A Busted Afternoon (2 page)

“I was motivated.”

“That’s my point. You did all that work, and you don’t have a plan for California?”

Ed snorted. “It’s not very responsible of me, is it?”

Light and shadows played on Sammy’s face,
reflecting off the rain on the windows, constantly changing shapes. A
sudden, violent burst of water momentarily overwhelmed their
conversation, and the two of them were trapped in a strange silence. He
could smell Sammy’s skin, and his drying hair, and his damp shirt. They
were much too close, physically, to be having any sort of reasonable
conversation. Despite the long hours they had already spent sitting
side by side, they hadn’t been this close. Perhaps because Ed had been
focusing on the road before.

“Was it really that bad?”

The question was asked with such obvious
concern, such solemnity, that Ed couldn’t be sure he heard it at all.
He understood what Sammy meant. He just couldn’t believe Sammy knew to
ask. Especially since Ed had always partly believed that Sammy lived in
a different world, one far removed from Ed’s. Their worlds intersected
in a few places, and at a few times, but ultimately their paths were
divergent.

Except, Sammy had apparently not been
given that memo. Sammy had apparently noticed Ed, even when Ed wanted
nothing more than to be invisible.

“It was. I had a scholarship to the
University of Wyoming. It covered tuition, but not room and board. And
I know it’s not the greatest school in the world, but it was something.
Enough to keep me from being drafted.”

“What happened?”

“My old man wouldn’t help. I couldn’t delay the scholarship for a year. So I lost it and now…”

“Yeah. Right. And now…”

“I’ll go when they call me,” Ed quickly
added. “Of course, I will. But before I do, I want to see the beach. I
want to be somewhere other than Wyoming. I want to live a little bit.”

“Me, too.”

A new silence, deafening like the roar of
the storm outside. Fat drops of water landed on the windshield and the
hood before bouncing off again. They almost reminded Ed of gunshots,
but they were too small. Too muffled. Maybe the air rifle that shot
pellets. The one he always used to keep the magpies out of the garden.
A semi-truck sped by, a huge wave of water splashing over the car in
its wake.

“Shit,” Ed muttered. “We should have tried to flag him down.”

“Don’t worry about it. It’s probably not going to rain for very long. And we have food in the back.”

“You really don’t mind being stuck on the side of the road?”

Sammy shook his head. “I’ve been stuck worse places. Besides, it’s not too bad. Actually, it’s kind of nice out here.”

Ed smiled. “You know, I don’t really know
what to think of you. I mean, I thought I knew you. Or at least knew
what I needed to know about you.”

“Now you’re not so sure?”

“No, I’m really not.”

“Why?”

“Because you…what are you going to do in
California? You drop everything to join me, you leave a note for your
parents, but you haven’t actually told me what you think is going to
happen once we get there.”

“I figured I would keep an eye on you.”

“Really? That’s your reason?”

“Yep.”

Ed stared at him. “But that doesn’t…really?”

Sammy offered a soft smile. It wasn’t
nearly as wide or as shiny as his other smile, but it was still enough
to send a funny flutter through Ed’s chest. Neither of Sammy’s parents
were particularly good-loocking people, but somehow, their genes had
created somebody like him. Even Sammy’s brothers and his sister didn’t
have the same perfect symmetry, the same bright eyes. Sammy was one of
a kind.

“Yes, really. I’ve been doing it for years.”

“You’ve been keeping an eye on me for
years?” Ed didn’t know what to make of that. It didn’t make any sense,
for one thing. If Sammy had been keeping an eye on him for years, why
weren’t they actually friends? And furthermore, why would Sammy even
bother? Why bother with him over anybody else?

“Yeah. I’m a little surprised you never noticed.”

“I never knew to look. Why?”

“It wasn’t anything I planned. But…look it’s going to sound silly.”

“I don’t think it will.”

“Do you remember Josh Miller? That kid who moved away when we were in fourth grade?”

Ed nodded. Not too many people moved away,
and since there weren’t many people in the area to begin with,
everybody always noticed when somebody disappeared from the school.

“Well, we all hung out in second grade because we were all in Ms. Bonner’s class. Me, Josh, Tim Delaway, and that Preston kid.”

“Anthony?”

“Yeah. Anyway, we used to think it was
great fun to target some of the smaller boys and drag them into the
girl’s bathroom. And since Josh was already like five and a half feet
tall when he was eight, he also liked to give them swirlies if he
thought he could get away with it.”

Ed grimaced. “Yeah, I remember. It was like he never got in trouble for that shit.”

“He got in trouble a few times. We all
did. But before we got it through our thick skulls to stop, Josh
suggested we…dunk you. But I didn’t want to do that, because, well,
it didn’t seem like a fair fight. You know?”

Ed knew. Due to an unfortunate
combination of genetics and circumstances, Ed had been a particularly
small child. Several bouts with pneumonia had him hospitalized for most
of his young life, and his mother hated the thought of him spending any
real time outside. Until he was twelve, he was only allowed outside at
recess if he promised not to “overexert” himself. That on top of the
fact that his parents were beanpoles, and Ed supposed he made an easy
target.

Except, barring a few minor taunts and scuffles, he had pretty much avoided getting targeted.

“Wait…did this have something to do with you getting sent to the principal’s office?”

“Yeah. We got in a fight. It was actually
pretty brutal. As brutal as two seven year olds can be, I guess. And it
wasn’t the last one. We kept at each other like a couple of wild dogs
for the rest of the year. He was determined to get you, and the more
Ms. Bonner punished him, the more determined he got. But I managed to
keep him away from you, and then the next year, he basically forgot.
Then he moved away.”

Ed gaped at Sammy. He didn’t know what to say. It seemed a little too late to thank him. “Sammy…I had no idea.”

“It’s cool. I didn’t really know how to
tell you. But after that, I just kept an eye out. Besides, you were
always nice to me. When we had to work together in class. And in
seventh grade, you helped me pass a math test.”

“And now you want to come to California with me to stop me from getting beat up by bullies?”

“And to help you in case this piece of shit car falls apart on the way.”

“I wish I had known. I wish…I didn’t
even suspect. I just thought…I wish I had known. We could have
actually been friends. Or something.”

“I think we’re friends now.”

“Well, yeah. But I meant…I could have at least shown more appreciation since you were apparently my guardian angel.”

“It wasn’t a bad job. Especially after we
started high school and you didn’t really have a big target sign on
your back anymore.”

Ed reacted without thought, reaching out
to take Sammy’s shoulder. He squeezed it lightly, wishing that there
could be more contact. Wishing there didn’t have to be such a distance
between them. They had been closer than Ed had ever imagined, and yet,
he knew he couldn’t do what he really wanted to do.

“Sammy…”

“I didn’t creep you out, did I?”

“No. I mean, that’s what everybody wants, right? Somebody who will always have their back.”

He wasn’t going to move his hand until
Sammy made him, but his fingers were starting to tingle from the
contact. Sammy’s shirt was still damp, but his skin was so warm through
the material that it almost felt like he wasn’t wearing anything at
all. Ed imagined himself leaning forward and inhaling, catching the
scent of rain on his skin. His mouth watered to taste the clean, salty
tang of his neck.

Lightning slashed across the sky, cutting
it in two. Ed hadn’t realized how dark it was getting until the flash
illuminated Sammy’s face, and he saw something in Sammy’s eyes that he
hadn’t noticed before. The boom of thunder shook the car, and sent a
new shiver down his spine. He hated thunder. He hated loud noises in
general, but this was worse. Being stuck in the middle of the desert in
what amounted to an oversized tin can during the worst rainstorm of his
life made the thunder so much worse.

“You shouldn’t worry about the thunder. There’s not a safer place you can be in a lightning storm.”

“I know. I still wish I was in a house. Hell, I’d settle for some little hotel room at this point.”

“With a bed?”

Ed swallowed. “Well, most hotel rooms do have beds, right?”

“Something you can stretch out on and watch the rain roll down the window.”

“I suppose you could watch the rain here, too.”

“We could lay down in the back.”

“You could. I don’t think we’d both fit in
the back seat.” Ed said it lightly, like it was too ridiculous to ever
take seriously.

“No, I meant all the way in the back. We could probably fit back there.”

Ed finally released Sammy’s shoulder—it
was ridiculous to keep such a tight hold on him—and looked over his
shoulder. Sammy was right. They could fit back there. It wouldn’t
exactly be comfortable because they were both a little too tall, but
the back of the station wagon was empty. They could crawl back there
and…

And what? Just lay there and pretend that
they weren’t touching each other in a tiny, cramped space? Watch the
water sluicing down the back window and silently follow the patterns?
It seemed like a silly way to pass the time. Worse than that, it seemed
like a maddening way to pass the time. There would be no avoiding or
ignoring Sammy’s natural, musky scent. Or just how good his chest
looked covered in a damp, thin T-shirt.

“Come on.”

Ed didn’t even have a chance to protest
before Sammy was climbing over his seat like a monkey. He nearly kicked
Ed in the head in his excitement.

“Are you really serious?”

“Yes. Do you have anything better to do? Besides, we could be stuck here for awhile. We might as well get comfortable.”

“I’m comfortable here.”

Ed glanced in his rearview mirror in time
to see the tight curve of Sammy’s ass. It was so nice, it didn’t need
the wet denim clinging to it, but that certainly helped.

“We might as well get
more
comfortable.”

Ed decided to stop arguing. Partially
because he didn’t actually have another argument against moving.
Partially because there was no point pretending that he didn’t want to.
Especially since they were probably going to get cold as the storm
raged on and the night approached. The fear of being trapped on the
side of the road, in the rain, for an entire night momentarily
overwhelmed the thrill of being so close to Sammy. If he had been
fantasizing about being trapped with Sammy, he’d probably hit on
something close to this scenario. But the fantasy and the reality were
too far apart, and as he climbed over the back seat, he found himself
wishing all the harder for a hotel room.

“There,” Sammy announced with satisfaction. “That’s better, right?”

Perhaps. For some definition of better.
They were both on their sides, facing each other, their knees bent in
order to accommodate the narrow space. Over Sammy’s shoulder, Ed saw
another flash of lightning. From his new angle, he could see the true
expanse of the dark, angry clouds stretching across Nevada. Maybe as
far as California.

“This is so weird,” Ed murmured.

“Why?”

“Why? Because I never thought I’d have to drive clear across Utah to get in the backseat of a car with you.”

“You’ve thought about what it would take to get in the back of a car with me?” Sammy asked.

“I…that came out wrong.”

“Did it?”

“Yes.”

“What did you mean then?”

“Just that…I didn’t expect to be in the backseat of any car with you.”

“But you thought about it?”

Ed blinked. Sammy looked at him with an
open face, his eyes without guile, his smile teasing the corners of his
mouth. This was a setup. He knew it at that moment as well as he knew
his own name. The car probably didn’t need a new alternator. They
probably didn’t need to be sitting on the side of the road in the
rising water. Sammy had taken advantage of Ed’s spontaneous invitation,
and now he was completely orchestrating this entire, weird situation.

“Have you?” Ed challenged. “Look, I don’t
know what’s going on here, but I’m not a queer or anything. So if
you’re thinking something’s going to happen, just stop.”