by Sergio Gomez
Tommy put the cigarette back in his mouth, and laughed through clenched teeth. “I don’t know, am I?”
“Ugh,” Gina said, but she couldn’t help the smile that curled her lips.
There was something charming about him in that moment. Even though his gelled-back hair, his leather jacket, and the oversized sunglasses on his face were stupid, she couldn’t help but keep her eyes on him.
“Whatever, Tommy.” She said, then they both went silent.
Behind them, they heard the laughter of Twist and the city-boy as Twist made fun of Victor. The city-boy was trying not to laugh so hard, but the humor was too much to contain.
“Wanna see some graffiti someone did near here?” Tommy asked, raising his sunglasses off his eyes so Gina could see he was serious.
“Where at?”
“Not far. Just a right up ahead.” He said, jutting his chin at where the trail forked up ahead.
“Sure,” Gina said, then started turning around to call to the others over her shoulder.
Tommy stopped her. “No, just us two, Homeschool. None of the juniors.”
Gina stopped, almost forgetting to pedal. “Um, I don’t want to ditch them.”
“We won’t be there long,” Tommy promised her.
“Okay, then.”
“Rad.” Tommy put his sunglasses back on. “Follow me.”
He hit the gas on his motorbike to get ahead of her.
They watched, shocked, as Tommy led Gina to the right fork on the path.
Twist and Victor looked at one another with disbelief in their eyes. It was too late for them to make the turn, they’d been chatting by the time they realized those two were heading a different way.
“What the heck?” Victor said, though he more mouthed it because his voice was caught in his throat from the surprise.
Twist shook his head. “Guess he promised her something good.”
“So much for hating him, huh?” Jack said, riding up close to Twist.
Twist looked over at him, and shrugged. “Girls.”
The three boys laughed together, then continued down the path.
But Victor couldn’t leave it alone. “Wonder where they’re going.”
“Probably to smooch.” Twist said, giggling. The more he thought of it, though, the less funny it was. “Gross.”
“You guys want to stop and wait for them?” Victor asked them.
Twist scanned up ahead. There was a bench off to the side. The last thing he wanted to do was sit and twiddle his thumbs while Gina and Tommy went off to do whatever they were going to do, but it wasn’t like they had much of a choice, anyway. “Yeah, I guess. Over there. They’ll be able to see us even if they come the other way.”
“Good idea,” Victor said, steering his bike that way.
“Hopefully they don’t take too long,” Jack said.
“What, you gotta get home or something?” Twist asked.
“Well, I’m supposed to be spending the week hanging with my dad.”
“I’m sure he’ll understand that you’re hanging out with your new buds,” Twist said.
“Yeah, you’re probably right.”
But there was another reason Jack hoped they wouldn’t take long. He couldn’t describe it at the moment, he just knew he didn’t want Tommy and Gina to be alone for too long.
They got to the grass island where the bench was and started climbing off their bikes.
“Besides, I don’t think it’ll be long until Gina tells him to screw off.”
Victor laughed, his head bobbing as he settled onto the bench. “She’s probably already riding back this way.”
Oliver hit the kickstand on his bike and sat down next to Victor. “Probably.”
Jack sat on the other end of the bench, so that Twist was in the middle.
“Anyway,” Twist said, “how do you like Lake Myers, Jack?”
“It’s great.” Jack said, looking around, taking in the sight of it all.
“Make you want to stay here?”
Jack shook his head and chuckled. “Not so sure about that.”
“Why not?” Vic asked, leaning over to get a look at his expression.
“All of my friends are in Philly. My school. My mom.”
“Ah,” Vic leaned back. It was a satisfying enough answer for him.
“And Rocky Balboa,” Twist added.
“Oh, shut up already.” Victor said.
Jack and Twist laughed so hard that they scared some birds out of a nearby tree.
“This is the spot,” Tommy said, hitting the brakes as they went into the underpass.
It was a small tunnel, short enough that the daylight spilled in from both sides so that the wall could be seen at this hour of the day. In the center of it, however, it was dark enough for privacy—maybe even a romantic setting with the right words to create the mood.
The graffiti Tommy wanted to show her was of a pirate skull that took up most of the left wall. There were two cutlass swords crossing underneath it, making it look like an emblem on the Jolly Roger. Underneath the sword were the words: THE ONLY TREASURE IN LIFE IS DEATH.
Underneath that was another message, done by another graffiti artist with less skill, that said: FUCK U. There was even an arrow going from the second message to the first in case anyone was confused about who was being told off.
Gina stopped her bike next to Tommy, and laughed when she saw the second message. She pointed at it. “Was that you, Marino?”
“No way, Homeschool. I wanted to show you this because of how phat the skull looks.”
This was as serious as she’d ever seen Tommy. It kind of made her uncomfortable in an odd, but good way. She turned to get a closer look at the skull.
It was cool, that was for sure. There was an eyepatch over its left eye socket, a gold tooth in its big grinning mouth, and there was even a smaller skull on the hat it was wearing.
Tommy, seeing that Gina’s eyes had been drawn to that said, “That’s my favorite part.”
Gina looked over at him. He had his sunglasses off, hanging off his shirt-collar, and the darkness of the underpass made his eyes even darker. Seeing him like this made the hairs on the back of her neck stand up.
It was almost as if he’d aged by two or three years the moment they went into the tunnel. The eyes staring into hers weren’t the idiot’s she was used to looking at, they were deep—deep like a bottomless hole that you’d fall in and never get out of.
“I don’t think I agree with the message, though,” Tommy said, still staring at her. “That death is the only treasure in life.”
“Oh no? What do you think life’s treasure is?”
“I think life itself is the treasure,” Tommy said, finally letting his eyes turn away and looking up at the graffiti. “Riding around with some cool dudes on an Autumn afternoon, no school for a week...”
“Yeah, that’s a good way of looking at things. Maybe the person who wrote this message wasn’t feeling so happy when they wrote it.”
Tommy nodded. “He would’ve felt good if he was in this underpass with a pretty girl, like you.”
She wanted to say, watch it Marino, but the words wouldn’t come out. Instead she just watched him turn to look at her.
“Wanna know the best part of what today is?”
“Yeah, what?”
Tommy kicked his leg out and leaned his motorbike closer to her. His face was so close to Gina’s she could smell the Marlboro on his breath when he said, “Hanging out with you, Homeschool.”
Then he leaned in and kissed her.
In the second before their lips met, Gina thought about pulling back and slapping him as hard as she could, but then she felt the softness of his lips against hers. She liked it. She liked it a lot.
She kissed him back.
Time seemed to have stopped for them for the duration of the kiss. When they separated after a few seconds, Gina looked away and to the ground and wiped at her mouth with the back of her hand.
; “That was nice,” Tommy said.
“It—it was something,” she said. Now that they’d done it, she started to remember that she was supposed to hate Tommy. “I didn’t like it, Marino. Don’t get any funny ideas.”
Tommy laughed, then sat upright on his motorbike. He started driving out of the underpass back the way they’d come. Without looking back, and with a wave of his hand, he said, “No one has to know, Homeschool. It’ll be our dirty little secret.”
“You better not tell them,” she said under her breath. Even if she had said it in a normal voice, he was too far, and the tunnel would have swallowed it up and made it small, anyway.
Chapter 18
All three of the boys turned their heads in the direction of Tommy’s motorbike speeding toward them. Gina trailed behind, nothing but a shadowy blur from this distance. Tommy was driving way too fast for her to keep up with.
Twist looked over at Jack. “How much you want to bet Tommy tried something funny and she punched him in the gut?”
Jack laughed, but when Tommy pulled up in the island in front of him and took his shades off, he did seem unhappy about something.
“Yo,” he said. “You guys ready to get on out of here?”
They were all pretty bored of riding their bikes around the trails and hanging out at Myers Park in general. Besides that, they were getting hungry, so they nodded their agreement.
“Me too,” Tommy said.
“What happened?” Victor asked, unable to ignore Tommy’s changed demeanor.
“Vic,” Tommy said, getting off his motorbike and stepping closer to him. He put his hand on his shoulder and grinned at him. “You don’t have to know everything.”
“She kicked you in the nuts, didn’t she?” Twist said.
Jack let out a short laugh that he knew Tommy didn’t like, but the image was funny.
Behind him, Tommy could hear the plastic Joker card on Gina’s bike hitting the spokes. She was too close to tell them, and he didn’t want to tell them anyway. “Yeah, Twist. Right in the gonads, I didn’t get up for fifteen minutes. Might never have children of my own.”
The boys started laughing. Victor dropped down to the grass, clutching his stomach and rolling back and forth, kicking up clumps of dirt and grass. Twist leaned against Jack, and laughter echoed through the trees.
Gina stopped her bike next to Tommy’s motorbike. The laughter caused her face to flush red in a fusion of anger and panic at what Tommy had told them.
As cool as she could manage, she said, “What’re you guys laughing at?”
Tommy turned to her and said, “They’re laughing it up about how you kicked me in the nuts for trying to get fresh.”
Him saying it again caused their laughter to start all over again.
Tommy winked at Gina while they were distracted.
She mouthed the words “thank you” to him, and then laughed along. “Should’ve seen how he went cross-eyed.”
“No freakin’ way,” Twist managed to puff out between breaths.
“Okay, okay. That’s enough, let’s get on out of here,” Tommy said, going back to his motorbike.
The other three boys composed themselves, but were still laughing as they retrieved their bikes from the racks and climbed onto them.
“Can’t believe we missed that,” Victor said.
Twist shook his head, incredulous as well.
Tommy took off before them, taking the lead as usual.
Gina and Victor went behind him, and Twist and Jack took the rear. It seemed the formation had been silently agreed upon, and it felt right to all five of them.
They rode through the trail in silence. Their tires crunching the dry leaves that carpeted the pavement. The birds twittered in the afternoon, happy to be alive. The sound of woodpeckers hard at work echoed all around them. The last bugs of the season buzzed through the air, flying by their heads as they rode through the park.
Each of the kids had different thoughts in their minds as they biked in silence.
Tommy wondered why he was so disappointed with the kiss.
Gina wondered why she had let him kiss her, and what it meant.
Vic wondered who would win in a fight, a werewolf or a zombie.
Twist was amazed that Tommy could still be so cool after getting hit to the ground by a girl.
And Jack wondered what actually happened in that tunnel, and why things felt different now. Not just in the dynamics of the group, but the world in general. The wind was colder. The leaves crunched harder under their wheels. Something was coming. Or maybe, he thought, it was already here.
Chapter 19
“Dad, can I talk to you for a minute?” Jack stopped at the doorway of the room where his dad was working out.
Scott set the weights down, breathing out on the curl, and grabbed a face towel off the back of a chair as he stepped closer to Jack. Wiping sweat off his head he said, “Yeah, bud, of course. What’s up?”
Jack shifted his weight to his other foot and leaned against the doorframe. “You ever hear anything about this house? Like, that it’s haunted or something?”
“One of the neighborhood kids tell you that?” Scott asked, amused.
“Yeah. Pretty stupid, huh?”
“No,” Scott said. “The realtor did tell us when we first came to look at the house about a spirit that lives in the house.”
Jack felt the hairs on his arms stand up.
“Yeah, Jack, he’s always hungry. And right now, he wants a big peanut butter protein shake post-workout.”
Jack felt relived it was just a joke. “Real funny, Dad.”
Scott laughed. “So what did they tell you? That our house is haunted?”
“Something like that. He said everyone in town over the age of thirteen knows the story.”
“I haven’t heard it, and I’m older than thirteen.”
Jack laughed. “He said he was just making it up, but still.”
“It’s just a kid having fun,” Scott said, then put his arm around Jack.
He smelled like sweat, but Jack didn’t care.
“I’m serious about the peanut butter shake, though.” Scott said. “Come on, let’s go down into the kitchen and have a snack together, and you can tell me all about your new friends.”
The City Boy had gone back home as soon they returned from the park to the neighborhood. Victor’s mom had come to pick him up fifteen minutes ago.
That left just three of them on Gina’s porch swing. The swing had belonged to a set that was nice once, but it’d long since begun to rust. There were rips and pieces of stuffing coming out of the flannel cushions, but Gina’s mom refused to throw it away because it was too much trouble.
Anya was pressed against the screen door and eavesdropping on the older kids, her pointy nose stretching the mesh out to its limits.
“Fun times in Dutch County, huh?” Twist said to them.
The afternoon was giving way to that lazy time of the day before dinner time, so this was the first time any of them had spoken since Victor left.
“Yup,” Tommy said. “We showed your city friend how we do it up here in the sticks.”
“Thanks for the cigs, man.” Twist said, reaching over Gina with his fist out.
Tommy bumped it. “No problem, Twist, my man.”
The tow truck with BIG BOB’S TOWING: WE GIVE YOU THE LIFT YOU NEED drove past them, signaling to Twist that it was time for him to get home.
He got out of the chair, reluctantly, and wiped the dust from the porch seat off the back of his pants. “Well, guys, it’s been real.”
“Tell your old man Tommy Marino says, ‘what’s up’,” Tommy said.
Twist wasn’t sure his dad even knew who the hell Tommy was, and he wouldn’t be forwarding the message, but he nodded. “Yeah, no problem.”
“And we gotta hang out sometime before lame school starts backup. Maybe ride through Myers Park again or go down to the arcades.”
“Yeah,” Twist said. “Gina has t
o take Anya down to the arcades this weekend, anyway.”
Victor had blathered to them about that while they’d been riding to Lake Myers, which was why Twist knew this. Gina’s mouth dropped open and she looked at Twist with blaze in her eyes.
“Yeah, that’s right.” Anya squealed from inside the house.
“Go home,” Gina told him, “before I ‘twist’ your damn arm off, Oliver.”
Twist cackled at her lame pun, and her anger, and then jumped the steps down to the ground. “Gotta catch me first. See ya later, guys.”
“Peace out, Twist,” Tommy said.
“Bye, you big old jerk.” Gina called.
“Buh-bye, Oliver.” Anya said, waving from the screen door.
Oliver waved to all three of them and then headed down the street, in the distance he saw his dad’s truck pulling into the driveway.
Once Twist was halfway to his house, Gina turned to Anya and commanded her to go inside.
“Why should I?” the little girl asked.
“Because I said so. Now go.”
Not wanting to risk the promise of being taken to the arcades getting taken back, Anya gave in easier than normal and ran inside the house.
There was awkwardness in the stretch of silence between Gina and Tommy now, as they rocked in the swing.
The windchime hanging off the porch tinkled, and the screws in the furniture squeaked as it moved, but the sounds weren’t enough to cut the tension.
“Well, Homeschool,” Tommy finally said, “seems there’s something on your mind, eh?”
“Yeah.”
“You wondering if this makes us a couple?” Tommy said it more than he asked it.
“You’re the one who kissed me,” she mumbled. “You tell me.”
“How about we both think about it for now?” he said, reaching into his jacket and pulling out the carton of cigarettes and the lighter. “Want a smoke?”
Gina shook her head. “I really don’t do that anymore.”
“Right,” Tommy said, working out a cigarette.
She watched him light it up while holding it in between his lips. He seemed so grown in comparison to the other boys she knew. Like he knew things that guys like Twist and City Boy never could. Although, Jack was from a city, so he probably knew stuff, too, but not like Tommy. Maybe that was what had bothered her about him before this kiss, that she knew she could’ve liked him so much that she wanted to stop herself from it.