Shelby Phillips, his girlfriend. They’ve been dating for about a year now. She used to go to our school but graduated last year and goes to college about forty-five minutes from here. I don’t have an issue with her, but I’ve also never interacted with her. She’s two years older than me, and although two years is nothing in adult years, two years is a lot in high school years. Knowing Miller is dating a college girl makes me sink into my seat a little. I don’t know why it makes me feel inferior, as if attending college automatically makes a person more intellectual and interesting than a junior in high school could ever be.
I keep my eyes on the road, even though I want to know every face he makes while on this phone call. I don’t know why.
“On the way to my house.” He pauses for her answer and then says, “I thought that was tomorrow night.” Another pause. Then, “You just passed my driveway.”
It takes me a second to realize he’s talking to me. I look at him, and he’s got his hand over his phone. “That was my driveway back there.”
I slam on the brakes. He catches the dash with his left hand and mutters “Shit” with a laugh.
I was so caught up in eavesdropping on his conversation I forgot what I was doing.
“Nah,” Miller says into the phone. “I went for a walk, and it got really hot, so I caught a ride home.”
I can hear Shelby on the other end of the line say, “Who gave you a ride?”
He looks at me for a beat and then says, “Some dude. I don’t know. Call you later?”
Some dude? Somebody’s got trust issues.
Miller ends the call just as I’m pulling into his driveway. It’s the first time I’ve ever seen his house. I’ve known whereabouts he lived, but I’ve never actually laid eyes on the home due to rows of trees that line the driveway, hiding what lies beyond the white gravel.
It’s not what I expected.
It’s an older house, very small, wood framed and in severe need of a paint job. The front porch holds the quintessential swing and two rocking chairs, which are the only things about this place that hold appeal.
There’s an old blue truck in the driveway and another car—not as old but somehow in worse shape than the house—that sits to the right of the house on cinder blocks, weeds grown up the sides of it, swallowing the frame.
I’m kind of taken aback by it. I don’t know why. I guess I just imagined he lived in some grandiose home with a backyard pond and a four-car garage. People at our school can be harsh and seem to judge a person’s popularity on the combination of looks and money, but maybe Miller’s personality makes up for his lack of money because he seems popular. I’ve never known anyone to talk negatively about him.
“Not what you were expecting?”
His words jar me. I put the car in park when I reach the end of the driveway and do my best at pretending nothing about his home shocks me. I change the subject entirely, looking at him with narrowed eyes.
“Some dude?” I ask, circling back to how he referred to me on his phone call.
“I’m not telling my girlfriend I caught a ride with you,” he says. “It’ll turn into a three-hour interrogation.”
“Sounds like a fun and healthy relationship.”
“It is, when I’m not being interrogated.”
“If you hate being interrogated so much, maybe you shouldn’t be tampering with the city limit.”
He’s out of the car when I say that, but he leans down to look at me before he closes the door. “I won’t mention you were an accomplice if you promise not to mention I’m adjusting the city limit.”
“Buy me new flip-flops, and I’ll forget today even happened.”
He grins as if I amuse him, then says, “My wallet is inside. Follow me.”
I was only kidding, and based on the condition of the home he lives in, I’m not about to take cash from him. But it seems like we somehow developed this sarcastic rapport, so if I suddenly become sympathetic and refuse his money, I feel it might be insulting. I don’t mind insulting him in jest, but I don’t want to actually insult him. Besides, I can’t protest because he’s already walking toward his house.
I leave my flip-flops in the car, not wanting to track tar into his house, and follow him barefooted up