Page 12 of Never Forever
“I know, Dad.”
“But I despise bullies.”
And he took me out for a cheeseburger at Pappas’.
The first time Annie saw me after the fight, she walked right up to me on the boat, eyes flashing.
“You didn’t need to do that,” she said. Annie wore a lot of pink and a lot of overalls. She was like bookish, farmer Barbie. She had dark hair and bright eyes that I rarely saw because they were so often looking down at the book she always carried in her hand.
“I don’t know,” I said, scratching my nose. My face still ached from the shiner. “I feel like someone had to.”
“He would have just walked away. He always walks away in the end.”
“Well,” I said, “maybe now he won’t even walk up to you, or anyone else, in the first place.”
She blinked at me. “Oh. Well. I guess that would be nice.”
Annie went back to sit with Carrie on the bench up near the bow and Carrie waved at me. I waved back, trying to look cool, but I’d over committed and was waving with my whole arm.
The sun hit her red hair. Dyed my ass. Braiden really was a dickless asshole.
I got a boner just from looking at her.
After that I could feel every time Carrie Piedmont stepped on to the boat. It was a crackle in the air and the world got brighter.
“You know boyo,can’t help but notice you’re not asking about getting another job this summer.”
It was just after the fourth of July holiday as we motored across the channel. It was the first trip of the day. Dawn turning the clouds bright pink. The sky filled with birds.
I was going to have to wash the windows. Again.
“Decided I don’t want a different job,” I said, not looking at my dad.
Patrick Sullivan was no fool and I’d been unable to hide anything from him. Not the porn mags or the cigarettes or my friend David’s weed that I wasn’t just holding for him. Dad knew when I got bad grades and he was looking at me now like he knew why I wanted this job, and it had everything to do with a certain girl who rode the ferry every day.
“Son,” he said, about to start another lecture.
“You’ve been hounding me to just shut up and work with you my whole life, and now I’m doing it and you’re mad?” I snapped at him. The best defense was always to go on offense.
Dad only grinned, like I could bluster all I wanted but he knew what was really going on. “Not mad. Just making the observation.”
“Whatever Dad.” Before he could launch into his lecture about how the Piedmont women were cursed, I stomped off to get the Windex and the squeegee.
When we docked on the island, the early morning birders got off the boat, but no one was waiting to get on.
None of the Piedmonts used the ferry at all that day. Or the next.
On the third day of not seeing them, I could tell even Dad was getting worried.
Mr. Piedmont used us like a taxi and the girls could be counted on heading to the mainland almost every day in the summer. Carrie was doing the community summer play and Annie went to the library every single day.
“Should I check on them?” I asked. I didn’t have to say who.
Dad pulled off his cap and scratched at his salt and pepper head of hair, like he just didn’t know. It wasn’t our place to look after the residents of the island, but at this point I could confidently say Carrie and I were friends.
And friends watched out for each other.
“It’s not a big deal,” I said. “I’ll just…check.”