decisions.Stupid ones.But it’s your life.So, what?You’re running away from home?”
“I’m not going back there.”He looked like he tried not to speak, but the words broke free anyway.“They hate me.”
“They don’t—” Tean began.
Jem sliced the air with one hand, and Tean stopped.“Where are you going?”
