Dad shook his head. “Kiddo, the police aren’t stupid. They’re gonna ask those guys exactly who Izzy is, and those guys are gonna tell him. He’s going to have to answer questions anyway, you understand?”
“But he didn’t do anything wrong!”
“Even if that’s true, he was high tonight, and you know Justin’s policy on that.”
“Because people like Izzy can’t afford EpiPens or insulin or Ativan!” Wyatt said. “And weed is legal here!”
“You know why Justin doesn’t allow drugs,” Dad reminded him. “Youknow.”
And Wyatt thought of a little boy sitting quietly on a couch for hours, with his mother dead beside him.
“Doesn’t Izzy deserve a second chance?” he asked, his voice small.
“Wy,” Dad said, shaking his head, “thiswashis second chance.”
* * * *
Wyatt didn’t sleep. He sat on his bed and stared at his window, hoping against hope that Izzy would check to see if he’d left if open, but nothing happened. He heard footsteps in the hallway once, and then, on his way to the bathroom, he heard the low murmur of voices as Dad and Justin talked behind their bedroom door.
Lettie wasn’t sleeping either, too wired up from the robbery, and she slunk into Wyatt’s room at three in the morning with hot chocolate and cookies.
“I’m probably gonna skip school tomorrow,” she announced, sitting down on Wyatt’s bed. “I think Dad and Justin will let me.”
“Because you’re so traumatized?” Wyatt asked wryly.
Lettie snorted. “I am if it gets me a day off school.”
“Weren’t you even a little bit scared tonight?” Wyatt asked her.
Lettie considered that for a moment, and then shook her head. “Nope. Not with the dogs. I don’t care what those idiots thought, dogs are the best security system ever invented. Except maybe for geese. Did you know that in ancient times there were geese who guarded a temple in Rome? You don’t fuck with geese.”
“I wouldn’t,” Wyatt agreed. “I wouldn’t even fuck with the ducks in our pond. Geese would be much worse.”
“Are you okay?” Lettie asked curiously.
Wyatt grimaced.
“I heard Dad and you talking,” Lettie said frankly. She’d never seen why eavesdropping was such a big deal. It was one of the many boundary issues she had. “I didn’t know you and Izzy were boyfriends.”
“Yeah, Justin wasn’t happy about that.”
Lettie shrugged. “I like Izzy. He loves the dogs and they love him.”
Lettie lived in a very black and white world, and Wyatt envied her that a lot of the time.
“Are you a boy right now, or a girl?” Lettie asked bluntly, because of course she hadn’t just overheard the stuff about Izzy.
“Um, a boy, I guess,” Wyatt said.
“Cool. I mean, it’s cool when you’re a girl too.”
“How do you know that?”
Lettie raised her eyebrows. “Because you’realwayscool, Wyatt, duh. Even though you’re a nerd.”
Wyatt smiled despite himself.
Yeah, he liked Lettie’s black and white thinking. It was a lot easier than whatever was usually going on in his brain.
“Thanks, Lettie.”
They fist bumped.
