Page 84 of Changeling
Sasha started showing Jim more of his notes from the school, and Nathan tried engaging Cam in conversation, when Leven finally took that first, anticipated bite. There was a unified breath and blip of silence.
And then Leven made a pleased face as he chewed. He took another bite before he had even swallowed the first. “Heaven,” he mumbled around chewing. He didn’t seem to notice thecollective sigh of relief or the suddenly wider smiles around the table.
Jim and Sasha continued surveying notes while Nathan and Cam chatted, and they let Leven finish his dinner. Eventually, the four older men decided they’d gotten enough info out of Wade and Leven, and could probably get more done if they headed back to the motel and used Sasha’s laptop.
“You can’t go!” Leven cried as they began to head out. “You’re not gonna spend all night working on case stuff. This place is great once things get going. You gotta stay. By seven it’s crowded, by nine it’s packed toe to toe, and after ten if someone isn’t getting laid in the corner then something is seriously wrong with the universe.”
Nathan smirked. “Listen, kid…”
“Please,” Leven pleaded. His shoulders were hunched and his voice was as whiney as, well, a teenager’s. “Just an hour or two. Cam’s gonna leave with you and…and Wade’ll make me go home. Please, I just…really don’t wanna be there right now.”
‘Alone’, Nathan heard as an addition.
“Well…” he said, looking around at the others to find no actual dissention, “I guess we could use a break.”And a drink, he thought.
Nathan grabbed the remains of paper and sandwich bags to throw away when everyone started filing out of the room. But before he could follow after the others, he realized that Leven had lingered back with him and they were alone. Nathan might have been worried if Leven didn’t look a little scared.
“What’s on your mind, jailbait? Panties in a twist over something?”
A smile broke out on Leven’s face, but it was small. Cracked. “I…I was just wondering,” he started, stammering a little.
Nathanprayedthe kid wasn’t about to ask for sex advice.
“Today…ya know, when you came charging to my rescue? I got the feeling it was a little…personal.”
Crap.
“I’m sorry,” Leven said right away, taking a step back. “Not my business.”
“Wait,” Nathan called when Leven turned to dash outside, to which the kid immediately glanced back from the door. “It…wasa little personal, okay? Kids aren’t the only stupid assholes around, ya know. Adults can rank right up there too. All…five or six of ‘em? Shit, I don’t even know how many of them there were in the end…”
Leven’s eyes widened.
Nathan sighed. He took a few steps closer to Leven so that they were only about a foot apart. Running a finger over his still somewhat inflamed eyebrow, he indicated the slowly forming scar that ran through it. “See this? I’m lucky it’s the only reminder I got stuck with. Things didn’t go as far as they wanted, but that doesn’t mean I wasn’t a little beat up by the end of it. It gets to me, knowing pricks like that are out there, who’ll hate you just for who you care about. Seeing the next generation picking on their first victim didn’t make me feel any different about the subject either. So yeah, I may be new to all this,” Nathan said with a large, false smile, “but I have been aptly initiated.”
Leven grimaced. “That’s not fair. It shouldn’t have to be like that.”
“No, that it should not. But there just aren’t enough decent people out there most of the time, kid. Sorry to tell you.”
“There’syou,” Leven said with a slight blush.
Nathan stood stationary a moment, unsure how to react, before reaching over and yanking Leven down into a headlock. He messed the kid’s gelled turquoise hair. “Ya think so, huh?” He added an extra firm tousling before letting go. It remindedNathan of when he and Jim were younger—or a few weeks ago, really.
Leven was laughing when Nathan shoved him playfully out the door. Nathan considered it a good sign of character that the kid didn’t immediately start fussing with what had become of his hair.
Nathan ordered shots for himself and the others when they reached the bar, and told Cam that whatever he had next was on him too, while Leven nursed a Coke. They could see Wade over by the door, occasionally tossing them glances.
The place was getting pretty packed now that it was later. With so many people, it wasn’t until after Nathan’s third drink—and last, he decided—that he started to notice something strange. There were a lot of men and women in the club, mostly younger than thirty, but there didn’t seem to be very much intermingling of the sexes. The dance floor was behind Nathan. He gave it a cautious glance.
No intermingling there either.
Panic gripped Nathan’s chest—old, silly panic. He couldn’t help it; this just wasn’t the type of place he ever thought he’d feel comfortable in.
He leaned towards Sasha on his right. “Dude…did you know we were in agay bar?”
Sasha’s bemused expression was not helping the situation. “You mean you didn’t?”
“No. I didn’t. Why would I?”
