Page 64 of Rules for Rule Breaking
Uncle Eugene only nodded.
Simone stepped lightly over the broken pieces of glass that lined the floor, carefully picking up a bottle of liquor from the top of the fridge. She handed it to Bobby, her eyes full of apology as she said, “He doesn’t usually drink. It doesn’t agree with him. Do you mind getting rid of this for me?”
“Of course,” Bobby replied, taking it in his hands. “I’ll stay in touch, Cousin.”
“Hopefully our families can work things out.”
“Thanks for everything, Simone.”
Simone touched Winter’s arm as a gesture of farewell and then went back to tending to Uncle Eugene.
Bobby urged Winter toward the street, and he considered discarding the bottle as they passed the recycling bins, but he decided to put it in his bag instead.
“What are you doing?” Winter whispered.
“I’m not sure. Just go with it.”
“You saw how Uncle Eugene was after drinking this stuff.”
“I know, but I’m not him either. My family’s problems are their own.”
“I like you like this,” Winter said. Her eyes creased at the outer corners. She looked otherworldly with the moon staining her skin. Her lips were pink and parted, and her cheeks were flushed from running. He reached to brush some flyaways from her face but changed his mind and grabbed her hand instead. They scurried out of the light and didn’t stop running until they were blocks away. Bobby’s blood was pumping fast, and his skin was bristling with the feeling of being alive. Winter had a smile splashed across her face, the creases staying firmly in place. An energy coursed through him that he was hesitant to acknowledge.
“Can we make a new rule?” he asked.
“Bobby, don’t you think we have enough?”
“Hear me out,” he said, noting how precious her hand felt in his and how soft her skin was. “When there’s no one else around, you feel like my best friend. So what I’m proposing is we shut out all the background noise, because right now, I could use a best friend.”
“What about Kai?” she joked.
“He’ll love again. What do you say?”
Winter was looking up at him with the most peculiar expression on her face. Like she had seen someone she thought she knew and was trying to place them. Bobby’s heartbeat was loud, and she could probably feel it in his fingertips. She gave his hand a squeeze that he felt in his entire body.
“I’m in,” she replied with a bright smile.
They made their way through what Bobby believed to be his old neighborhood, but he couldn’t be sure. He’d been too young when he left, and his memories had been convoluted by the passage of time. They raced down the suburban streets littered with colonial houses and manicured lawns. There was nothing to be heard on those quiet blocks but their laughter and the din of cicadas hiding in the trees.
“Where’s your lung capacity now, bitch?!” Winter proclaimed as she beat Bobby to the end of the block.
“Will you shut up?” Bobby laughed. “All we need is for someone to call the cops on us.”
“Don’t tempt me with a good time. In New Jersey, it’s illegal to frown at cops.”
Bobby pushed Winter. “Nerd. Can you even frown? It’s hard.”
She tried a few times. The corners of her mouth went downward, but it was still only a straight line across her face. “I feel like my facejust doesn’t do that.” Bobby tried, and Winter snorted with laughter. “Ew! Your mouth goes completely upside down!”
Bobby did it again, and Winter ran away. He grabbed her arm and kept frowning while she giggled madly and tried to break free. Finally, she poked him in the side, and he broke.
They walked through open fields of freshly mown grass where battles of the Revolutionary War had taken place. A police SUV cruised by, the first car they’d seen in an hour. The windows were blacked out, so they couldn’t see who was inside, but the car slowed as it passed them. Winter gripped Bobby’s arm. The cop car kept going. Winter loosened her grasp. Her nails left little indents on his arm. Bobby turned around and frowned at the back of the cop car until it disappeared.
Winter swatted him in the stomach. “Idiot.”
Bobby smiled to himself.
The sky was the color of chai with a teaspoon of milk, with not a single star in sight. The two of them had nowhere to go and no means of getting there.
