Thomas and Niko in the City of Trees

Chapter 9 - Part 2

For an hour or two before bed I'm just on my phone flicking through social media and texting Lexie and Thomas in separate chats.

"Just let her say it," Lexie's saying. "Just smile and nod. It makes her feel good about herself."

"I just wish she would get real about things sometimes," I type back. "She can't afford that shit and she knows it."

"You know how I feel about all the way she treats you," Thomas says. "It's not normal. I wish you didn't have to deal with it."

"Not every mom can be like yours was," I type. My finger hovers above the send button. Then I send it.

Thirty seconds laters, his reply shows up: "I was thinking about her today."

"She's never going to be what you want," says Lexie.

I reply to Thomas: "I think about her all the time."

"You were her favorite," he says.

"No," I say. "Alfred was."

"That's true."

He's calling me now. We do this sometimes.

"Hey," he says. He doesn't wait for me to answer. "Remember that time we got stuck in the bathroom? Remember, the door was stuck and we couldn't figure out what the fuck was wrong with it?"

"I remember," I say.

"What were we doing in there?"

"Filling water balloons," I say.

"Oh, fuck," he says. "How could I forget that part?"

Man, I can just picture the grin spreading across his face like he's right here in front of me. "You fell in the tub with all of them," I tell him. "We were shoving each other around because you got pissed about something, and you fell in, remember?"

"I was pissed because I was stuck in the bathroom," he says. "They fucking popped all over me, remember that?" He's laughing now. "I was fucking soaked. God, how long ago was that?"

"I think we were probably twelve or thirteen," I say. "Your mom was pissed too, remember? She was standing outside the whole time. She thought we were doing it on purpose. She kept yelling at us to unlock the door."

There's just the shortest pause after I bring up his mom. Thomas says, "And remember how she couldn't stop laughing once she figured out what was wrong? She said she was going to leave us in there forever."

"Yeah," I say. "She always saw the funny side of those things, in the end."

We're both really quiet for a while, after I say that. I'm lying there with my phone wedged between my ear and pillow, just listening to Thomas breathing.

"I wish you were here right now," he says.

"Yeah?" I say. "What for?"

"What do you mean what for? Fuck, dude, it's better when we talk about this stuff in person."

"I know," I say. "I wish I was there, too."

A couple minutes later I say his name, just kind of softly. But I can already tell from the change in his breathing that he's asleep. I don't pay for minutes at night, so I just leave the call on like that. I can feel myself fading.

—

The next day, I'm just slaving away in the coffee shack. Traffic's been heavy, but I don't mind it. I haven't been thinking about too much in particular. During the slow periods I text back and forth with Lexie. She was pissed that I bailed on our conversation from the night before. I didn't even realize I had until she brought it up the next morning. Anyway, she's over it now. She's saying how she and Madison are planning to go shopping after their shifts.

"You going to the mall?" I say.

"Yeah," she says. "Wanna come?"

"Sure."

"Need a ride?"

"Nah," I say. "I'll walk."

It's getting on towards three-thirty when Thomas roars up out of nowhere in that noisy Lexus and chirps to a stop in front of the order window. He turns off the engine. He's just looking at the menu for a second. "What the fuck's a sidewinder?"

"It's a medium roast mixed with a dark roast and cinnamon," I say.

"That sounds like a bullshit drink," he says.

"It is," I tell him. "I'll make you one."

Anyway, I make him the drink and we're just talking and laughing about nothing. I didn't turn on the window unit today because it wasn't hot enough. But now the heat is catching up with me and I'm leaning halfway out of the booth because the breeze outside feels nice.

A truck pulls in behind Thomas. I'm about to tell him he should move, but before I can the truck honks its horn. The guy behind the wheel looks pissed that we're even talking. This is the kind of behavior I was talking about. People need to chill sometimes. He honks a second time and gestures out his window to hurry up. Thomas stands up out of his car and goes back to the guy. I'm holding my breath. I seriously doubt this dude was expecting to be confronted.

"Fuck, man," Thomas yells into the guy's window. "Can't you tell when you're not wanted? Fuck off."

The guy banks his tires to the right and screeches away. He comes pretty close to clipping Thomas's car as he does so. Anyway, Thomas comes back over to me and I can barely handle my shit, I'm laughing so hard.

"Better not tell Marlon about that one," he says. Thomas has met my boss a few times. Marlon is a devout follower of the church of The Customer Is Always Right, and I think even Thomas has a sense of the grave infraction he's just committed.

"Jesus Christ," I say. "I'm throwing you under the bus if he ever finds out."

"Go right ahead. That guy was an ass. Feels so good to tell people off sometimes."

I close up ten minutes early because no one else shows up. I'm allowed to do that.

I get in Thomas's car and recline my seat. I settle into the heat as he drives us down Milwaukee towards the mall. His right hand is dangling from the bottom of the steering wheel and his arm is resting up on the windowsill. He turns up some rapper whose music I vaguely recognize. I know it sounds kind of dumb, but it's moments like these I look forward to all year, when I'm just stuck in a desk in school. It's especially true when the weather's shitty, but even when it's not, I'm just longing for these summer days when the daily work is done, and there's nothing on the agenda. If I'm honest, there's absolutely no one else in the world I want to be sitting next to more. My left hand rests on my knee. His right hand moves to the shifter, a couple inches away. The sun and the wind are just pouring in and the music pounds through my chest.

"Think they're here yet?" he says as he pulls into the complex.

I put on my sunglasses. "Doubt it. Park by J.C. Penney. There's always a ton of spots over there."

"Fuck off," he says. But he does what I say. He makes a hard right back onto the circuit. Thomas just loves steering his car around like it's a goddamn tractor. You could turn that wheel with your pinky if you wanted to. He'll place him palm up at twelve o'clock and just whip it around like it's nothing.

We drive halfway around the mall and park up on the second level by the front of the store. He turns off the engine. Some swallows are flying around making little noises here and there. The sun's beating down on us through the sunroof, so he closes it.

"Madison's not even off her shift until four-thirty," Thomas says.

"Lexie, too," I say.

He reclines his seat. He looks over at me. He's got his dad's Ray-Bans on. "Time to kill time," he says.