“James, calm down.”
“Why don’t you ask Amelia or Brian, huh? Ask them. I wanna see what they have the guts to tell you.”
He got so irritated that his pupils dilated.
Everything was going fine until five seconds ago. What was going on?
“Do you have anything to sleep?”
His question startled me. I couldn’t pretend to not see how quick his temper was.
“What do you mean?”
“Your mom doesn’t take anything to sleep?”
“I think so, but not—”
“Where does she keep her medicine?”
I stood up, ready to throw him out if he dared to look through my mom’s stuff.
“James, don’t joke about that. Do you think you’re at CVS?”
“I gotta roll a joint,” he mumbled, heading into the kitchen to grab the supplies on the table.
“So you can’t sleep otherwise?” I tried to tease him, but when I saw his serious expression, I understood that there was nothing to joke about.
“No. Not unless I turn off my brain first.”
After flinging the front door open, he leaned on one side against the doorjamb and started filling the paper. I saw him watch the dark street in front of my house.
“I better stay out here for a little bit. You never know.”
“You can’t spend the night out here, you know that, right?” How was he not cold? I was freezing. James didn’t answer. I cautiously drew nearer to him.
“James, there’s still one thing I don’t understand.”
“What.”
“Should Austin be afraid of you, or the other way around?”
“Depends on how you put it.”
“I’d put it like you broke two of Brian’s ribs last year.”
He meticulously licked the paper, then rolled his eyes.
“So what? What the fuck does that mean?”
“Why’d you do it?”
“I screwed up,” he confessed.
“So you didn’t have a reason to do it?”
I sat down on the steps with my arms crossed next to him, stifling more shivering. It was really starting to get cold.
“I didn’t say that.”
