“Nah.” Eric opens the back door and hops in. “We’re hotboxing.” Christine gets in the back beside Eric and I climb into the passenger seat with a sigh. I don’t want to get high. I’m not sure if it’s too late to bail and go back to class.
“Wait!” cries Eric. “We didn’t get snacks. We should get them before so we don’t have to open the doors.”
“Yeah, man,” says Kye. “You two go. We’ll wait here.” He hands his bank card back over the seat to Eric. “One-one-one-one,” he adds, giving Eric his PIN.
“Let’s go,” says Eric, and he and Christine hop back out of the car, leaving Kye and I sitting up front.
“The store’s, like, a ten minute walk,” I point out in confusion. No one pays any attention.
I watch their backs retreat around the building until a crackling sound pulls my attention back to Kye. He’s pulled a vape pen out of pocket and takes a long inhale before passing it to me.
“No, thanks,” I say primly. He blows a huge billow of smoke out in a cloud, searing my eyes and lungs.
“C’mon, Holland. Don’t be such a tight ass.”
“Don’t want to.”
He shakes his head, a smile playing on his lips. “That’s what I like about you, you know. You’re kind of different.”
“Because I don’t want to get high after lunch?”
He snorts. “Because you know what you want, I guess. Because you do your own thing.”
I’m not sure what to say. I think this is the nicest Kye has ever been to me, and for a moment we’re both just looking out the front window in silence while I debate whether or not to say thanks. Then Kye asks, “You need a drive home today?”
I shake my head, feeling a little embarrassed. “Actually, no. Not today. My dad’s, uh…my dad’s back at the office again, so he’s coming to get me.”
He turns to look at me in disbelief. “Dude, seriously. What is with your dad? You are literally on my way home. Or you could take the bus like basically everybody else. Does he, like, not let you out of his sight or something?”
“He just works near the school,” I explain. “It’s easy. Plus, he’s never late. So then…neither am I.”
He lowers his voice in a mock whisper. “If you need help escaping, Holland, just blink your eyes twice.”
“Stop!” I bat his arm playfully. “It’s honestly just easier.”
He shrugs. “It’s just weird to me that you were absent from school for, like, a month, and then when you come back, suddenly, you’re, like, living in a mansion with some mafia boss type who drives you around, and there’s, like, no sign of your mom in your life anymore. Like, for real. Is something up?”
“What?” His comment surprises me so much that I bark out a laugh. “Mafia boss? No! They’re getting divorced. You just met me when I was living with my mom is all.” Maybe I’m getting high from all the smoke in the car, but seeing Xavier through Kye’s eyes is giving me a case of the helpless giggles. Mafia boss.
He laughs and hauls on his pen. “I don’t know. That guy is like eight feet tall, man, and he’s always in a suit. Always angry, like-” he furrows his brow and speaks in a low baritone, “‘Get in the car, Hazel,’ ‘Get out of this house, young man.’ I just, I don’t know…you do not seem related is all.”
“We’re not related!” I cackle, and I’m just about to explain what stepfather means, when there’s a knock on the car window. My eyes jerk up and Kye’s head swivels to his window, and there’s Ms. Caldwell, the school principal, rapping on the window and frowning.