Page 37 of Turn

“Anything exciting going on at Scratch? I still can’t believe Aspen isn’t there anymore.”

I swirled a piece of peach pancake in a gob of maple syrup. “Business seems like it’s going well. Dad and Uncle Deck are talking about expanding yet again. They’re finally going to start that merchandise line they’ve been talking about forever. For now they’re converting an old storage closet into a workspace but that’s only temporary. The idea is to get more square footage by knocking down a wall if they can secure a lease on the music store next door that just closed.” I paused and set the fork down. “Oh, there’s a new guy. He started right before I did.”

“New guy? Is he the one from Emblem?”

I was surprised. “You heard about Curtis?”

“Is that his name? Mom just mentioned that there was a new guy from the old hometown. I think Uncle Deck knows the family.”

“I think so too,” I said.

I considered telling Cami about Curtis’s criminal history but I didn’t know the details and so it felt like gossip. Of course if you couldn’t gossip with your twin sister, who could you gossip with? Yet I still hesitated to talk about Curtis anymore. Cami knew me better than anyone and I didn’t want her to catch on that I had some confusing feelings about Curtis Mulligan. It was ridiculous. I hardly knew him. He was a possibly dangerous ex gang member who seemed to enjoy making me uncomfortable. I’d avoided him the last few days, ever since I saw him watching me through the glass doors of Coffee Hole as I laughed with Parker Neely.

Which reminded me of another topic of conversation, one I’d been avoiding.

“So guess who I ran into in statistics class?”

“Who?”

I paused for effect. “Parker Neely.”

Cami slammed her palm down on the table. “Shut up!” She made so much noise a few other patrons stopped eating and stared at our table. Cami didn’t care. “Parker Freaking Neely? I don’t believe it. I’ll kill him. Where is he?”

“Shh,” I laughed. “Calm down. He’s not standing behind you or anything.”

“What did you do? Did you throw a scalding hot drink in his face? Did you kick him in the balls?”

“Neither. I ignored him.”

“Oh.” Cami frowned. “I give you credit for being more mature than I am.”

“It didn’t exactly end there. After class was over he chased me outside and I ran into a bike rack.”

“Oh my god. And then did you kick him in the balls?”

“No.”

“So what the hell did Parker Neely want?”

“He wanted to apologize. He’s apparently grown a conscience.”

“Bullshit.”

I shrugged. “That’s his story. But I wasn’t in the mood to listen to him at the time so he showed up at Scratch to try and finish his apology.”

Cami’s mouth fell open. “Parker Neely had the gall to show his face at Scratch? Is he still alive or did Dad kill him?”

“Dad didn’t see. Parker didn’t hang around there for long. Curtis scared him off.”

“Curtis the new guy?”

“Yep.”

“Please tell me Curtis at least kicked him in the balls.”

I was exasperated. “Camille, nobody kicked anyone in the balls. Can I finish the story?”

“Sure.”

---