“It’s my friend,” I tell Evan. “His name is Cameron.”
“Hi, Cameron!” he yells, and waves.
Behind the windshield, Cameron’s mouth opens in surprise, and then he waves back. Evan loves the attention.
“Do you want to meet him?” I ask, squatting down next to my brother, brushing his blond hair out of his eyes. He needs it cut; I’m embarrassed I let it get this long. “He has a really nice car.”
“Can I ride in it?” Evan asks me, wide-eyed.
“No. But we can go look at it if you want.”
Evan pulls my hand in the direction of the Beamer. Cameron rolls down the passenger window and cuts the engine.
I stagger behind Evan on the sidewalk, but he drops my hand when we get to the door and pokes his head inside the window and squeals.
“Savannah!” he yells back to me. “He has a TV in here.”
I smile. He’s actually talking about the GPS, but I’m not going to correct him. I walk up behind him and bend over to rest my palms on my knees. Cameron meets my eyes for a second before looking back at my brother.
“Hi, Evan,” he says in a tone that isn’t at all condescending. I like that. Usually when people find out Evan has a disability, they talk to him like he’s stupid.
“Hi, Cameron,” my brother says to him. “You have a really nice car.”
“Thanks.”
He’s looking at my brother so completely normally that I ache inside. All I want is for people to treat my brother this way.
“Do you like video games?” Cameron asks him. Evan hangs half inside the window, pushing buttons on the dashboard.
“Yes!” Evan shouts, even though he’s never played one before.
“Cool.” Cameron nods. “Me too. But after I got in trouble my mom didn’t let me play them anymore.”
“Savannah got in trouble too,” my brother says. The comment digs me—I wish Evan didn’t need to know about that. At least he doesn’t know why. “Can I play the video games?” Evan asks.
“Sure. You want to come over?” Cameron offers.
“Yes!”
“No,” I respond at nearly the same time. Cameron takes the hint.
“Tell you what, big man,” Cameron says. “I’ll let you borrow my system. But you have to be really careful with it.”
Evan nods frantically, and then turns to grab the bottom of my shirt. “Cameron is going to let me play his games!”
“I heard,” I respond, looking into the car. “What a nice guy. I wonder why he would do something so generous.” I narrow my eyes, and Cameron opens his mouth and touches his chest like he’s offended that I think he has an ulterior motive.
“Because he’s your friend,” Evan says, shaking his head. “Friends are nice. Retha is nice.”
There’s a sharp pain at the mention of Retha, but I force a smile.
“Yes,” I say. “Retha is nice.” I look back in the car. “Cameron’s sort of nice too. When he’s not being a manipulative asshole.”
“Hey,” Cameron says. “Don’t swear in front of your brother.”
“Shut up,” I say.
“That’s not very nice either.”
