I stared at the clothes in my hand, remembering meeting Tuck—
“The shower’s in there.” Art pointed to a tiny bathroom.
Walking in, shutting the squeaky door behind me and sliding the shower curtain to the side, I missed Delilah. She ran our household like a champ. Everything was always in pristine condition. Not a spec of dirt to be seen. It had been such a drastic change from the homes I had lived in with my mom, that I remember loving the cleanliness. It brought comfort I had never known.
Now, it was all gone.
Under the hot water, I tried to wash away all the loneliness and heartache. I knew I deserved all I was getting. I knew I had ruined all the gifts the Wards gave me, but it didn’t change the fact that I never wanted to be a bad person. When I was my true self, I was good. I had morals and loyalty to offer those close to me. Even strangers.
After my mom had moved us to a new town, I didn’t want to go to my new school. Of course, she forced me, so I kept to myself at the bus stop. Kids were playing around, doing what kids are supposed to do. I just wanted to disappear. That was until a young girl walked up to my bus stop while reading a book. Another kid, who clearly hadn’t gone hungry every night of his existence, like me, escorted her. I immediately resented him and his cozy home that, I was positive, exuded through his confidence. He was tall and strong, so I assumed he was another rich kid who had it easy, with his mom and dad encouraging him to bloom into the lawyer that they had always dreamt of him being.
His girlfriend, though, she was different. She was quiet. Reserved. My heart started to pound when the thought occurred to me. Damaged.
“Hi, you new?”
I was still staring at her when I realized someone was talking to me. It was the rich kid. Steak and potato-fed boyfriend of the girl who captured my attention. My stomach rumbled with that thought. I’d heard steaks were awesome.
No response was my answer to him. Deep in thought, rich kid walked back to the girl.
When the bus finally came, I was the last to load so I got to see it all. The pretty girl, who I had watched from afar, was stepping up onto the bus, now with a different guy behind her. She was still reading and unaware that he was reaching for her ass. It was blatantly disrespectful, and I wanted to teach him a thing or two, but then I saw Rich Boy grab the back of Grabby Hands’ collar and yank him clear off his feet. Rich kid calmly tossed Grabby Hands to the side before he followed his girlfriend onto the bus.
Grabby Hands got up off the ground, angry at the humiliating display of his inadequacy, and stomped onto the bus with a vengeance to be heard for miles. The bus driver didn’t seem to have any sympathy for the ass grabber while Grabby complained to him. The driver argued, “The only thing I saw was you trying to grab his sister’s behind. Want me to write you up?”
The guilty one stomped to his seat with his ego bruised and checked.
Sister? Maybe rich kid wasn’t so bad after all.
I watched her for another three days before I finally talked to her in a class we shared. The deep thinker was in the seventh grade like me. “Hi, I–I’m Kenny,” I introduced myself.
I was shocked by her observation and maturity. “Hi, Kenny. You do talk.” Her voice was so kind, it left me speechless. So, she giggled. “Or, maybe not. I’m Delilah.”
Delilah… I wanted to tell her something—anything—to keep her talking to me, but the bell rang, and I was left with a smile that I would never forget.
I watched Delilah walk away as our teacher tried to express how impressed she was with my work. I wasn’t sure why I had been told I was gifted; I felt less than common.
It wasn’t a crush that I felt for Delilah. At the time, I didn’t understand what I was experiencing. All I knew was that young girl was changing everything for me. The next day was not much different, until the end of the school day, when I heard the scream that triggered a fight reaction in me.
Delilah was calling for help.
CHAPTER THREE
Bang! Bang! “You ever getting out of the shower?”
I was yanked from the memory to realize I was without Delilah and in a dirty tub. With heavy shoulders, I turned off the water then grabbed a questionable towel.
Dressed, I left the bathroom to be greeted with another beer. Art asked me, “You good?”
Not. At. All. “Yeah. Good.”
He walked back into the living room. I followed, observing as he pointed to a couch. “I grabbed ya a pillow and blanket. Fall to sleep as fast as you can. We’re on the road in three hours.”
He went to turn off the lamp, but I asked, “Mind leaving that on?”
Art froze and stared at me for a moment. He finally moved his hand from the lamp. “Yeah, no problem. You sure you’re good?”
I may never be good again. “Yeah. Of course. Solid.”
Art glanced around, then fought a yawn while saying, “Ya know, I’m actually not tired. Want to talk for a bit?”
He was lying, and I was grateful.
Trying not to be seen as the desperate kid I felt like, I shrugged. “Yeah, that’d be cool.”
Art, tiredly, plopped back into an old blue Captain’s Chair. Untying his biker boots, he said, “Where shall we start?” He stopped in thought. “How about when you met Dumb Ass.”
That made me smile. That was Diesel’s nickname for Tucker.
I kept smiling as I told Art about the bus stop, Tuck defending Delilah’s honor. Now, Art was smiling, too, sitting back with his feet propped up. He asked, “Fight? What fight?”
“Well, Delilah screamed…”
I had been outside the school building, headed for the bus when something in me snapped, and I was sent into action. Before I knew it, I was with fists, side by side with her brother, fighting four kids that I had never met before. It’s sad, but there was a satisfying release hitting someone my size. My mom’s new boyfriend made it impossible for me to have an equal opponent.
By the time it was over, I had only one thing on my mind. Delilah. I turned to her in a rush. “Are you okay?”
She was relieved. I had saved the day. My heart soared…
As for Tucker, he was nothing like I had expected. Due to a little blood on my t-shirt after that fight, at his home, he gave me one of his t-shirts he had outgrown. He nor Delilah judged me when I wore it the next day at school because it was now the nicest shirt I had ever had. In fact, Mr. Ward told me Tuck had a bag full of clothes he had outgrown, and I was free to have it. I took every offered bit of clothing, so proud to have such a friend. No one had ever given me anything before. No, they only took.
Drifting thoughts had me thanking Art. I tugged on the hoodie. “Thanks for this, man. I’ll get it back to you as soon as I can.”
He waved me off with his beer bottle. “Nay. Keep ’em. Tell me more about Dumb Ass. Kid sounds solid.”
“Ah, yeah. Damn good friend.”
Tuck and I became tight overnight, with a bond I was somehow longing for. Soon, the three of us were inseparable. Delilah was a girl you dared not fuck with because, by some trial and error, everyone learned that the wrath of two would come down and pound you on your head. This method was frowned upon by the school system, and punishments were handed out to us both, frequently.
Mr. Ward, on the other hand, had no problems with Tuck and me coming down with that hammer. Once, he even grilled steaks to celebrate an ass-whooping that we had handed out and been sent home for. My mom didn’t answer when the principal called, so Mr. Ward, who knew the principal, took me to his home. I never forgot what it felt like to have someone… care.