and there’s no stopping him now. “Oh, and you’re welcome, by the way, for the save. You owe me now. Big time. It’s lucky Dylan and I heard those freaks when they came in and decided to lay low. And it’s even luckier we are such badasses that we were able to scare them away.”
“Dyl’s a badass. You’re an asshole,” I correct him. “It’s a small but subtle difference.”
W2’s ego is impossible to puncture, so my words bounce right off him. “But they’re totally coming back. And somebody’s gonna call the cops eventually, so you’ll be dealing with them too. Anyway, the answer’s obvious. Your family’s a bunch of losers, except for your dad. He’s the man. So now we go to your dad.”
“No way,” I say. “Weren’t you eavesdropping? Didn’t you hear about all the horrible things he’s done? I’m not messing with him. No way. And if you had half a brain,” I add, pointing to W2, “you’d want to stay far away from him too.”
“Oh, c’mon, he’s probably not that bad. People are always talking shit about me too, but I’m not the bad guy they make me out to be.”
“No,” I counter. “Actually you are.”
Dyl impassively studies W2 for a moment before turning to me with a shrug. “He did help save you.”
“I don’t care. He’s the worst. While you were gone just now he told me you helped get his junk working again.”
That crazy look lights up Dyl’s face again, confirming that it wasn’t just the flames causing it earlier. “You know, Lennie, everything isn’t always about you. And it’s none of your damn business what I did or didn’t do with W2.”
I feel like I’ve been punched. Dyl and I were always united in our mutual scorn for Smith’s fratty friends. For her to side with the very worst of them . . . I swallow hard, before finally answering. “Okay, fine, whatever. W2 can go meet my father. Tell him I said to stay the fuck away from me. I’m going back to Michaela’s.”
“Aw, yeah, party!” W2 throws his head back and howls. Then he grabs hold of Dyl’s arm, dragging her with him as he races out of the kitchen while calling over his shoulder, “Race you guys! Last one there buys lunch!”
Smith and I don’t even attempt to chase them. We simply stand in the kitchen and do nothing at all. I wait for him to say something about me or Dyl or W2 or anything that has happened. But he is silent. And still. And inscrutable.
“You’re quiet,” I observe at last, feeling the need to say something.
He shrugs. “I don’t like being a dead weight.”
I laugh, certain he’s making a joke. Smith does not join in. It occurs to me that this might be one of those ridiculous male pride things. Trying to make it better, I point out the obvious. “Well, you were unconscious.”
This makes it worse. Smith sighs in this dejected way, as if I’d instead said, “Well, you were useless.”
It’s amazing to see such a huge chink in his armor. Funny enough, it makes me like him more. Or like him in a different, fuzzier way. Not from afar, like he’s some distant god that I’m hoping to brush up against, but in a way that makes my heart sort of swell. It’s deeper than attraction.
And it scares the hell out of me.
So I don’t tell him how right now he’s the only thing keeping me from collapsing into a pile of defeat. And that having my hand stuck to his is—without a doubt—the best worst thing that’s ever happened to me.
“Buck up, Smith,” I instead say, more than a little roughly. “We’re going to Michaela’s, remember? I’m sure you’ll have plenty of chances to prove your manhood there.”
His shoulders go back, his chin comes up, and that little chink closes solid like it’d never been there at all. “Bring it,” he says, sounding every bit as stupidly confident as W2. And if it’s all just an act, at least it’s a good one.
Deciding to borrow his self-assurance—even if it’s totally fake—I parrot back at him, “Yeah, bring it.”
Then, as prepared as we’ll ever be, we march out the door, almost as if we truly believe we can leave all our fears behind us.
WORSE THAN WORST
According to the clock on Smith’s dashboard, it’s 5:11 by the time we reach Michaela’s. We roll up the driveway only to find that our spot’s been stolen by my uncles’ truck.