The Other Side of the Street

by Nicole Thorn

  Bea patted a massive book on her lap. It had an orange cover and a dragon on the front. “My baby and I are gonna be in here enjoying my portable AC for a while.”

  I barely paid attention, staring at the front door. “Do you think AJ is okay watching Dee Dee?”

  Beatrice lifted a blondish eyebrow at me. “Of course he is. He gets to play video games all day while someone cheers on every single kill. It’s his dream.”

  Maybe he dreamed of getting to go play with his friends or bringing them over so they could play in a room he didn’t have. But instead of getting angry with myself, I remembered that I wouldn’t let this go on for much longer. He’d have his own space soon enough.

  I started making my way toward the grocery store. As usual, I looked out for Mom and Dad’s car when we drove by the lot. It felt dumb, but I liked seeing it and knowing for sure that my parents were close by. If we got lucky, then they’d come up and see us for lunch. Mom tended to come visit on her longer breaks, but Dad almost always stayed tied up at the gas station.

  “Whoa there,” Bea said. “What fucking cowboy decided to saddle up on our turf?”

  I had no idea what the hell she meant until I looked over to the spot I parked in every single day of my life. There was an RV… right in my spot. Like, literally. I would park about a hundred feet down from the shopping center, and right near where workers would come to tend to the farm land behind me. The spot did well for me. It was within walking distance of everything in the shopping center, and perfectly accessible to anyone who wanted to pull up alongside the road.

  “Who would camp there?” I asked, driving closer.

  “Are they camping? Look at that table set up. Shit,” she said, eyes narrowing. “There’s a sign. Oh… those dicks are selling jerky. Don’t they know this spot was claimed in the name of Barker? We own this shit.”

  “Hold on. It’s not a big deal. I’m sure it’ll be fine.”

  I couldn’t park in my spot, so I had to park even farther away from the stores. Pulling over would have been a pain in the ass for anyone going by, but not impossible. It put me at like fifty feet from the RV.

  Once we parked, I waited to see if anyone would come out of the RV to man the table. The door hung open, but no one came out.

  Bea stared at me when we parked, and I knew she had wheels turning in there. It worried me. My sister could be downright diabolic when she wanted to, and I had no idea where she got that from. Both of our parents were the nicest people on the planet.

  “What?” I asked.

  “You gonna let that jerky jerk take our spot? How will you earn money for your imported seashell habit?”

  “First off, it was one fucking shell, Beatrice, and you know it. Second, I don’t know if it’s even an issue. Honey and jerky are nothing alike. Either you want a snack, or you want a delicious and un-gobadable goop you can put in so many things. No one will be swayed out of buying honey to go buy jerky.”

  She shook her head, opening her book.

  I had to set my table up, which I did on my own. I didn’t mind doing that on for the most part, and Bea came out to help with the crates. It was the whole point of her coming here. The extra help was nice, even though I could have done it on my own. I really, really didn’t like being alone. That wasn’t good for someone who only ever had three friends at best, and they weren’t the kind of friends I hung out with after school. My schedule had been jam packed for years. When I wasn’t working, I cleaned the house so my parents didn’t have to. They already worked long hours and didn’t need the extra stuff to do.

  I set the honey up on the table, trying to make it as appealing as I could. Bea went back to the car to enjoy her AC, and I smothered sunblock on my skin. I used to have a massive umbrella, but it blew away one too many times for me to put the effort in anymore. My punishment would be my hair getting lighter again.

  An hour went by and no one stopped. This happened often enough that I shouldn’t have been worried. I kept finding myself looking over to that RV, wondering if this set up looked too intimidating to people. A massive RV and a person sitting outside with a truck might have been off putting. Not to mention, it could attract the police who would want to see if I had a license to sell honey. Which I did.

  Finally, a car stopped… and bought jerky. Like the next car. Out of the first two and a half hours and five cars, four of them went to the jerky guy. I saw him finally come out of the RV, dealing with the customers. He looked around my age, and I tried to figure out if we’d just graduated together. I took in his appearance. A little taller than me at just over six feet, brown hair, green eyes. I had to have known him… but I didn’t. He could have gone to the high school closer to the new houses a few miles away.

  “Bea,” I called.

  She looked up from her dragon book before she came out to see me. She stared at the boy selling jerky, glaring as the wind blew her hair all over the place. I could sense the slew of curse words on the way.

  “I guess that’s what we’re dealing with,” I said, glancing over at the boy again.

  “You want me to beat him up? I can go over there and threaten him.”

  I hoped she was kidding.

  “No, I think there’s a better way to do this. You get more flies with honey than with vinegar,” I said as I picked up a jar on the table.

  Bea shook her head at me. “You dork.”

  “Don’t judge me…” I muttered.

  She smiled. “Good luck with your honey. I find that things work out better when you get a little aggressive, but I understand that you’re a nicer person than I am.”

  “It would be hard to not be.”

  Her mouth fell open. “Offended. Well, go on then. Knowing you, you’re gonna make a new friend out of a five-minute conversation.”

  “What are you basing that off of?”

  “It’s the honey. It’s soaked into your soul and now you’re just too sweet. It’s gross. Everyone likes you, you know that, don’t you?”

  Plenty of people liked me, but no one liked me enough to spend time with me.

  The jerky guy had already gone inside his RV again, so I didn’t see him as I approached. I could hear his voice, so I thought there might have been someone else inside as well. I’d talk to whoever answered.

  I knocked on the door, and the boy came out only seconds later.

  “Hey,” he said. “Did you want a bag to snack on while you sat over there?”

  Ah, so he’d noticed me. “No, actually I wanted to talk to you. I brought a gift,” I said, presenting him with the honey. “I’m Jay, by the way.”

  “Hamilton.” He looked at the jar I’d designed myself, the label being a cartoon bee lying on a flower. “Thanks. Is that all?”

  I got the distinct feeling that I should have just walked back to my table, but I couldn’t. On a normal day, I would have sold more than double what I’d done so far, and I couldn’t help but think his shop had something to do with it.

  “I actually wanted to ask a favor,” I said.

  “Bold of you.”

  I tried to smile like a friendly person. “Um, so this is a little awkward. This is kind of my spot.”

  “Ah, well, you seem fine over where you have your table. Did… did you want me to move a few feet away?”

  Oh, I hated every second of this. I felt like a jerk for even bringing it up, but I wouldn’t have done it if I didn’t think I had to. “No. I was hoping you could find another spot. There’s a good one over by the mall. There’s lots of traffic there.”

  The boy came further out of the RV, stepping down the stairs and onto the ground with me. I took a step back, my instinct telling me that I should be careful. I had no idea how this guy would react.

  “Then why don’t you go there?” he asked me.

  “Because it’s kind of far away. And my parents work over at the store behind you. They come visit sometimes.” It sounded dumb when I said it out loud. Like I was some little kid who needed their parents cl
ose by.

  Hamilton nodded. “You want me to drive all the way down to the mall because you want to hang out with your parents?”

  I felt myself getting snippy, but I tried to tamp it down. “I mean, I was here first, to be fair.”

  “First? I recall watching you drive up an hour and a half after I did.”

  “Okay, but I’ve been here every day for years.”

  “Really? I never saw you.”

  I sighed, reminding myself not to get rude. “Look, I don’t want to start anything. I was just hoping you would be willing to move, because I think it’s putting a damper on my sales. There are a lot of places you can go.”

  “And there are a lot of places you could go too. I don’t see why I have to move because you don’t like sharing.”

  “Because I’m asking you nicely,” I said, the attitude in my voice clear.

  He rubbed his jaw. “I see. So, I should compromise my own sales because you were nice? The way I see it, either you’re lying about that other spot being good—ya know, since you won’t go to it—or just unwilling to move. Which, by the way, isn’t all that nice.”

  I lost any trace of kindness in my voice. “I’m not a liar.”

  “Then why won’t you take that spot?”

  Through my teeth, I said, “Because this is my fucking spot.”

  “Oh,” Hamilton smirked. “Getting a little worked up over a spot, huh?”

  It was the principal of the matter. This was my place. I’d come there more times than I could even count. I’d found it all on my own, and I used to drag a wagon full of honey half a mile up to sell things before I had a car. I busted my ass, and I wouldn’t hand it over to some guy who just showed up out of nowhere.

  “Are you seriously unwilling to move?” I asked.

  “Seriously,” he said.

  I clicked my tongue, absolutely despising the fact that his smirk wasn’t the most unattractive thing I’d ever seen. Of course, I would have liked to punch it off his face. Did he even know he had smirked? Is he trying to piss me off?

  “Wow, you’re a real standup guy,” I said. “Thanks so much for this.”

  “Yeah, no problem,” he said, clapping my shoulder.

  Something about that made me snap. “Great, well your jerky looks shitty, by the way.”

  I straight up stomped back to the truck, hating myself with every step. I felt like a toddler throwing a fit, but I was pissed and couldn’t really get it out of me. Every sale he would get would feel like money being pulled from my pocket. It would put me that much further away from my own place and getting my brother what he deserved.

  “Well?” Bea asked. “Is he moving?”

  “No,” I growled.

  That made her eyebrows lift. “Really? What a douche. What do you want to do?”

  I had no idea. I couldn’t afford the gas of driving all the way down to the mall every single day, and I couldn’t think up another spot that would have as much traffic as this one did. I felt trapped and suffocated with worry that this would end me. After years of learning and building, it could all be gone.

  “I don’t know,” I breathed.

  Bea rubbed my shoulder. “We’ll figure it out, Jay. Maybe you should take the rest of the day off. I’ll play that awful Wheel of Fortune game with you.”

  I couldn’t afford days off, but anxiety prickled against my skin, threatening to give me a panic attack. I didn’t want to break down in front of my sister.

  “Sure,” I said. “Maybe this guy’ll take off soon. Then I won’t have to worry about him.”

  My sister grinned. “That’s the spirit. You’ll last way longer. You’re the Twinkie of sales boys.”

  “The highest of praise.”

  Chapter Five

  Hamilton

  “Go make nice,” Sam said, pushing against my shoulder. “Hasn’t anyone ever told you to play nice with the locals?”

  “We’re the locals,” I said, pushing Sam back. “And I am playing nice. I didn’t park in his spot this time. See, I’m across the street.” I gestured to the RV, indicating that yes, we had indeed parked across the street. The day before had been a good day for sales. I’d almost run out of jerky and made enough money that made even my father raise an eyebrow. I’d had to share some of it with Sam, of course, but I still came out ahead. I could sell the jerky for slightly under store price, and make almost twice what I had been making before, by cutting out the middleman.

  Naturally, I wanted to go and make more money. I’d spent a lot of the day before, after we had finished with the day’s sales, working on more jerky. I had a constant supply going at Dad’s shop, and if I could just keep it going, then maybe he was right. Maybe I could be in college by this time next year.

  None of these were reasons why I should go and talk to the rude guy from the day before. Jay, I thought his name was.

  Sam groaned, leaning back against the front seat and closing his eyes. “You think that giving him his technical spot back is going to matter? We’re on his turf.”

  “Please don’t say things like that. It sounds ridiculous.”

  “We are,” Sam said, leaning forward so that he could glare at me. I thought it would have been more effective if he didn’t also have his phone out with some stupid game going. “Who knows how long he’s been selling his honey here. Go make nice. I don’t want to spend the entire day stuck with a grump.”

  “I’m not a grump,” I said, in a rather grumpy manner. Funny, when my mother called me a grump, I’d never minded. The second Sam did it, I kind of wanted to punch him. I should keep an eye on that…

  Sam rolled his eyes, leaning back against his seat once more. “Hey, for all you know, he’s some kid that’s trying to make enough money to go to college, just like you are. Why not go and make nice? Didn’t you tell me that there was some barbecue stand out in the middle of nowhere that teamed up with a kettle corn stand? How about you make some weird alliance with him like that?”

  “Jerky and honey?” I asked, looking at him with a frown. “Who in their right minds would want jerky and honey at the same time?”

  Sam slowly raised his hand into the air.

  “I said right minds.”

  His hand dropped and he made a face. “You know, you were a lot more tolerable when I could kiss you to shut you up.”

  “So were you.”

  The two of us glared at each other for about four seconds, before I cracked a smile. Sam followed suit and started laughing. He snorted hard enough that it startled a bird off the hood of the RV. I sat down on the bench in the back of the RV and leaned my head back against the wall.

  At times like this, I wished that it had worked out between us. I didn’t feel that way often, because I also didn’t feel like I deserved to be hidden. Which would have undoubtedly happened if his parents had kept trying to separate us. They were happy now, with the belief that his dating a boy had been a phase and in reality, he liked girls and only girls.

  It made me sad to think that Sam would pass up dating some guy he really liked because his parents wanted to erase that part of him. This didn’t mean he wouldn’t be happy. He had dated several girls before me, and he seemed genuinely glad to be in a relationship with them.

  No matter how I looked at it, it probably would have ended horribly between us if we had kept going. We wouldn’t be friends anymore, which meant that I’d be sitting alone in the RV, glaring at the honey guy all by myself.

  “We should finish setting up the table,” I said, getting off the bench.

  Sam leaned over the arm of the seat to stare at me. “Really, we’re just going to pretend like the entire conversation didn’t happen?”

  “Why should I be the one to make nice?”

  “Because you’ve never done it before!” Sam said. “Do you remember our second date? After dinner, you dragged me to that bookstore and that guy bumped into me? Do you remember what happened after that?”

  “Okay, if someone cries just because of an in
cident like that, then there must be something wrong.”

  Sam rubbed his eyes. “The point being! I am the one who had to go apologize to him and you are the one that had to sit in the car until you cooled off. Do you want to do that for the rest of your life?”

  “Sitting in the car is pleasant. There aren’t any people that I don’t like in the car with me.”

  “Ham.”

  “Fine! But I’m not talking to him until after we’ve got everything set up, got it?”

  “Got it,” Sam said, getting up to help me with the table. “Although, if we had just found a new spot today, like I suggested, we wouldn’t be doing any of this.”

  “This is a good spot!” I said. “We sold almost all of the jerky. Do you not like the cash rattling around in your pocket?”

  We continued on like that as we started getting the table set up. Jay had started unloaded crates while we’d been inside arguing, and he started to set up all of his honey while we set up the jerky. I’d catch him throwing glances our way every now and then, but I didn’t bother looking his way. I didn’t want him to think that we’d be friends, or something silly like that.

  I didn’t understand why he kept glaring at me. He’d had plenty of sales the day before. It seemed like everyone who didn’t stop to get jerky, stopped to get honey. He acted like my being there would drive his business away, but if he lost customers, then he must’ve been making a shit ton of money on a normal day.

  After work the day before, I’d gone and gotten us chairs, so that Sam and I could sit outside with the jerky, instead of being inside, where people couldn’t see us.

  Sam flopped down into the chair and slammed a hat down on his head. He also pulled a book out of his bag and opened it up to the middle section. It had two dudes on the cover, but other than that, I didn’t know anything about the book. He flicked his fingers at me. “Go on, then. Make nice.”

  I glanced over my shoulder to see Jay glaring at me from his seat. He’d done that enough times that it stopped feeling strange. I rubbed the back of my head. It was tempting to refuse and sit back down, but… Sam had a point. I had been rude to Jay and countless others, just because I didn’t want to deal with them. I didn’t have the energy to deal with a single person for longer than a few seconds anymore. It drained me.