by Travis, Todd
“What are you going to do,” Valerie asked. “Beat him up? Leave him alone.”
Healy didn’t falter, just started walking. “Johnson, damn it—”
“Yeah, leave him alone,” Faye said. “You’ve been picking on him the whole trip. We’ve all seen it.”
“You four, get on the bus, now. Stay out of this. Johnson—”
“No,” Ed said.
“What Ed said, no,” Shakes said. “If you’re going to harass Darin, then we’re staying here as witnesses.”
Darin glanced at the other four, more surprised than he cared to admit. Healy stopped. The five of them just stood there, defiant. He looked up and noticed all the rest of the students on the bus with their faces plastered to the windows.
“You four are in enough trouble. You’ve all been drinking,” Healy said.
“According to WHO?” Valerie said. “You? You’re lying. We can go into the restaurant and verify that right now. The wait staff will swear that we did not drink.”
“And they’ll swear that they kicked you out for being drunk and disorderly,” Faye said. “We can go in and get their names and numbers right now.”
Healy was stumped at that. He never expected this kind of uprising from the likes of these kids and it showed on his face.
“Look—”
“And even if we were drinking, even if that WERE true,” Shakes said. “Who’s responsible for that? Who stood there and let us underage kids be served alcoholic drinks and did nothing? You. You’re the one in trouble, I’m only fifteen years old.”
“Hobart, don’t even start—”
“He’s not starting nothin’, Healy, you are,” Darin said. “So just let us all be, keep your apes off our backs on the bus ride home, and you can do whatever it is you gotta do to me tomorrow morning. I don’t care if you kick me out of your school, in fact I’m fine with it. I’m just too tired of your shit right now and I don’t want anymore of it.”
“None of us do,” Valerie added. “So leave us alone.”
Healy didn’t speak, didn’t move. He couldn’t remember ever being at a loss for words when it came to punk high school kids.
He glanced up at the bus, at everyone watching, then walked past the five and boarded the bus without another word. Darin turned to the people that, when he’d gotten up that morning, he’d never given more than a fraction of a second of thought in his entire life, and said, “Thank you.”
Chapter Seventeen
In nearly every other circumstance, Darin would simply ditch school and wait for the phone call from the office to inform his foster parents that he’d been booted. He’d been there before, after all, and why waste a chance at sleeping in, he’d reason. But a morbid curiosity and resignation got him up out of bed and at school. Better to get it over with, he thought. And tried to convince himself that THAT was the real reason and not because it might be the last chance he’d have to talk to Valerie.
The trip home on the bus had been most interesting. They’d all sat near each other in the front, the other students left them alone. They chatted and joked about the evening like friends. Ed couldn’t stop talking about the English chicken, Shakes had a definite buzz from the booze going on, and Faye even laughed out loud once. Even Valerie, with her trademark death’s head deadpan, had gotten caught up in it and nearly smiled.
Healy sat alone in his seat, silent and burning. Ms. Arnett wouldn’t talk to him, and Darin could tell she was ignoring the gym teacher’s text messages, too. Darin was certain Healy was plotting his revenge, guys like him don’t take humiliation like that without planning serious payback, but for the rest of the trip, he left them alone.
In fact, everybody left them alone and kept things quiet, even that asshole Goodwin, as they sensed the tension and anger from Healy and Ms. Arnett, and just kept to themselves.
Shakes had sat next to Darin talking nonstop on the way home, like a kid at Christmas. Under normal circumstances, Darin wouldn’t give a skinny geek like Shakes the time of day, unless it was a warning glare or a hard shove to move him out of his way. But the sight of that kid, and the others, standing with him against Healy, had shifted something, ever so slightly, in Darin’s perspective of the world.
No one had ever, in Darin’s memory, ever stood up for him before. Not one social worker, not one foster parent, not a single adult figure in his life and none of the kids he’d run into at any school had ever done that before. Everyone expected the worst from him, only looked out for themselves, and as a result, he’d done the same for as long as he could remember.
And yet these four misfits had stood by his side, for no real reason except that … he didn’t know why they did it, actually. Not really. Because they wanted to, maybe, or because they were just caught up in the moment or something, Darin wasn’t sure, but that didn’t matter, in the end. They’d done it. And that warmed Darin to them and he enjoyed their chatter and antics on the trip home.
And plus, there was Valerie Weems to consider. Darin couldn’t stop thinking about her. She was darkness personified, long black sleeves, long dark skirts and boots, like a grown-up version of Wednesday from The Addams Family, she was a trip, no doubt, but there was something else there. She didn’t talk much on the way home, but she didn’t put her headphones or sunglasses on, either. She stayed close to them and followed the conversation.
Since they sat in the front, they were first off the bus when it got back to Radford. Ed’s grandma had been waiting in the high school parking for him in a car, an old beater with lots of room. She offered them all a ride and they gladly took it, not waiting for Healy or Arnett or any of the other kids to even say shit.
Faye turned the ride down at first, probably because she worried about fitting into the back with all of them, but they all insisted and she squeezed into the back with Valerie and Shakes. Darin sat in the front, in between Ed and his grandma.
Ed chattered happily and his grandma seemed sweet, though she drove only about fifteen miles an hour and stopped ten feet away from the intersection whenever there was a stop sign. Shakes was dropped off first, and he made sure to invite them all to his place to play the game. Darin just shook his head at the kid. Faye was next and after that Darin moved to the back to give Grandma more room to steer. He gave Valerie her space, however, and didn’t speak much. Neither did she. Ed did all the talking. About the food, the museum, about everything. Darin thought he still had a buzz.
When they dropped Valerie off, Darin claimed he lived nearby and would get out here, too. Ed’s grandma just nodded, she’d mentioned several times that she didn’t like driving at night and was probably relieved. Darin thanked her for the ride as Ed waved good-bye to them both.
“See you tomorrow?” Ed asked.
“Yeah, man. Tomorrow.”
Valerie and he watched as Ed’s grandma put the car into gear and crept away, slow. Valerie turned to Darin.
“You don’t live anywhere near here.”
“Nope.”
They stood in silence. He turned toward her house. A light was on in the house in the living room. A man sat in a recliner, in front of a television. He didn’t move, just stared at the glowing screen, drink in hand.
“Your father?”
Valerie nodded. “That’s pretty much all he does now, when he’s not at work.”
“Freaky night, huh?” he said.
“You really going to go to school tomorrow?”
“I guess I will. Since it’ll be my last day, why not show up?”
She stared at him for a moment.
“See you tomorrow, then,” and she turned and walked up the walk to her house.
“Yeah. See you tomorrow,” he said after she’d gone.
And that was the real reason why Darin had gotten out of bed and to school on time, even though he expected that the first order of business, once he was accounted for in homeroom, was that he’d be called to the office and sent back home immediately, do not pass go, do not collect a R
adford High diploma.
But he wanted at least one more chance to talk to Valerie, if he could get it.
He didn’t see her when he came in, but something was off, people hurried about and spoke in hushed tones, in fact, the whole school seemed a bit off. He tossed his bag into his locker and headed for his first class, which was some bullshit study period.
“Darin!” Shakes popped out of somewhere and walked with him. “You heard, right? Freaky as hell, isn’t it?”
“Heard what?”
“You don’t know? I would have texted you but I don’t have your number, we should be texting. Here, let me give you mine,” Shakes took out a pen and wrote a number on a piece of paper. “It’s wild, man. Everyone else is, like, bummed out, I know, but me, this is almost one of the best days of my life and it’s killing me to keep it in, I couldn’t wait until I saw you because I knew that you’d get it, that you’d—”
“Shakes. What the hell are you talking about, don’t know what, what happened?”
The bell rang and most kids hurried to their first classes. Shakes slipped the piece of paper with his number on it into Darin’s pocket.
“Healy’s dead, he died in a car accident last night. And they’re letting us all out of school early, after lunch, so we can like, mourn him and shit,” Shakes laughed and rushed off. “Text me, I’ll get you the rest of the details.”
Shakes ran down the hall as the second bell rang. Darin slid into his study period and didn’t even get a warning for being late as he took a seat in the back. The teacher, an older woman named Mrs. Harper, just shook her head and wiped her eyes. She’d been crying.
Darin snuck his phone out and sent a text to the number Shakes had given him, his message only three letters, “WTF?”
He got a text back immediately. “HEALY DRIFTED OUT OF HIS LANE ON THE WAY HOME LAST NIGHT, HIT A SEMI-TRUCK HEAD ON. BOOM! KILLED INSTANTLY. BLOOD ALCOHOL LIMIT WAS 2.0.”
Darin texted back, “HOLY SHIT. DEAD? HE WAS AN ASSHOLE, BUT … DAMN.”
“NOW HE’S A DEAD ASSHOLE,” was the response. “FUK HIM. I’M GLAD HE’S GONE.”
“HE WAS THE ONLY ONE WHO DIED, NO ONE ELSE?”
“JUST HIM, HE WAS ALONE IN THE CAR. TRUCK DRIVER SURVIVED.”
Darin leaned back and thought about that. That explained everyone walking around in mourning. Or acting that way. And to be honest, he didn’t really feel bad about it at all. Healy was an asshole, true, and if somebody has to go, the assholes going first was a good policy.
“ARNETT DIDN’T COME 2 SCHOOL TODAY, EITHER LOL! I GUESS THIS MEANS YOU’RE NOT EXPELLED.”
“I GUESS NOT,” Darin wrote in reply. “AT LEAST NOT YET.”
“I HEARD THEY’RE HAVING A FUNERAL CEREMONY FOR HIM @ THE SCHOOL ON FRI AFTERNOON, IN THE GYM. & THE SCHOOL WILL SUPPLY GRIEF COUNSELORS & SHIT FOR US TO TALK TO, TO TRY & DEAL WITH OUR LOSS. HILARIOUS.”
Darin leaned back as a general announcement from the principal came out over the speaker, detailing the loss of Healy and affirming everything Shakes had just informed him of. Shakes also sent him a text with a link to an online news site. The headline read: “BELOVED LOCAL BASKETBALL COACH KILLED IN TRAGIC ACCIDENT!”
Beloved, Darin snorted. That’s rich, he thought. Darin glanced around at the other students in the class with him. Most first period study halls were ditched by upperclassmen, but not this one. Many of them must have known before they got there, probably they sent a tweet or something, but Darin wasn’t connected to most of that stuff.
Shakes sent another text. “THEY’RE LETTING US OUT B4 LUNCH NOW, WE SHOULD ALL HANG, MAYBE AT MY HOUSE?”
“MAYBE, I DUNNO. WE’LL SEE,” he sent back.
Darin didn’t really want to hang with Shakes at his house, he could tell the kid had already worked up some whole epic vision of Darin and he as BFFs, and that was the last thing he wanted. But then again, he wondered if Valerie would be there.
“WHO ELSE IS GOING?”
“WE NEED FIVE FOR SEX, MARRY, KILL, RIGHT?”
Chapter Eighteen
They didn’t end up getting together that day after all. Darin had seen Faye in the distance down the hall but didn’t talk to her and had passed by Ed, in his homeroom, who sat in there looking bewildered. Valerie was nowhere to be found. He sent a text to Shakes, asking if he’d seen her, and he replied that she hadn’t come to school that day.
Which bummed Darin out, the impression he got from her the night before was that she’d see him today. And now she didn’t show. Darin was more disappointed than he’d considered possible; after all, he’d had maybe a half a conversation with this chick, if that. Why was he constantly thinking about her?
He’d sent Shakes a text, told him he couldn’t make it to over to his house that afternoon, and went on home.
His foster parents weren’t surprised to see him come home early, but probably because they figured that he’d been sent home for some offense. He told them what happened and they just shrugged and went back to what they were doing.
They were middle-aged, very tired people dealing with a few other foster younger children in addition to him, a couple of whom had far more serious emotional issues than Darin had and who needed constant care.
His foster father, when Darin arrived there over a year ago, basically told him up front that he knew that by now Darin probably thought he had the world figured out and he wasn’t going to try and change his mind on anything.
The man simply asked that he not rock the boat in the household, beat or fight with any of the other kids and that once he turned eighteen he could do what he wanted. When he got into trouble at school, they took his cell phone and laptop away, but that was fine as Darin had a prepaid phone he used for his side business anyway. He never fought with them, just stayed out of their way.
Darin had to submit to a regular urine test every week or so as part of his deal for the last run-in with the cops; his foster father would watch him piss into a cup and send it off, but since Darin didn’t touch any of his product himself, he never worried about it.
They were never happy when he got sent to detention or was sent home from school, of course, but they didn’t hassle him about it much, either. They were too jaded and figured that he was who he was and they weren’t going to change that. The nice thing was that they didn’t pretend to care about him anymore than they actually did. Darin appreciated that and, as a result, didn’t give them too much shit in return.
They wouldn’t they let him get a car yet, though. He had to wait. His foster father did offer to sign a consent form if Darin wanted to enlist in the military early. Darin had refused; he wanted no part of that. Still, every time he got into trouble at school, they’d leave Army and Navy recruiting information out for him anyway.
But Darin had cash stashed away from his pill and pot business, which he’d had to rebuild each and every time the system placed him with a new family, and he knew what he wanted to do once he turned of age and got the courts off his back. He had a few months until then.
When he got home and told them about Healy, their eyes went wide and they asked him if he was okay. Darin told them he was fine, he never liked the guy, anyway. He said he had homework to do, went to his room and locked the door.
Then the text messages started coming. Shakes started it off with a group private message.
“HEY GUYS, CHECK OUT THIS LINK, THEY SET UP A MEMORIAL PAGE FOR HEALY ON FACEBOOK!”
Darin clicked on the link and there it was, a page with a cover picture of Healy standing on the sidelines of a basketball game, hands to his mouth, shouting at his players. There were testimonials posted on the page, some tearful and heartfelt.
“YOU’D THINK HEALY CURED CANCER OR SOMETHING, THE WAY THESE CLOWNS ARE CARRYING ON!” from Shakes again. “DID YOU READ WHAT THAT ASSHAT GOODWIN WROTE?”
Darin read through Goodwin’s post. It was a badly written and rambling message about some basketball game in which the game was on the line and Healy had wanted
Goodwin to take the last shot and told him that it was his to win or lose, and Goodwin had done that and won the game and that Healy showed him how to win at life, or some shit like that. Goodwin wasn’t going to win any awards for writing, that was for damn certain.
“SAD THAT HE DIED,” a reply to the group from Ed. “I FEAL BAD.”
“COME ON, ED,” Shakes wrote, “HE ONCE CALLED YOU RETARD IN FRONT OF EVERYBODY AT GYM CLASS! HE WAS A HUGE DICK!”
“HE WAS,” this from Faye. “HE TOLD ME A FEW TIMES THAT I’D BE DEAD BEFORE I TURNED THIRTY IF I DIDN’T LOSE WEIGHT. THAT I MUST HATE MYSELF TO EAT LIKE I DO. HE SAID THAT 2 ME AFTER HE HEARD SOME OTHER GIRLS MAKING FUN OF ME FOR BEING FAT. THAT’S WHAT HE SAID TO ME. I HATED HIM.”
“HE DID HIT ME 1 TIME,” from Ed. “IN 7 GRADE GIM CLASS. HIT ME IN THE HED WITH HIS FIST. WAS MAD AT ME. TOLD ME NOT 2 TELL GRAM OR HE DO IT MRE.”
“SO YOU DON’T HAVE TO FEEL SAD, ED,” wrote Faye. “DON’T DO IT JUST BECUZ EVERYONE ELSE EXPECTS YOU 2.”
“THAT’S WHAT SUCKS,” wrote Shakes. “ALL THESE PEOPLE CRYING AND CARRYING ON LIKE THE FREAKING POPE DIED OR SOMETHING. HEALY WAS A TERRIBLE PERSON, THE ONLY ONES REALLY MISSING HIM ARE HIS FUCKING ASS-CLONES LIKE GOODWIN AND ROGER AND ALL THOSE FUCKERS. HE WAS A BULLY LIKE THEM AND WE HAVE TO WALK AROUND AND ACT LIKE WE’RE SAD. AND THEY’RE MAKING US ALL GO TO THE FUNERAL ON THUR, TOO!”
“SO DON’T GO,” this came from an unidentified number. Darin’s interest perked up when he read that. He wondered if that was who he thought it was.
“I HAVE TO GO, I HAVEN’T MISSED ANY SCHOOL SINCE SIXTH GRADE, I WANTED TO GRADUATE WITH NO ABSENCES,” wrote Shakes. “IT SUCKS THAT I’M GONNA HAVE TO SIT THROUGH THAT BULLSHIT CEREMONY JUST TO PROTECT MY PERFECT ATTENDANCE STREAK.”
“IT DOES SUCK,” wrote Faye.
“IT EPICALLY SUCKS THAT THEY’RE MAKING A BIG DEAL OUT OF HEALY LIKE THIS, HE WAS FUCKING DRUNK DRIVING, TOO. HE COULD HAVE KILLED SOMEONE ELSE, SOMEONE WITH A FAMILY, WITH KIDS,” this again from the unidentified number, but Darin figured out who it was. That text had to be from Valerie, it had to be. The tone, the phrasing, it sounded just like her.