Page 52 of Pippin & Nacho

Then Ajax stood less angrily than Blaze and walked away with his board. His shoulders drooped, and he looked depressed or something. He also left the building and headed toward the back alley.

“Nice, Jazz. Ajax looks like he’s gonna cry now,” Blondie scolded his sister.

“What? Cueball started it. Besides, Ajax never cries.”

Cueball now looked completely disinterested as he smoked a cigarette and scrolled through his phone.

“Fuck, I hate talking about this shit.” Stone stood, pulling out his own smokes. “I’ll deal with Blaze and see what the fuck is going on.” Then he pointed at Cueball. “You’re coming with me since you started this.”

Cueball shrugged and stood. “Whatever.”

Nate and Alpha were so much better at these things than me, but they were busy skating, and the twins didn’t move a muscle to talk to Ajax, so I guess it was up to me.

“I’ll go,” I said and stood to chase after Ajax.

When I reached outside, my face got hit by the spray of rain, bouncing off the rooftop, where it cascaded down onto the split concrete, forming little miniature rivers and lakes through a jungle of weeds. It was fucking cold, too.

Days like this had me flashing back to when Nate and I lived on the streets. We’d huddle together in sleeping bags under a bridge filled with garbage and other homeless people. No matter how close we got or covered ourselves, we could never find enough warmth. Yet I didn’t completely hate it because Nate held me so close, and I always felt safe with him.

My body shuddered from the chill, grateful those days were over and thankful to Alpha, who helped get us off the streets. But most of all, I was grateful to Nate, who’d never abandoned me.

“What do you want?” Ajax said, pacing back and forth, aggressively smoking a cigarette with his other arm wrapped tightly around himself. His voice sounded despondent and so unlike him. Ajax was vibrant, a mixture of rage and joy. It was odd, but weren’t we all?

“I just wanted to check on you and see if you want to talk.”

“Yeah, well, I don’t.”

“Okay.”

I leaned against the brick façade of the building, which had cracked windows and was covered in graffiti, pulling out a smoke from the pack Nate and I shared. We couldn’t afford cigarettes too often, so we didn’t smoke a lot. Usually, it was when we were skating or drinking because our crew did.

“Just go,” Ajax huffed, but he had no bite to his words. Something was definitely wrong.

“Nah, I’m good.”

I almost always avoided confrontation, but I trusted Ajax not to lash out at me. He could be as protective as Nate, and he’d never been cruel to me despite his sometimes scary demeanor.

He kept pacing back and forth, smoking, running his hands through his thick dark brown hair, tightly wound, but not happy or angry. Ajax clearly needed to talk to someone. I didn’t speak to anyone either, but I also had Nate. Ajax didn’t have anyone special in his life that I knew about.

“Blaze kissed me,” he blurted.

My eyes popped out of my head from his admission. So, Cueball had been right. He was observant, more than the rest of us. It was hard to tell anything about Cueball at all, since he rarely said much and showed nothing on his face. He sat there and just observed.

“He kissed you? I have to admit, I didn’t see that coming. You two are always at each other’s throats.”

He sighed and took another drag. “I know. It was… weird.”

“What did you do?”

“I fucking kissed him back. What do you think I did?”

“How do you feel about that?”

Ajax dropped his head, sighed, and put out his half-finished cigarette under the heel of his boot. Maybe I should get Nate some boots. I bet the thrift store had some nice ones. He’d look good in them. That would be a cool birthday gift… maybe.

“I weirdly liked it. And so did he, or so I thought.”

I shoved out thoughts of Nate’s birthday present and tried to focus on Ajax. “But he didn’t?”

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