Riot lifted his head. “Yeah. I couldn’t leave him there withthem, and I had to get out of there.” There was a little bit of a challenge in his tone, like he expected me to say something about it.
I wouldn’t even know what to say, so I only nodded.
We both got quiet after that. I had a lot of questions, things I’d wanted to ask him since I’d met him, but I didn’t know how to without Riot getting mad. He was shivering, and I so badly wanted to offer him my sweatshirt, but I didn’t know how he’d take it. I wanted to ask about his face, if it hurt, but I doubted he’d tell the truth, so instead I stayed silent.
“What time is it?” Riot asked after a while. I pulled out my phone to check.
“4:30.”
Riot jumped to his feet, a little panicked. “Shit, I gotta go. Knox!” he called to the kid. “C’mon, we gotta go pick up Wynter.”
Knox pouted a little but didn’t argue, just skipped to his brother. Riot took his hand.
I climbed to my feet, but then stood there awkwardly. I didn’t know what to do.
Riot started to rush off, stopping just before he got to the brush. He looked over his shoulder at me. “Thanks.”
I grinned, probably looking dumb. “Will you be back? Another day I mean,” I asked desperately.
He seemed unsure, but after a second, Riot nodded once at me. He turned around without another word and led his brother away.
I kept watching, long after I couldn’t hear him anymore. I knew I wasn’t going to see Riot again today, but I stayed there, still and quiet, hoping. Eventually, I picked up my blanket andother stuff. Aunt Leilani would want me home soon. My heart raced as I left my favorite place. For the first time since moving to this tiny town, I felt something other than hollow. Riot St. James. I would become friends with him. I would make him smile and get him to let his guard down. It was my goal now, and I couldn’t wait.
Koa: Age 14
I paced back and forth on the muddy bank of the river. Where was he? He knew that if he missed school, he had to come here after, just so I knew he was okay. I had been here for nearly an hour and still no Riot.
I checked my phone for the hundredth time, and there were no messages from him. Had something happened to the pay-per-minute phone I’d bought him to use with my allowance I’d saved up so he could call me if there was an emergency? Had his mom or her boyfriend found it? I didn’t dare call it myself in case he’d forgotten to put it on silent or something. His mom sometimes sold everything she could find, and I didn’t want to be the reason he lost his only way to call for help.
All the worst-case scenarios were running through my head. Riot wouldn’t just not show up, unless it was really bad. He’d promised me, and he never broke his promises. This one, especially, was too important.
I waited five more minutes before I gave up. Riot had told me never to come to his house, but this was an exception, right? I couldn’t just go back to Aunt Leilani’s without knowing he was okay.
My bike was where I’d left it, lying on its side right outside the brush. I quickly picked it up and headed to the other side of town, where Riot’s trailer was.
I’d never pedaled so hard in my life, but I couldn’t shake the feeling that something was really, really wrong.
I ignored all the looks as I entered the trailer park. They didn’t like outsiders coming in, but I didn’t care. None of them seemed to give a crap about what was happening at Riot’s, so why should I give a crap about them?
Riot’s trailer was toward the back. Even though I’d never been inside, I knew which one it was. Riot had shown me and made sure I remembered. “Just in case,” he’d said. But he wouldn’t tell me what that meant.
I dropped my bike in the overgrown weeds and climbed up the two rickety steps to the door. That was when I hesitated. Should I knock? I didn’t want his mom or one of her boyfriends to answer. I pressed my ear to the flimsy wood, but I couldn’t hear anything. Maybe I should see if it was unlocked?
Before I could make a decision, the door swung open. Knox was standing there, wearing Spider-Man pajamas. He was six now, and I’d come to really like the kid. Riot usually had him and his two-year-old sister, Wynter, with him.
Before I could say anything, Knox broke out in sobs. “Koa!” Then he threw himself at me, his little arms wrapping around my legs.
“Hey, little man. What’s going on?” I gently pulled him off me and guided him into the house. Once the door was closed, I knelt so I was eye level with him.
Knox wiped his face. “Riot’s sick. He keeps falling asleep, and his voice sounds funny. He didn’t even take me to school today.”
Fuck, that wasn’t good. “Where’s Wynter?” I asked, because as badly as I wanted to see him, I knew Riot would want me to find her first.
“Mrs. Leighman came and picked her up. Riot called and asked her to before he fell asleep again.” She was one of their neighbors who would watch Wynter when Riot was in school. I always had questions about her, because she had to know at least a little bit about what was going on, right? But she never intervened as far as I knew. When I’d tried to ask Riot about it, he’d gotten all quiet, so I’d stopped bringing it up.
It pissed me off that she hadn’t made sure Riot was alright, or at least taken Knox too, but I didn’t want to upset Knox by pushing it. I shook my head. “And your mom?”
Knox shrugged. Alright, good enough.
