The Same Place (The Lamb and the Lion #2) - Gregory Ashe Page 0,16
landing, and climbed out of the apartment.
As he went down the fire escape, he wondered if maybe Tean was right: maybe it was time to get a real apartment. In a few days, Jem would be twenty-eight. That meant he’d been doing this shit for ten years. Ten years of wondering if he’d have running water, ten years of stealing electricity, ten years of shoving everything he owned in a duffel bag and climbing out the window. Right then, with the duffel’s strap digging into his shoulder, ten years felt like a long time.
On his way down, he stopped and rapped on the Latus’ window. Kaelo, who was about Jem’s height but otherwise twice his size, opened the window. He was in a Dodgers t-shirt, and he was eating a rice cake with peanut butter.
“Hey,” he said, a grin crossing his big face. “You going on a trip?”
“Kind of. Somebody—new manager I guess—tried to get into the apartment today.”
“Oh,” Kaelo said, crunching the rice cake down in two bites. “Bummer.”
“Yeah. Just wanted to get this back to you,” Jem tugged on the extension cord that had run from the Latus’ window up to his own. “And say thanks.”
“Come on in,” Kaelo said. “Amelika and Sammy are going to want to say goodbye.”
“No, I should—”
But Kaelo just picked him up under the arms and pulled him inside the apartment like Jem was a toddler. As Jem steadied himself, the big man moved across the apartment’s front room, calling out for his wife and daughter. When Jem repeated his story, Amelika started to cry, and then she immediately launched herself into the kitchen.
“You’re such a dork,” Sammi said, who was sixteen but looked much younger, lurking by the hallway that led to her bedroom. Her arms were folded, and her chin was down. “Why can’t you just pay rent like a normal person?”
“Sammi,” Kaelo said.
“Well, why can’t he? I mean, then he could just stay here.”
“I’m going to heat up some of that pork,” Amelika said.
“I’m sorry,” Jem said. “I really don’t have time.”
“Nonsense.”
“He says he doesn’t have time,” Kaelo said.
“You stay out of this.”
“I should go,” Jem said. “Thanks again for everything.”
“If you need a place for a day or two,” Kaelo said, “we’ve got the sofa.”
“I really couldn’t—”
“Oh yes you could,” Amelika said. “Kaelo’s baby brother stays here all the time when he’s sleeping one off.”
Kaelo shrugged and nodded.
“All right,” Jem said. “Thanks. Let me see what happens.”
“Just leave your bag right here,” Amelika said.
Laughing, Jem climbed out the window again. “I’ll see what happens. Thanks again.”
Amelika caught him and gave him kisses on his cheeks, and then Kaelo reached through the window and hugged him so hard that Jem’s spine cracked. Sammi shot him the finger from where she was still lurking.
Jem finally disentangled himself, dropped down from the end of the fire escape, and headed toward his bike. He kick-started the Kawasaki and made sure he didn’t look back, not once. He pushed himself hard all the way to Tean’s place, splitting lanes, taking turns too fast. And when he got to the dumpy Central City apartment building, he felt hot, flushed all over, and he sat on the bike taking huge breaths. Then he went upstairs.
Scipio lunged toward him as soon as Tean opened the door. The Lab went wild, licking Jem’s hands, giving half-hearted, abortive jumps and then circling around and nuzzling into Jem’s legs like a bulldozer. Even though Jem had been through this routine a hundred times now, every time Jem saw the dog, he still felt himself tense, his hands clenching into fists, his heart rate accelerating. His last foster mother, LouElla, had kept a dog named Antony on a chain in the basement, and Jem had been locked down there more than once. He still had the scars to prove it.
“Ok, ok, ok, you big dummy,” Tean said, ruffling Scipio’s ears. The doc’s hair was wild and brushed back—standard—and he was wearing jeans and a polo that were the exact same shade of blue—also standard. “He knows you’re here. Give him five seconds.” Then Tean did a double take, and Jem recognized his own mistake; he should have left the duffel with the Latus. “What happened?”
“Nothing.”
“Are you going on a trip?”
Laughing, Jem dropped the duffel in the living room and knelt, bracing himself against the initial burst of panic as Scipio licked his face and crashed into him.
Tean’s hand settled on Jem’s shoulder. “What’s wrong?”