The You And I Wars

Chapter Two - The Fence

Sam drummed on her steering wheel, her windows up, her windshield wipers working overtime to repel the cascade of raindrops. She squinted through the flurry of water at the figure who sat hunched at the bus stop, his hands in his pockets, his chin tucked into his chest. She pulled up beside him and cracked her window, letting in baby droplets of rain.

“Noah?”

He looked up, his expression hidden behind the torrential sheets of rain between him and the car. But she could tell it was him. “Oh my god, get in,” she yelled through the onslaught.

He leaned his arms against the car door, bending so he could talk to her throw the slit in the window. “I’m all wet,” he objected.

“Like I can’t see that.” She leaned over and opened his door for him. “Get in.”

She quickly scooped up a few dozen of her mom’s discarded newspapers and threw them onto the passenger seat before Noah could sit down. She felt kind of guilty treating him like a puppy that hadn’t been house trained but her mom would certainly notice the wet car smell if she didn’t at least try to save the seats.

He closed the door behind him and wiped some of the water from his face with his hands, his feet crunching the dozens of discarded plastic Frappuccino cups that littered the floor. “Thank you,” he said, and he sounded like he really meant it, as if it surprised him to be treated decently.

“I thought Lavi said she was giving you a ride home today.”

Sam hadn’t minded that Noah had sat with them a few times that week. He didn’t say much. In fact, he hardly ever talked when Lavi and Ash were around. He just sat back and watched, a subtle look of amusement crossing his face every once in a while. Sam tried not to notice what crossed his face when, but it was pretty difficult to ignore a face like his.

“She must have forgotten,” he said. He didn’t even sound angry, like abandoning a friend and leaving him to stand out in a monsoon at a crummy bus stop was perfectly acceptable.

“Lavi does stuff like that sometimes. You just have to love her despite it.” Sam took off down the street, feeling that weight on her chest that meant a good bout of guilt was coming on. Lavi and Ash had delved into a huge fight earlier that afternoon and they probably both forgot that Noah even existed. It really had nothing to do with Sam, and it wasn’t her fault that Noah had been neglected, but she tended to feel like it was her responsibility to sweep up after her brother and best friend. “Look, I’m so sorry she left you like that. That was really not cool.”

He smiled, but his eyes mirrored the weather outside of the car. “I assure you, it’s not a big deal, Sam.”

She sighed as she turned right, per Noah’s silent directional pointing. He looked sad. He always did. But in a way that wasn’t obvious, like someone who had practiced smiling in the mirror just so it was convincing to everyone else around them.

“It’s Friday,” Sam offered.

He nodded thoughtfully. “An astute observation. I knew you looked smart.”

She fought back a smile. Smart-ass. “I mean, it’s Friday, as in what are you doing tonight?”

“What am I doing? I’m accepting a very generous ride home. I thought that was obvious.”

“After that.”

 “Nothing, I guess.”

“God,” she pretended to sound disgusted. “What? Do you have no friends at all? Are you new here or something?”

He chuckled, but he looked out his window, and Sam noticed with a sinking heart that he was clenching his hands into fists again. Good job, Sam. Just brimming with sensitivity.