Page 67 of Turn

I smiled too. “Yeah.” I held out my hand. “Give me your phone and I’ll enter my number.”

A minute later Parker left and Debra returned.

“Was that Parker you were talking to? Why did he come back?”

“To complain that we ordered the last brownie sundae.”

Debra cracked up. “Yeah, right. To hell with him. What movie should we see?”

When I arrived home several hours later the only light I saw was in the kitchen. I figured I’d find my mother in there poring over her latest manuscript but instead I discovered Curtis seated at the kitchen table and frowning over a textbook. He looked up when I entered and uncertainty crossed his face, like he didn’t know whether I’d make a scene if he talked to me.

“Hi,” I said, figuring that I could stand to be civil if he could.

“Hey.” He closed the book and pushed it away a few inches. “You have a nice night?”

“I was just out with a friend,” I said, wondering why the hell I felt like I owed him any kind of explanation over my whereabouts. Part of me wished I’d told him I was out with a guy on some wild date. But lying didn’t come easily to me and anyway he probably wouldn’t have cared.

I noticed the book on the table. Introduction to Algebra. “Bedtime story?”

Curtis shook his head and crossed his arms over his chest. His broad, well defined chest that was barely contained by the faded cotton t-shirt. “Nah, it’s Brecken’s. I was just trying to see if I could figure any of this out to help the kid.”

“I thought my cousins were tutoring him?”

“They are.” Curtis’s expression grew troubled. “I just wish I could be a little more use to him, you know? Fuck, I really should have finished high school.”

I sat down across from him and looked him in the eye. I was still pissed off at Curtis Mulligan but I’d be a real jerk if I didn’t say something important to him right now.

“Curtis, I’ve seen you with your brother. You’re everything to that kid. And in spite of the fact that there have been times when I wanted to strangle you, I admire you in a way. No matter how hard things have gotten in your life you haven’t given up. You could have. But I know you won’t. You’ll keep going and doing the best you can for your brothers. How many twenty-two year old guys would accept that kind of responsibility? Brecken and Tristan are lucky to have you.”

He was silent. He just stared at me. His eyes looked more green than usual, maybe because of the color of his t-shirt. He held my gaze for a few powerful seconds and then broke it, looking away out the dark kitchen window.

“Thank you for saying that,” he said and there was a rough undercurrent to his voice. I was reminded of the morning at Scratch when I didn’t yet know how complicated Curtis’s life was. I only knew that he looked like a man who was tormented by something and was losing control. I’d almost reached out and touched him that day. I wanted to touch him now. It would have spoiled the moment though. It would have led somewhere else.

“You should get some sleep,” I told him, rising from the table. “Algebra will wait.”

He nodded, still staring out the window with an expression I couldn’t see.

“Algebra will wait,” he agreed.

Curtis didn’t say anything else nor did he do anything to suggest that he wanted me to stay.

Yet as I left him there and sought the sanctuary of my bedroom I felt like we’d both just missed an opportunity.

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