‘Hey,’ he says in that low, gruff tone of his, and I snap back into the room, closing the door behind him. ‘I bought Mexican food.’
‘Great,’ I blurt ungraciously. ‘Noah ate everything else.’
‘Way to go, Noah,’ AJ says.
‘Sorry,’ Noah says at the same time I say, ‘It’s fine, don’t worry about it.’
There’s a pause. ‘Do you mind if I use your shower?’ AJ asks. ‘Somebody brought their bike to the shop just before we could close up, so I didn’t get time to change.’
‘Of course,’ I stutter. ‘Um, there are fresh towels folded up in the bathroom.’
He wipes one hand through his hair. Even his fingers are grease stained.
He glances over at Noah, then his eyes come back to me. Then he raises his chin toward my bedroom, indicating we should go there together, and not the kitchen.
In my bedroom, my heart starts to pound, AJ closing the door behind him, then fully invading my personal space.
‘I talked to Rita,’ he whispers. ‘She’s good for us to take Noah to her place. She’ll take him in.’
‘That’s good,’ I respond.
‘It’s still okay for you to drive him?’
I nod furiously, despite my fear of getting caught going completely against my normal pattern of behavior.
‘I gotta break it to him. That he can’t go home.’
I wince. ‘He’s already been asking to go.’
AJ shakes his head. ‘You think I should tell him the plan?’
‘You can’tnottell him. What’s the alternative?’
‘I don’t have an alternative.’
‘So, explain it to him. Give him all the reasons why this is the only way for him to avoid arrest.’
‘Will you help me? I figure you’re good at talking to people, Palmer.’
I’m almost bowled over by his remark. Five years ago, I would have paid good money to have AJ Callahan ask for my help. ‘What makes you think that?’
‘You were always so… I dunno. So… optimistic.’
Despite my confidence regularly being trampled on in high school. He mistook my fake smiles, the smiles I hoped would mean that one day I might fit in, for real ones.
‘I mean…’ he adds, ‘I know we didn’t talk much, but…’
Then he falls silent. At least he’s acknowledged what we were both thinking. That I was just a target for ridicule in high school. When I raise my eyes to his, he’s standing within kissing distance, and my mind goes back to Amber’s parents’ closet.
‘You should get a shower,’ I say, and open the door.
After AJ’s showered and got dressed again, we eat delicious Mexican takeout, though I can tell AJ’s not that hungry.
Once I’ve put all the dirty dishes into the kitchen, I linger in the doorway as AJ sits down next to his brother and rests his elbows on his knees.
‘Need to talk to you about something, buddy,’ he says.
I watch Noah’s worried reaction. ‘What?’
