The Drive-In

15

Eddie tries to sneak into the trailer through the door nearest to his room.

"And where in the blue hell have you been, boy?" Uncle Wayne's voice rings out from behind him in the living room. His tone is authoritative but not angry. Eddie freezes mid-step towards his bedroom door.

Eddie knows better than to fib. His Uncle seemed to have some kind of lie detector installed in him. He didn't even have to look at you to tell. He could hear it. But Eddie was inches from his bedroom door. Inches from getting his hands on a tiny bit of concealer to fade out the bruise on his cheek.

He chances it and tries to continue into his room, "Got wasted at a friend's house. I just need to go lie down for a while." Eddie puts on an extra groggy voice and pretends to yawn.

"Oh yeah? Which friend was that, then?"

Eddie looks to the ceiling for help, "Err...Steve"

"Get your ass in here, right this second! You ain't gotta friend called Steve!" Wayne yells. Now he was pissed.

"I do! he's new." Eddie tries to reason with the truth this time.

"New from yesterday? Cuz yesterday you didn't have no dang friend called Steve. Don't make me come get you, Eddie Munson. Turn your lying ass around and get in here."

"I'm not lying!!" Eddie says desperately.

"Well, if you ain't lying, somethin' else ain't right. You're hidin' some kinda somethin', and I will get to the bottom of it, Edward."

Edward? It had been a long time since he'd heard that. Now he was for sure in the shit.

Eddie rolls his eyes and admits defeat. He turns around and holds his arms out to the sides with a forced smile on his face, "Happy now?"

In a split second, the race for the door is on. Eddie just slides in front of it before his Uncle only because Wayne has to pick up his hat and keys first.

"Get outta the way, Eddie," His Uncle says furiously, but he's not looking at Eddie. He's looking at the door.

"You said one more black eye, and I don't have one", Eddie pleads, trying to get him to look at him.

"You know that ain't what I meant, Eddie. Figure 'o speech," Wayne says, but Eddie can tell in his tone that Wayne knows he has already lost.

Eddie had always struggling reading between the lines of things when he was younger. His Dad always gave him shit about it, and when he moved in here, He and Wayne made a pact. Eddie wouldn't have to do that at home anymore because you shouldn't have to. It was your home, the place you should be able to be one hundred per cent of you. So they agreed that in this trailer, what they said, they meant, and when they fucked that up, they'd apologise.

"But that isn't what you said," Eddie says sombrely and finally manages to make eye contact, and Wayne is defeated. He could go for the other door, but Eddie knows he won't.

Wayne's eyes flick down to the bruise on Eddie's face, and he says, "I'm not mad at you, ok?" Before turning around and throwing his hat and keys so hard at the sofa that Eddie is amazed, they don't end up embedded in it.

Wayne resumes his seat, runs his hands over his head, and says quietly, "What else?"

Eddie walks to the middle of the room and gingerly lifts up his t-shirt. Wayne scans him, his fingertips covering his mouth, before making eye contact again with Eddie, "Same guys?"

Eddie nods sadly, a little ashamed, and pulls his t-shirt back down, then twists the hem of it in his fingers.

"Hey! They're the fucking cowards, alright? They gotta come in droves, like a buncha hyenas! You got nothing to feel bad about, you hear me?" Wayne takes a sip from his drink and mutters, "Fucking tigers, my ass" he looks back up at Eddie, "So now we got to the root of it. Who is Steve?"