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“It’s not a far walk. Just down the street and a left. I’m on the corner there,” he explained.

I nodded.

“Be careful,” I instructed. “And hey,” he stopped. “Do me a favor?”

He waited for me to explain.

“What favor?”

“Stay away from that kid, alright?” I told him.

He winced.

“I plan to,” he said. “After that…there’s no way I’m going to keep hanging with him. He was only a means to an end, anyway.”

I laughed, then, and pointed down the road.

“Go home, boy.”

He went, taking off in a jog into the still raining night.

I turned to the door and checked the handle.

Locked.

“He’s right, you know,” Raphael called from his front porch.

“Why?” I asked. “The kid’s a nuisance, nothing else.”

Raphael shook his head.

“Boy’s got a hot temper,” he explained. “I’ve been watching him. The way he acts around his parents. The dad’s just like him. The mom the same to some degree. Neither parent really gives a shit when it comes to the kid, but he gets what he wants, meaning he’s an entitled little fucker that thinks he should always get what he wants.”

I shrugged.

“So,” I said. “There’s a lot of that out there.”

And there was.

That kid was not an exception.

I also didn’t really want to think about it right now.

My head was not in the right headspace to deal with the kid’s shit.

My daughter was pregnant.

My ex-wife was blaming it on me.

My new girlfriend was married.

And that wasn’t even mentioning the fuck-tastic day I’d had, ending with fucking explosions.

This was a clusterfuck of mass proportions.

No, definitely not in the best of headspaces, that was for sure.

“I’ll keep that in mind,” when Raphael still didn’t say anything.