After Me

by Joyce Scarbrough

  “Get in,” Lew said through the passenger window when he pulled up to the bus stop. “I’ll drive you home. It’s not safe for you out here.”

  He was wrong, of course. But I wouldn’t have disagreed with him for all the heavenly brownie points in the world.

  Chapter Thirteen

  Using incredible restraint, I managed to walk over casually and get into Lew’s car instead of running to it and jumping in like a moron.

  “What’re you still doing over this way?” I asked.

  “I drove Javi to work so he wouldn’t be late. Why are you out here by yourself? This isn’t the Grove, you know.”

  I shrugged. “Pretty tame compared to my old neighborhood. Besides, I didn’t think anybody would proposition a girl with an armful of books.”

  “I see you took my recommendations.” He picked up the copy of The Great Gatsby from the stack on my lap. “Think you can read all these in two weeks?”

  “Speed reader, remember? Street skills.”

  “Oh, yeah.” He smiled and put the car in gear. “Tell me how to get to your house.”

  I gave him the address and he pulled out into traffic. “You and Javier are pretty tight, huh? Did he go to Bay Harbor before he dropped out?”

  “No, he went to school in Little Havana.”

  “So how do you know him?”

  “His mother’s been our housekeeper since before I was born. Javi’s just a few months older than me, and Yelina used to bring him to work with her before we started school. We pretty much grew up together. He’s like a brother to me.”

  I took a break from hoping we’d hit all the lights red and debated with myself about whether or not to mention the big differences between the two of them. Lew saved me the trouble of deciding.

  “I know he looks like a gangbanger, but he’s done with all that. He went through a rough time right after—” He broke off and glanced sideways at me. “He got mixed up with the wrong people for a while and messed up pretty bad, but he’s back on track now. I’m helping him get his GED so he can go to college.”

  Uh-huh. More secrets added to my investigation list.

  “That’s great,” I said. “Everybody deserves a second chance. Sometimes a third or fourth.”

  He nodded. “He wants to surprise his mom by getting his GED. That’s why we study at the library instead of my house.”

  “I knew you weren’t really creeping on me,” I said. “But why’d you pick a library in this neighborhood?”

  “It’s close to Javi’s job. He works at a Cuban sandwich shop two streets over—the Medianoche Mezzanine. Food to die for, by the way.”

  Cardboard Cuban cuisine. Yum-yum.

  “Oh, yeah?” I said. “I’ve never had one of those whatayoucallem sandwiches before.” I’d also never had to drop hints to guys before.

  “Medianoche,” he said. “It means midnight sandwich.”

  “Are you supposed to sneak out at night to eat them?”

  He laughed. “No, they’re a lighter fare than regular Cuban sandwiches. Easier to eat after a night of partying.”

  “Sounds great,” I said. “Maybe you can take me to get one the next time I run into you at the library.” Forget hinting. Subtlety was overrated anyway. And we were almost to Karen and Brad’s house, so I was running out of time. Luckily, he didn’t seem to mind my brazen hussy-ness.

  “Javi takes his test this Saturday. You think you’ll be going back before then?”

  Nuclear war couldn’t have kept me away, but I played it cool.

  “Sure, I’ll have a couple of these read by Friday that I can swap for more.” He pulled into our driveway, and I managed not to whoop when he turned off the engine.

  “Okay, it’s a date then.” He turned to look at me. “You think Annalee can go too?”

  Really? Really? Talk about getting your bubble busted. My first impulse was to tell him Annalee was a vegetarian or an Orthodox Jew or she was allergic to Cuban food. I even opened my mouth to say one of them, but that’s not what came out.

  “Yeah, she’d probably love the chance to get away and have some fun for a change.”

  Wait, what? Damn friendship.

  “You must’ve met her mom,” he said.

  I nodded. “How do you know about her?”

  He looked at his hands on the steering wheel. “I don’t really know anything but what I saw when I took Annalee home after a chess match once. Her mom was on her way out with some guy who looked like he’d just escaped from the drunk tank. Both of them were so wasted they could barely walk.”

  “Yeah, her mom’s pretty messed up,” I said. “I don’t know if it’s because we’ve got crappy families in common or what, but Annalee talks to me. I’m working on getting her over that shyness stuff too.”

  He turned sideways in the seat. “I’m glad she’s got you for a friend. You definitely don’t have a problem standing up to anybody, and she needs somebody on her side.”

  “You mean like you’re on Javier’s side?”

  He smiled again. “Guess we’ve got more in common than just Matt. Wonder what else there might be.”

  “Yeah, I’m wondering the same thing.” I was glad it was too dark for him to see me blush like a sixth grader.

  “Sorry for misjudging you at first,” he said. “I guess I’m too wary about people from getting burned in the past. You know, because of my family.”

  “You make it sound like you’re in the mafia.” I arched an eyebrow at him. “Funny, you don’t look Italian.”

  He laughed. “Sometimes it feels like a mafia family, but I meant because of our money.”

  “Yeah, about that,” I said. “I didn’t know anything about your family until Matt said that stuff in the hall today, but it wouldn’t have made any difference to me if I had. Money doesn’t impress me.” I realized that probably sounded strange coming from a street kid, so I added, “Never had any and don’t expect to get any, so why waste my time thinking about it?”

  “Smart girl,” he said. “I don’t care about it either.”

  I ran my hand over the car’s dash. “Whatever you say, Mr. Corvette.”

  He laughed again. “Okay, other than the car I don’t care about it. At least I didn’t get a Ferrari like my granddad wanted me to.”

  Flashing back to the last time I was in a Ferrari, I couldn’t suppress a shudder.

  “Yeah, I really hate those. Glad you stuck with something domestic.”

  He picked up the copy of The Great Gatsby on my lap. “My family’s the reason I love this book so much. Fitzgerald does a great job of exposing the shallowness and pretense of the wealthy.”

  Sounded like a trip down memory lane. I’d definitely be reading that one first.

  “Okay, I’ll give it a shot,” I said. “So is money the reason Matt’s got such a problem with you?”

  All trace of humor left his face. “No, it doesn’t have anything to do with why he hates me. But that’s a long story, and you probably need to get inside.”

  I really wanted to know what the deal was with Matt, but he was right. “Yeah, guess I’d better go in before Karen and Brad think I ran away.”

  “Hold on and I’ll carry your books for you.” He got out and came around to open my door and take the stack of books from my lap. We walked to the front door together, and Brad opened it as soon as we reached the porch.

  “Thank God you’re all right, Gwen.” His face was a mixture of worry, anger and relief. “Karen said you told her you’d call when you got to your friend’s house.” His gaze shifted to Lew. “And we thought you went to the library with a girlfriend.”

  “Sorry I didn’t call,” I said. “Annalee’s phone wasn’t working. Lew saw me at the bus stop and gave me a ride home.”

  Nathan and Karen appeared behind him in the foyer. “For goodness sake, Brad,” Karen said. “Let the boy come in and put those books down before he gets a hernia.”

  “Oh, sorry.” Brad opened the door wider and motioned toward th
e foyer table. “You can put them over there.”

  “You’re Lew Stanton, huh?” Nathan’s face glowed with hero worship. “I saw you beat that guy from Riverside last month with St. Andrew’s Cross. You really suckered him.”

  Lew put the books on the table and turned to smile at Nathan. “Thanks. Gwen told me you play chess too. Maybe we can have a match sometime and I’ll show you an easy way to bait somebody.”

  “Oh, man, that would be awesome.”

  I put my arm around Nathan. “Okay, kid. I did my part and brought him here. You owe me a hundred bucks.”

  “Huh?” Nathan looked confused.

  “Inside joke.” Lew laughed and nudged me with his elbow. “Introduce me to your family, Gwen.”

  “Oh, sorry,” I said. “This is Karen and Brad Sherman, my foster parents, and your number one fan here is Nathan. Lew is my chemistry partner.” Let’s see how he liked that description.

  Brad held out his hand. “Your last name is Stanton? Any relation to the Stantons who own half of Florida?” He laughed as if there was no likelihood of that, and I cracked up.

  “Unfortunately, yes.” Lew said, laughing a little himself. “But please don’t hold that against me.”

  Brad looked as if he hoped one of Florida’s famous sinkholes would suddenly appear under his feet. “I, uh… didn’t mean any offense by that.” He shrugged helplessly under Karen’s glare. “Sorry.”

  “No problem,” Lew said. “It was nice meeting all of you, but I’d better get home.” He started toward the door then turned to look at me. “I can bring you and Annalee home Friday night too.”

  “Sounds great,” I said, then I remembered that I needed to ask permission. “Lew offered to take us to eat after we go to the library on Friday. Is that okay?”

  “Oh, yes. Certainly.” Karen gave him a big smile. “Thank you so much for bringing Gwen home. Come back anytime.”

  As soon as the front door closed behind him, everyone began talking at once.

  “Brad, how could you have said such a thing about his family?” Karen demanded.

  “I didn’t know who he was!” He gave me a scornful look. “Gwen, why didn’t you tell us he was a Stanton at dinner the other night?”

  Nathan was pulling on my arm. “You think he’ll come in with you when he brings you home on Friday? Can I ask him to play chess with me then?”

  Karen crossed her arms and gave me a smile. “You were right about how cute he is. I don’t know why I didn’t notice it before when I took the boys to the chess tournament.”

  Brad put an arm across my shoulders and pulled me toward the living room. “Never mind that. Do you have any idea how rich his family is? I read in the paper the other day about a billion-dollar deal their company just made with a Brazilian firm.”

  I stopped and pulled away from him. “I didn’t know anything about his family until today, and I don’t give a crap about their money. Please don’t bring it up when he’s here. I don’t want him to think that’s why I like him.”

  “Don’t worry, Gwen.” Karen glared at Brad again. “He won’t say anything about money or business deals when Lew’s here. In fact, he’ll be lucky if I let him talk at all.”

  Brad sighed. “Maybe I should submit a list of topics for approval.”

  “Not a bad idea,” Karen said, linking her arm with his. “Get it to me by tomorrow night.”

  I laughed and turned to Nathan. “I’m sure he won’t mind playing chess with you if he’s got time to come in when he brings me home Friday night.” Anything to keep him here longer was okay with me. “Oh, I need to ask you something else, Karen.”

  “Sure, what?”

  “Can my friend Annalee come home with me tomorrow and sleep over?”

  “On a school night? Couldn’t you wait until Friday?”

  For all my friendship loyalty to Annalee, I had no intention of sharing Lew with her after our “date” Friday night if I could help it. Lucky for me my super lying powers had returned.

  “We’ve got a project due on Friday that we need to work on tomorrow night.”

  “Oh, then I guess it’s okay,” Karen said. “Now let’s go eat before my chicken marsala is beyond rescue.”

  I couldn’t enjoy the food, but I still ate with a dopey smile on my face the whole time while I thought about Friday night. When I got to my room, I logged in to the Transdead Trustee blog and got my journal caught up about everything that had happened over the past few days. I finished with a couple of reflective paragraphs.

  I guess all this friends and family stuff doesn’t suck as much as I thought it would. (Stop gloating, Flo!) In fact, I probably wouldn’t have minded it when I was alive if I hadn’t been cursed with Vanessa Vanity and David-the-Drunk as parents. But if you expect me to end up thinking they weren’t so bad after seeing Annalee’s mom, you can forget it. The only difference between them and her is they had money.

  And speaking of money, I don’t know if that’s why you made me fall for Lew or not, but I think it’s gonna backfire on you. We might feel the same way about money, but I can’t exactly talk to him about it, now can I?

  Of course, I didn’t plan to let that stop me from getting to know him better. I was pretty sure I could find some other things we could talk about, but there was no sense giving Flo and her buddies more reason to gloat. I could just picture them hovering around one of the monitors in Afterlife Admissions, reading the blog like it was an episode of The Dead and the Restless. No way was I giving them anything juicy.

  I logged off the blog and checked the FaceSpace account for Cherry Licious. Just as I figured, all the friend requests I’d sent had been accepted, and I had a few private messages inviting me to exchange photos or meet in a private chat room. One guy sent me his cell phone number and invited me to “sext” him anytime. Gross.

  None of them sounded like BOSSMAN though. He’d been quick to tell me what an important man he was and how much money he had and how willing he was to send expensive gifts—especially jewelry—in exchange for naked pictures and web cam sessions.

  I accepted all the new friend requests, then I logged off the account and logged in to the one I’d made for Gwen. Sidney, Justin and Leonard had all posted welcome messages on my wall along with links to songs and funny videos, but nothing from Lew yet. Maybe he hadn’t had a chance to get on FaceSpace since he’d been home.

  I killed time by searching the Internet for an avatar to use as my profile picture, and I cracked myself up by choosing an animated girl zombie with blonde hair and huge black eyes. Nothing like a good inside joke with yourself. Still laughing, I got out my copy of To Kill a Mockingbird and finished it in twenty minutes.

  Still no sign of Lew on FaceSpace, so I lay on my bed staring at the ceiling while I thought about him. Karen was right—he was cute despite being a nerd, and he was also funny and a lot more confident than I would’ve expected him to be. Probably because he’d grown up with money and was used to people sucking up to him, even though he obviously didn’t want anybody treating him that way.

  I still wanted to find out why he and Matt had such bad blood between them, and he’d also clearly been leaving something out when he was talking about what had made Javier go rogue for a while. I wanted to find out more, but I had to be careful not to push him to talk or make him think I was prying. God, it had been so much easier when I was Jada and hadn’t cared about anybody enough to want to know anything about them.

  Easier, but not better. I knew that now.

  With a sigh, I rolled over to check my computer screen again and almost fell off the bed when I saw the red number one telling me I had a response to a friend request. I clicked on it as fast as I could and actually squealed when I saw it was from Lew. A few seconds later, he posted a note on my wall.

  Interesting profile picture. Doesn’t really do you justice though. See you tomorrow.

  I sat there gazing at it with a stupid grin on my face as though it were a freaking love sonnet instead of basi
cally saying that he thought I was better looking than a zombie.

  Chapter Fourteen

  I spent the rest of the night trying to figure out how much of the truth to tell Annalee, reading the books I got from the library, and thinking about Lew. Okay, mostly thinking about Lew. Good thing I didn’t need to sleep anymore or I would’ve been totally zonked the next morning.

  When I passed Dougie on the school bus, he gave me a dirty look and called me a slut.

  “And yet I turned you down,” I said, stopping to smile at him. “How pathetic does that make you?”

  The guy sitting next to him snickered, and Dougie’s face went an ugly shade of red. Annalee laughed when I told her what I’d said to him, then she gave me a curious look.

  “Hey, how did he really get the knot on his head? Did you do something to him like you did to Rufus?”

  I hiked one shoulder up and down. “I pushed him and he ended up against a tree. That’s how I found out I’m a lot stronger than I used to be.” I could tell she was about to ask more so I stopped her. “Listen, we don’t need to talk about any of that stuff where somebody might overhear us. I’ll tell you after school today like I promised.”

  “Okay,” she said. “I guess I can wait until then.”

  “Karen said it was okay for you to sleep over tonight. You think you can?”

  “Sure. My mom’s working a double to make up for missing yesterday. I’ll call her when we get to your house.”

  “Was she pissed when she found out Rufus was gone?”

  “She cried over the jerk for about an hour.” Annalee sighed and looked out the window. “But I think she was glad he was gone after she sobered up. She’s really a good mom when she’s not drinking.”

  I wasn’t sure good was the best word choice, but I kept it to myself. Who was I to judge anybody?

  “Hey, I do have some good news we can talk about now,” I said. “Guess who we’re going out to eat with Friday night?”

  She frowned at me. “What are you talking about?”