Rules for Orion

chapter twenty-one

Twenty-one: Logan
September 30, 11:00 PM. Dwyer, VA.

Devi is in my car when I get out of work. I don't know how.
She's sitting the passenger seat for once in her life, her feet propped up in leather boots on the dash. She has an orange popsicle in one hand and has placed a styrofoam cup in the cupholder. The car's off but the driver's side door is open.
I get in but don't start it. The metal of the seat belt is untouchably hot.
I ask her, "Do I need to replace the locks now?"
She shakes her head, picks up the styrofoam cup, and hands it to me. It contains bright orange liquid and a saturated wooden craft stick. I take a bright, awful sip. "Thanks."
Devi nods and eats the last bit of her popsicle, leaving the stick in her mouth like a grain stem. "We need to talk."
I pull the sleeve of my hoodie over my hand and buckle myself in. I shift the car into gear. Backing out of the space, I say, "Shoot."
"About your boyfriend."
I turn out of the lot. "Don't have a boyfriend." But I know who she's referring to.
Devi's laugh is sarcastic. "Good."
That's strange.
We crawl to a stop at the red light; I look at her over the gearshift. " What's up?"
"I did some digging," she says.
The light goes green. "...Okay." I wonder, for a second, how she would dig up things on a person she only knew the first name and appearance of. But then I remember that she had she knows all my passwords, and I wouldn't put it below her to use her power to find his surname and phone number.
"Do you know how old he is?" Devi asks, and I have to laugh a little. Devi has a habit of thinking we're both fifteen, and I guess seventeen-almost-eighteen-year-old Avery seems absolutely ancient to her.
"Yeah."
We're at my house. I stop the Civic and unbuckle. I turn to face her.
"Right," she says. "Do you know where he goes to school?"
"Not Cobalt."
She gives me a look.
I shrug. "He might not go anywhere. Doesn't live with his parents."
Her look deepens. She seems to think I'm an idiot, though I don't know why.
"I always thought he's homeless. Like, he got kicked out or something. I don't know. That happens."
"Yeah," she says. "But that's not what's going on."
"Can you just tell me?" Sometimes I wish more people approached situations like I do.
She holds up a hand. "Give me a sec. Do you know where he's from?"
"Nope."
"So he hasn't told you anything about that?"
"I haven't asked."
"Logan!"
Now I give her a look. "Just tell me."
"He's from Baltimore."
She presents it like it's some huge revelation. But I could drive to Baltimore right now and be back home before midnight. I give her a so what? type of look.
Devi says, "But he goes to school in DC."
That part gets me incredibly confused. "School?"
She nods, looking almost apologetic. "Yeah. S'junior at George Washington University."
"He's seventeen."
She sucks in a breath through her teeth. "Try twenty-one."
I stare at her, thinking she must be joking. "...He's definitely seventeen."
"Look." She takes out her phone and shows me a series of screenshots of one Avery Lunden's FaceBook account. It's incredibly incriminating.
I keep silent for a few seconds. None of this makes sense. "But this says he--"
"--has a girlfriend," Devi says, "who graduated last year. Yeah."
"I don't... Shit."
"Shit," she agrees.
"Then why--" I start, then stop. I have a lot of then whys. "Then why is he in Dwyer? And why--" I almost say why me? but don't. It seems too dramatic. Self-absorbed. Whatever.
Devi says, "Because maybe he got in trouble."
"Not following. For what?"
"For trying to fuck sixteen-year-olds, Logan."
I'm about to demand where sixteen-year-olds entered the conversation before I realize. I'm the sixteen-year-old. "Oh. But he's not--"
"Or," Devi says, placating, although I'm ninety-nine percent sure what she's about to say isn't at all placating, "drugs."
"Sorry?"
"Think about it," she says. "He's homeless but has four hundred in new cash. S'always a little confused about shit. Sometimes he totally looks like he's on crack. And you never stop talking about how he randomly disappears for days on end. Why? You don't even know!"
Silence.
Devi puts her phone back in her pocket. I look out over the top of the steering wheel. My neighbor's pickup has a flat tire. Last time that happened, I got twenty dollars for changing it.
"Yeah," I say. "Fuck. Christ." I take a breath. "Are you staying?"

I tip my face back under the shower's flow, appreciating the few seconds where I don't breathe or think or move.
I didn't do any homework today. Yesterday, either.
Water pours through my teeth.
After going inside and being silent for a good hour, Devi said we had to figure out what I was going to do.
I catch water in my hands and push it over my face.
I texted Avery.
He hasn't responded as far as I know.
I step forward, letting water fall over my cold back. I press my palms against the back of my neck.
I'm running out of soap.

Devi's curled up on the edge of my bed, back pressed to the wall, looking at her phone. She showered before me because she's faster. For some reason, she's allowed to spend the night and someone like Avery isn't. Maybe because Avery's a boy, but I don't know how my mom would know the nuances of who I'm attracted to. I just don't tell her shit like that. I'm pretty sure the last update I gave her was when I told her I may or may not like boys, too in seventh grade. She (and most of my relatives) seemed to take that as Logan is entirely gay and run with it.
I guess I really shouldn't be annoyed by that--firstly, I'm, like, ninety-six percent sure it's turning out to be true. Secondly, my Catholic, immigrant parents could've reacted a lot worse. My extended family could've reacted a lot, lot worse. I should feel lucky.
Besides, I'm glad Devi and I can share a room.
I lean forward and scrub my hair until it stops dripping. I go through everything without thinking through it: undershirt, boxers, hang up the towel.
I'm thinking about the text I sent Avery. I'd read my attempts out loud to Devi and listened to her say if it was cliché or not.

My phone lights up after I'm asleep; I have to check it once I wake up.