Period 8 - By Chris Crutcher Page 0,46
seat is empty.
The quacking of a duck emanates from Paulie’s front pocket, and he extracts his iPhone to see a message from Justin.
meet me. impt.
where?
u pik
rocket
10
Paulie enters through the back, passes Justin and Josh Takeuchi carrying two cinnamon rolls apiece and a large fruit smoothie. He smiles. “One of those for me?”
“Might be for you,” Justin says, “but I’m gonna eat it.”
Tak smiles and pats his stomach. “Still operating in the minus,” he says.
Paulie steps behind the counter, pours himself a black coffee, and snags a piece of coffee cake. He joins Justin and Tak at the corner table in the back.
“What’s goin’ on?”
Justin takes a bite out of the first roll and a swig of his smoothie. “Went around Diamond Lake to Twisted Crick last night with some brothers,” he says and nods at Josh. “And Tak. Over to that spot where the Thumpers go on Fridays. Smoke some weed and get ready for finals.”
“Different kind of study group,” Paulie says. “What are you doing hanging out with these criminals, Tak?”
“You know, just gettin’ all UNICEF with ’em,” Tak says.
“Anyway, Arney came by with your honey and some other folks—”
“My ex-honey.”
“Yeah, her. We’re all getting baked, somebody brought some brew, and we just get talkin’ about shit.”
“Out to destroy the academic curve?” Paulie says.
“Yeah, we didn’t do a lot of studyin’ but Stack gets loose, starts talkin’ about chicks who got no core.”
“No core?”
“You know,” Tak says, “nothin’ to ’em. They just do what they have to, to keep going. To keep people liking ’em.”
“Some of the girls get pissed,” Justin says, “start callin’ him, like, a bigot.”
“That doesn’t sound like Arney,” Paulie says. “He can be a dick, but he usually keeps his ugliest thoughts under wraps and gets all cheesy about making people’s lives better.”
“Yeah, but we know how much bullshit that is. Always has been.”
“Yeah.”
“When you get fucked up like that, you don’t change into another person, just tell truths you don’t usually tell, right?” Justin says. “So Hannah’s startin’ to seethe and Stack says, ‘You could get yours back, if you’d get the guts to really leave Paulie Bomb in the dust. You know, walk the walk.’ Man, Murph about comes across the fire at him, but he backs up and says he was messin’ with her. Then he starts throwin’ out names—names of girls who weren’t there.”
“Like . . .”
“Girl that was cryin’ in P-8 the other day,” Justin says.
“Kylie.”
“Yeah, her. And the Virgin Mary.”
“Hey man, we’re not callin’ her that anymore.”
“Mary, then. Anyway, Stack says this time he thinks she’s gone for good.”
“What?”
“Says there’s no insides to her. Girl like that’ll do anything, he says. Said last time he thought she was just havin’ a freak-out, but he’s takin’ bets she’s down the road for good.”
“How the hell would he know that? She told me she hates his guts. No way she’s telling him anything personal. He was messed up, right? Bein’ all knowledgeable and shit like he does?”
Tak says, “Yeah but this was freaky. So freaky Hannah rides home with Jus and me.”
Justin nods. “By the time we got her home she was pissed past reason. Said she never should’a spent one second with him, that she was just pissed at you.”
Paulie sits back. “Gotta be careful what you do when you’re pissed. It can bite you later.” He laughs. “Besides, Hannah should know I do more damage being pissed at myself than she could ever do.” He takes a bite of the coffee cake, washes it down. “Hmm. So maybe I’m not ‘in the dust’?”
Justin raises his eyebrows.
“What else did Hannah say?” Paulie asks.
“Nothin’ important.” Justin looks straight at him. “You’re not done with that girl, are you?”
Paulie smiles. “Maybe they’d been talking about me. Maybe that’s why she was so pissed.”
Justin nods. “I wouldn’t get too cocky,” he says. “The way Stack was talkin’ she would have been pissed if she never met you.” He smiles. “But it could take a turn.”
“I won’t hold my breath,” Paulie says, though he would. “But I’m worried about Mary. I was kind of relieved when I went to pick her up and she wasn’t home. I thought she’d at least tell me if things went haywire again. Her sister was there and I think her parents, but the house was dark last night when I drove by, so I’m hoping she came back and they all went somewhere. It would make sense that her dad would get her away from here.”
“That’d be nice,