Go Your Own Way (5 page)

Lennox froze. “What story?”

“These walls hear everything. So do the ears on the other side.” She paused to take a bite. “Lennox. You got dumped here to go to Eastern High. Got a nice ankle bracelet keeping you in place and a grandfather with a fat wallet.”

“Fuck you.”

“Fuck yourself,” Lucy retorted. “Have you heard from him since he left you here?”

“Do you see a phone in here?”

Something thumped against the front door. They both looked over. The door had been knocked open as much as his trunk allowed. Lennox grabbed the rest of the food and headed back to the bathroom. Lucy followed without a word. She shut the bathroom door quietly and locked his window, and then sat with her back against the wall as Lennox sat in his tub, flashlight in hand.

“That first day,” she said, “when they got in your room, I thought… ”

“You’ve been on this side of the wall for ten minutes and you’re already pretending we’ve got history.” Lennox rolled his eyes. “They got in. I saved my own ass; nobody helped. That’s life.”

He didn’t say more, but Lucy didn’t seem to want to let it go.

“I bought another bat for you, if you want it. In case it ever happens again. Or if they get ridiculous in the parking lot.”

“Not doing you a lot of good tonight.”

“Well, forgive me for not taking my bat out for dinner and a movie. It was stupid not to take my car. Is that calcu­lus?” Lucy asked as he picked his book back up. “Why are you taking calculus?”

“Why aren’t you in your own room?” He flipped his book open and started on his assignment. “I’ll pick your window lock and help you in.”

Lucy frowned at him, her lips puckering as she bit her right cheek. “Maybe I wanted a friend around here. Maybe I thought you would be a good choice. If you’re just as much of an ass as those guys, I’ll go.”

But she didn’t stand up. Lennox met her eyes, intending to tell her to get lost, to leave, but something stopped him. Nobody in this town approached him to chat; nobody went out of their way to be kind or generous. But this Lucy… she was nothing like his sister. Pale instead of dark, older than he, with dark eyes instead of that soft green-gray.

“Why are you here then?” Lennox asked as he copied out his first problem. “You heard me through the wall, but I’ve never heard anything from you. Well, besides shouting matches with everyone around here.”

“My mom,” Lucy said after a moment. “She’s on her own now and keeps dating these stupid guys. You’ve met the type.” She nodded toward the front. “I moved out a few years ago after I had a car and money saved. Going to community college in town part-time, working full-time to pay for everything.”

“That’s… admirable. I’ll be glad to finish high school. Get out of here to… ” Lennox stopped there. Where was he going after this year? The only places that came to mind were jail cells and back alleys and a home he couldn’t return to. What was there beyond this moment—beyond the ankle monitor he’d outgrown and been refitted for over the past year?

“To where? I’m heading to Boston. I’m going to get loans to get my bachelor’s, and then get a job that’ll pay for a master’s so I can be a social worker. It’ll be great.”

“Yeah,” Lennox said. “Anything beats here.”

“So where are you headed then? You didn’t say.”

Lennox shrugged. “I’ll just be happy to find a job around here. I can’t even get an application in when they see my ankle monitor. It’s hard to get out of here without any money.”

“We’ve got a few openings for cashiers at the store,” Lucy said. “I’ll see if I can get you an interview. Hell, I’ll get the applications and turn them in for you when I see somewhere that’s hiring. Someone will say yes eventually.”

“Maybe. Thanks.”

Lucy nodded and rested her chin on the tub wall to see his notebook. “I hate math.”

“Why? It’s so easy.”

“You’re an Einstein then? I’m going to call on you to help me with my statistics course in a few weeks. I’m already getting confused. Just a warning.”

Lennox laughed and then bit his tongue. He hadn’t laughed—really laughed—in a long time. Not since he’d seen his sister a year ago. Beside him, Lucy stayed quiet as he worked. When he was finished and relaxing in the empty tub, they talked. She told him all about her courses and her plans for when she finished her associate degree in May. It was nice to hear about someone else’s dreams, and harder to stop the ones beginning to churn in his head. A raggedy apartment in a bustling city, college courses to struggle through while trying to pay rent. Maybe a real friend, or at least a few guys to fuck around with. None of that was going to be his. After June was nothing but a bleak future as flat and long as an ocean without a current. He had nowhere to go from here, even if he made it to graduation. More and more, he doubted he would make it that far, but Lucy’s plans gave him a glimpse of a future after Leon. What might his life be like if he escaped all of this? If, someday, he found his way to somewhere better?

It could be great if he allowed himself the chance, but Lennox squashed the idea. He collapsed the little apartment and the faceless college students. The entire city crumbled before he blinked, and he was back in his bathtub with Lucy’s wistful smile and nowhere he needed to be.

The next morning, Will left early for school. He arrived before the doors opened. Mrs. Martinello, one of the guidance counselors, let him in when she arrived.

“You’re here early today.”

Will shrugged as he stood up with his backpack and trombone case and followed her in. “Just wanted to set up my locker without everyone swarming around me.”

“Well, upstairs is probably still locked, so don’t wander too far,” she said as they reached the front office. “If any of the janitors ask, tell them I let you in, okay?”

“Sure, thanks.”

Will hurried off through the dim cafeteria. It was silent except for the eerie sound of cafeteria workers knocking around pots and pans as they prepared the school breakfast. He’d never tried that. It was easier to roll out of bed and dump some cereal in a bowl than it was to get here early every morning.

The main hallway was still dark. A few safety lights flickered on as Will headed toward his locker at the end of the back hall. He took his purple shelves out of his backpack and wedged them in, arrayed his textbooks on the bottom shelf level with his waist, set his notebooks above that on the middle shelf and put folders for class handouts on the top shelf. He attached his mirror to the inside of the door along with a picture from his dad and Karen’s wedding and a Pittsburgh Pirates schedule magnet that had been on the refrigerator since April.

Will straightened everything once more and breathed deeply. Neat, organized. Could he keep it that way through June? Some­time around midterms, he always lost the energy to keep every­thing neat. Last June, he’d cleaned out a moldy sandwich he’d stuffed in his locker on an early snow-day release.

Back in the cafeteria, several dozen students were in line while others took seats with their breakfasts. Among them, Will spotted the worn, decorated leather jacket and frizzy curls.

Unfortunately, Lennox had spotted him, too.

Will tried to hustle across the cafeteria toward the band hall, but Lennox was at his side before he made it halfway. Several people turned to watch and whisper.

“Quite the boner you’ve got,” Lennox said as he fell into step with Will.

“What? Oh.” Will flushed and hugged his trombone case to his chest. “I’m surprised they let you back in today. Three strikes on the first day. That’s the wrong kind of impressive.”

“Caught your attention,” Lennox said as they turned down the band hall.

Band class didn’t meet today, but he wanted to drop off his trom­bone so he couldn’t forget it tomorrow. With any luck, Len­nox wouldn’t be in any of his classes today. The fewer classes they had together, the better. Will stepped into the band room with Lennox on his heels.

Lennox grinned and whistled. “Sneaking us into the band room for a quickie. Very sly, Osborne.”

“Shove off.” Will waved his trombone case threateningly. “I’ll knock you to the floor, I swear it.”

“Only if you sit on my lap after.”

Will turned away and tried not to scream. He opened the first empty instrument locker along the far wall, set his case inside and grabbed his lock out of his backpack.

“So, you must blow pretty well if you play trombone,” Lennox said as Will headed out of the band room.

“Get lost, you walking armpit.” It wasn’t his best insult, but Will went with it as he hustled down the main hall toward the stairs. Lennox trailed after him as the warning bell rang. Crowds poured in from the buses.

“Armpit?” Lennox asked as he pulled up beside him again. Will bit his lip and took a long, measured breath. “Not your best.” Lennox sniffed himself. “I smell like syrup, so unless you coat your armpit with syrup, you’re way off.”

“Don’t you have a class to get to? Or a speeding car to go stand in front of?”

Will stopped at the end of the hall. He didn’t want Lennox follow­ing him to class. That would mean trouble for him
every
morn­ing instead of every other. But when he spun around, Len­nox wasn’t the only person looking at him.

“You know what I think, Osborne?” Michael Patterson said. His doofus friends on either side of him both grinned. “I think both you faggots should go stand in front of a speeding car and save the rest of us from that eyesore you call a shirt.”

Several other boys in the hall laughed. Will frowned, but kept his mouth shut. Michael Patterson had been a constant annoyance since preschool. Of all the people Will hoped would move away, Michael and his friends, Brian Douglass and Vick Marshall, topped the list. Michael was a gangly seventeen-year-old with limp dark hair and a pube-stache Will never let him forget. Brian was a little shorter than Will, but built like a bulldozer. Vick was taller than all of them with a crew cut and a splotchy complexion. After what happened yesterday between them and Lennox in chemistry, Will had hoped they’d hide as long as Lennox was around.

Lennox turned away from Will to face them, and Will was suddenly worried. He’d seen what Lennox had done to Otto.

“The only way I’m standing in front of a car,” Lennox said, “is if you’re in the driver’s seat and there’s a nice, tall cliff behind me so that when I dive out of the way, you drive off it. I’m sure whatever horse cart you cruise around in can’t brake for shit.”

Michael lunged forward. “Why don’t you—”

Principal Hardy turned the corner before Michael could get to Lennox. “Boys, get to class. You can catch up later!” He shooed all of them down the hall and Will watched Michael, Brian and Vick shuffle away toward the stairs. “Move it, Mr. McAvoy. Tardiness is the last thing you need after yesterday.”

Will ducked into his first class just as the bell rang. Only after he’d sat down and taken out a pencil and notebook did he realize Lennox had followed him.

“Following me isn’t going to make me like you,” Will told him.

Lennox dropped into the seat behind him and smiled. It was the same smile he’d flashed in chemistry yesterday and it made Will shiver. Will couldn’t name what was off about that smile, but it made him flush as Lennox’s eyes traced over his face and body.

“Seriously, this is an AP course, so I know you aren’t in it. Get out of here and stop getting me in trouble.”

“Wearing an ankle monitor isn’t synonymous with being dumb, you know.”

Before Will could argue, Mr. Lorren stepped in from the quiet hall and shut the door. Will had been in Mr. Lorren’s ninth-grade English class three years ago. He was a tall man with a thick growth of hair on his arms and face and a lot of padding around his middle. His belly hung so far over his waistband that it sagged halfway to the ground. It matched the constant frown that pulled down his thick, neatly trimmed beard.

He was a teacher you didn’t mess with, but Lennox no doubt would anyway.

Will turned to Lennox. “Just go.”

“I’ll skip class later.”

“You’re skipping it
now
. You aren’t in this class.”

Lennox leaned forward until Will could smell the peppermint on his breath and the smoke on his clothes. He shivered again and tried to make himself back away. But his body didn’t seem to want to cooperate any more than Lennox. Will met his eyes—could see himself reflected in them. They looked like a pair of pennies, bright and bronze as if they were sitting in a shallow, sunlit fountain. It was a beauty Will didn’t want to think about.

“You don’t have to tease so much,” Lennox whispered. That smile stayed on his face, and Will had to look away. His eyes fell on his hands gripping his chair and the white knuckles under his skin. If he looked in those eyes again, he would do something stupid. Like slap Lennox—or kiss him.

Lennox laughed softly and Will looked up again. Those eyes were going to ruin him. He couldn’t stand Lennox, but it was hard to remember that when they were this close. It was difficult to remember anything with those eyes on his and the scent of peppermint filling the air.

“You two can be the first pair for our novel discussion projects,” Mr. Lorren’s voice said. They both jumped and broke eye contact. “Since you two seem so cozy back here and can’t be bothered with paying attention.”

Will flinched as Mr. Lorren slapped a packet down on his desk. This was going to be the worst year of his life.

“See me after class,” Mr. Lorren added. “Both of you.”

Will wilted and slid down into his chair. Behind him, Lennox chuckled and blew on the back of his neck. Will almost turned around and smacked him across the face again, but he was in enough trouble as it was. He still had to tell his dad about his week of detention. When the bell rang, Will headed up front to Mr. Lorren’s desk with Lennox on his heels. The rest of the students left for their next class.

Mr. Lorren finished organizing a stack of papers before looking up at them. “How much did you hear about the project?”

Will squirmed. “Um, well, it has to do with the books we’re reading?”

“Each pair will lead our class discussion on their assigned day,” Mr. Lorren explained. “You’ll be assigned a set num­ber of chapters for the novel, write up a list of discussion ques­tions with answers and prepare a reading quiz for everyone to take.”

“Okay, I’m sorry I wasn’t paying attention,” Will said.

Lennox snickered. “I’m sorry he likes to ogle me so much.”

“Shut
up!
”

“Boys, enough! I don’t know what exactly this problem is with you two, but I’ve heard quite a bit already from the other staff,” Mr. Lorren said. Will twisted his hands and his eyes widened in spite of himself. Mr. Lorren peered at him over his glasses. “Yes, Mr. Osborne, even we teachers know how to gossip. I understand there’s some hostility, but I see no reason you two can’t work together throughout the year—”

“Wait, I’m stuck with him all
year
?” Will’s mouth fell open as Lennox tried to inch closer. Will took a step away from him. “You can’t be serious. He’s a menace—please, can’t I work with someone else, Mr. Lorren? I don’t want to get into any more trouble.”

“Then work out whatever conflict you two are having,” Mr. Lorren said. “I won’t have anything like what happened yesterday, happening in here. You’re both smart boys—”

Will snorted and crossed his arms.

“I believe you had top grades at all of your previous schools, correct?” Mr. Lorren said, looking at Lennox.

“More or less.”

“Yeah, right,” Will said with a snort.

“Enough,” Mr. Lorren said. “ I’ll hand out the schedule next class.
The Count of Monte Cristo
is up first. You two will have the first five chapters.”

Mr. Lorren signed passes to their next classes. Will left quickly, but was stopped almost at once by Lennox blocking the stairs.

“Want to start tonight?” Lennox asked.

Will took the stairs two at a time, but Lennox kept pace. At the top, Will swung his backpack at Lennox, but it caught on the railing. He tripped and stumbled back into the closed door. Lennox was there in an instant, one hand catching Will before he fell over as the other reached up and brushed Will’s bicep.

“Careful, babe, or you’ll break something I’m hoping to see more of.”

Will wanted to say, “Don’t call me babe,” or, “Go dive over the railing,” or a string of curses that would make Lennox step away. But he didn’t. Lennox was close to him again, closer than any other boy had ever been. It was unnerving how fast Will’s smart mouth failed him. With Lennox in front of him, with his eyes and his lips and those ridiculous curls, Will was finished. He had no defense for this, or at least nothing he’d discovered in the past twenty-four hours.

“Finally speechless, I see.” Lennox chuckled as Will mouthed wordlessly at him.

Will’s eyes drifted shut. Everything he’d been putting between them seemed to crumble. For a moment, Will forgot that he was late to class, that they were at school and that he kept veering between wanting to slap Lennox and wanting exactly what was inching toward him.

“You’re not the only one who can tease.” The words brushed over his lips. Will gasped at the sensation of mere air instead of the solid softness of Lennox’s lips against his. Lennox left. Will stood there for a lot longer than he should have, trying to calm himself and stop the swelling disappointment he didn’t want to feel over his almost-first kiss.

On the other side of the door, he was met with a sharp whistle. Roxanne Bryce was there, wearing her hall monitor vest and a cheeky grin. From what he could tell, she’d been peering through the narrow window on the door.

“Now
that
was something worth texting me about,” she said. “I want details later. Don’t worry, I’ll call you!”

Will tried to deny whatever rumor was about to spread like wildfire, but she was already flouncing off down the hall and around the corner. Grumbling, Will entered his government class. Lennox was there, and Will was worried that he always would be.