“And get some snacks,” Murph said. “Unless we feel like going for a run.”
“A run?” I asked. “Where?”
“There’s always work to be done.”
“I’m not in the mood to work,” Nash said. “I’m fucking exhausted after last week’s fight.”
We were all feeling it.
There had been a big fight last week.
Two schools. Meeting up at the coal dumps. Just working some pent-up stuff out. We fought until the cops showed up and then we all scattered before getting arrested.
The fights were needed, but they really didn’t do anything.
They would calm things down for a minute or two and then rumors and other bullshit would start.
I looked down at the rocks in the pile.
“What the hell are we going to do now?” Abel asked.
I pointed to the rocks. “I have an idea.”
We each had a bunch of rocks in our shirts.
“Right here,” I said.
We dropped our rocks down to the sidewalk across the street from my father’s house.
My mind pushed back at me.
He has a family. Another family. A new family. There are other people in the house. Innocent people. People who did nothing wrong to you. People who don’t know what had happened.
Even still… it was just how things went in life.
Kind of like what he did.
When he showed up and…
I brought my arm back.
“What are we doing?” Murph asked.
“We break every fucking window,” I said.
“Are you serious?” Abel asked.
“Watch me,” I said.
“Hey, Josh, wait,” Nash said. “Your girlfriend is here.”
“What?” I asked.
I lowered my arm and turned to see Amelia walking up the sidewalk.
What the hell is she doing here? Again?
She was just walking with her hands in her pockets and her head down. Not even realizing she was walking toward us. Or what street she was on. Not to mention if she kept going and went over the hill, she’d be in the worst part of town. A place where guys like Murph didn’t have guys like me to stop things from happening.
“Hey,” I called out.
She looked up and her eyes went really big.
“She’s cute and hot at the same time,” Murph said to me from the side of his mouth.
“Say that again and I’ll smash this rock through your teeth,” I said to him.
“Whoa,” he said. “Possessive?”
“Protective,” I said. “She has no idea what she’s doing.”
I met her down the sidewalk a little and she had that look on her face. The same look she had right before she cried that one night. Which meant something happened again with her father.
First thing I did was look at her face to make sure he hadn’t hit her.
Murph was right.
She was cute. And she was hot.
I shook my head though.
She was a few years younger than me.
Which was a big deal at my age.
“You okay?” I asked her.
She shook her head.
“Okay. Give me a second.”
I turned and looked at Murph.
I didn’t need to say a word.
“Hey, boys, let’s walk,” he ordered.
“Right,” Nash said.
“Enjoy the night,” Abel said.
They all looked at Amelia and they all started to laugh.
My lip curled.
Sometimes I thought about fighting them.
“Why do they look at me like that?”
“Truthfully? They think you’re my girlfriend.”
“What?” she asked. “Why?”
“I told them you were.”
She swallowed hard. Her cheeks went flush. “Why…”
“It’s hard to explain,” I said. “It’s sort of a claiming thing. That sounds bad. Really bad. But… you’re a pretty girl, Amelia. They look at you a certain way. And a lot of others would too. And they would do anything or say anything to convince you to like them. And it’s not just liking them, okay?”
“What does that mean?”
I touched my jaw. “Seriously?”
“What? What am I missing?”
“They think we fool around, okay? That’s why they leave when you show up.”
Amelia gasped and stepped back. “Fool around… as in…”
“Yeah, exactly.”
“You told them that?”
“In a way, yeah,” I said. “So they’d leave us alone. Leave you alone. You don’t want to know them. Or this kind of life. I know you like to walk around in the middle of the night. I get why you do it too. I’m not going to tell you what to do. But… I have to protect you.”
“By lying?”
“For your own good.”
“So they think we… you know… and that means they won’t bother me?”
“That means if they bother you, I’ll beat the shit out of them.”