Page 189 of Boom
I didn't.
I didn’t feel like laughing. I hadn't smiled for weeks now, not since Arden and I had called it quits.
But there was no stopping Chase when he had something to say, so I answered with a resigned shrug.
He leaned sideways against the counter and said, "You remember Kenny Smits?"
I'd known Kenny in high school. The guy was a major douche-bag. "Yeah. What about him?"
"Yesterday, I see him at the gym, and we get to talking – nothing big, just, 'How've you been?' and stuff like that. But then, as we're heading out, he says to me, 'Hey, tell your brother I owe him.'"
"Oh yeah? Which brother?"
"You," Chase laughed. "You're the one he graduated with."
In high school, Kenny and I had run in opposite crowds. I didn't like the guy, but I didn't hate him either.
One thing I knew for damn sure.I hadn't done him any favors.
To Chase, I said, "Thanks for what?"
"You wanna guess?"
"No."
"You want a hint?"
Oh, for fuck's sake."Just spit it out."
"Well, ol' Kenny got himself a full ride to Michigan State – roomandboard. Plus a stipend. Did you know?"
I shook my head. "Didn't know, didn't care. What does that have to do with me?"
"Well, get this," Chase said. "His scholarship – it was a last-minute thing, because it was supposed to go to someone else until that someone messed up."
By now, I was only half listening. It had been this way for a while now. I felt like I was going through life in a dark, empty fog.
I knew why, too.
I looked to the cookies and felt myself swallow. It wasn't from hunger. It was from something else, something I'd been trying to ignore for weeks.
I was doing a sorry job of it, too. Everywhere I looked, I saw her face. I saw her standing in the house on the beach, with that look she got when she was thinking. I saw her smiling up at me the way she did sometimes when the two of us shared a secret joke. I saw her at the crew house, nibbling at the edges of peanut butter toast, savoring it like it was the priciest pastry from the fanciest shop.
And at night, well, let's just say I wasn't sleeping so good, and it showed. I'd been snapping at everyone for weeks, except for the times I kept to myself, which was far too often considering all the work crews who needed more direction than I'd been giving.
God, I missed her.
Chase said, "Don’t you wanna know who?"
I was still eying the cookies.Why couldn’t I just throw the damn things out already?
To Chase, I managed to say, "Who what?"
"Who had the scholarship first."
I didn't care.With my eyes trained on the cookies, I said, "Alright, who?"
Chase laughed. "Arden Weathers."
