She gets up from the couch and walks to the door. “See ya.”
“It was nice meeting you,” Morgan says to me.
When they’re gone, I call Axl.
“Hey, babe,” he says.
“Hey, are you at home?”
“Yeah, I’m in my room. What’s up?”
“I miss you.”
“I miss you more. It was a shitty day. I wish you were here to make it better.”
“I wish I was too,” I say, feeling the guilt return from spending my afternoon with Jackson.
“Did you do anything today?”
“I went to my new school to get my books. You should see this school. It looks like a castle. It’s all brick and has these pillars around the entrance. I didn’t get to go in it, but I went to the bookstore.”
“That’s cool,” he says, not sounding the least bit interested. “Anything else happen?”
“Had a fight with my uncle. He gave me a curfew even though his sons don’t have one. They stay out as late as they want.”
“Why do you need a curfew? You can’t even go anywhere. You can’t drive.”
“Yeah, about that. I started taking lessons.”
“Oh, yeah? Like Driver’s Ed, or is your uncle teaching you?”
“My neighbor. He lives a few houses down. I met him when I was walking on the beach the other day.”
“You sure you can trust him?”
Like me, Axl doesn’t trust anyone. He always assumes the worst of people.
“He’s harmless.” I smile. “He thought I was going to crash his precious Range Rover. I almost did, but then I got better. By the end of the lesson I was making turns and parking.”
“Why is he doing this?”
“To be nice.”
“Rumor, seriously? People don’t just do shit to be nice.”
“Some people do. And it’s not like I’m making him do this for months. I only need a few lessons and then I’ll take the test. I already downloaded the manual to study for the written part.”
“Who is this guy? The one giving you lessons?”
“Just a guy who lives down the street.”
“Old? Young? What’s he look like?”
“He’s my age. But he lives alone. His parents have a house in LA but they’re always traveling so they’re hardly ever there.”
“Is he rich?”
“I guess. He lives in a house that’s bigger than Brock’s.”
