: Chapter Seven :
I'm was at least a good forty-five minutes later than I had anticipated getting home, after being distracted by…well, by Lindsey and her apparent fling with a teacher. I had sat in my car for at least fifteen minutes replaying what I had just saw, in shock. Finally, I had turned the key in the ignition and started on home. Only half-way there, I remembered the whole weird situation with Karen and Nick.
They couldn't possibly like each other, right? I mean, Nick's not really Karen's type or anything. He plays sports, eats like a caveman, and occasionally strings together some coherent sentences. Okay, okay, fine. I'm being kind of biased and he's not so bad. But honestly, would Karen be interested in a guy that has a C average, right?
When I pulled into the driveway, I saw Nick and Karen sitting on the front porch, so close together that their knees were almost touching. I approached them slowly, not really sure if I should be intruding. But I needed to get through the front door to get inside, didn't I?
"Hey guys," I said. They both looked up startled, like little animals caught in the headlights.
"What's up?" Nick said. Lindsey and Mr. Mulberry flashed through my mind.
"Nothing," I said. What I saw was weighing heavily on my chest but I just swallowed it. "Nothing. What were you guys talking about? It looks kind of serious."
Karen and Nick exchanged a glance.
"Well," Nick said, hesitantly. "Nah, it's nothing, you shouldn't worry about it. I don't think it's really you're thing."
I knew that they wanted me to leave it at that. I knew they didn't want me to know but I was sick of being kept in the dark. I wanted to be in on whatever they were always whispering about.
"No, try me, I want to know," I said, as earnestly as possible. Karen raised her eyebrow, skeptical, as usual.
"Look, it's just stuff with Myriah and Jackie, alright? It's not really any of your business," she said.
"Hey," I said, trying to sound diplomatic. "Look, they're my friends too. I saw Jackie today at the cafeteria and he didn't look so good. I just want to know what's going on."
There were more of those annoying glances. Finally, Nick exhaled.
"Alright," he said. "But I'm serious when I say don't tell anyone this." I nodded; I was getting a little excited, like a kid getting something that's usually forbidden, like candy at night or something.
"Look, Myriah's lapsed back into…you know…" Nick's voice trailed off. He just opened his eyes and kind of gave me a meaningful glance.
"She's not eating," Karen said, cutting in, getting impatient. "She's not eating and it's getting to Jackie too."
Nick sighed and rubbed his temples.
"Jackie's just about to give up," he said. "He said he didn't want to deal with Myriah and her problems anymore." I leaned back, a little stunned. This was the first I had heard about Myriah's apparent eating disorder. Yeah, she was a little on the thin side, but so were a lot of girls at school. And I was also surprised at Jackie's apparent heartlessness.
"Wait, so Jackie's just going to give up on Myriah? Not bother helping her anymore?" I asked.
"Look, David, he has a lot on his mind right now," Nick said. "I don't think he needs another set of problems to take on anyway."
"But he likes Myriah," I argued. "Or at least, he should care about her if he does."
Karen looked at me sharply.
"Who said he didn't?" she snapped. "Look, we're all tired of Myriah's problems, okay? It shouldn't be Jackie's responsibility to sit with her at every meal and make sure she eats and keeps it down."
I was stunned by their coldness.
"Am I hearing you guys right? Does Myriah know that you guys talk about her like this behind her back? 'We're tired of Myriah's problems?' Look, I don't want to be rude but you guys sound like a couple of heartless assholes."
Nick stood up and faced me. We were practically the same height but I realized that Nick was now a little taller. I think he realized at that moment too, and took a step forward.
"You don't know, David," he said. "You have no idea what Myriah's problems did to all of us last year."
Last year? The only thing I remember from last year was dating Charlotte Johansson and…oh. I must have missed out on a lot going on with the group during that relationship.
"Look, I'm sorry," I said, hands held up. "I just didn't…I just…all I'm saying is that…if Jackie really likes Myriah, he should stay with her when she needs him."
At this, Nick made an incredibly loud, frustrated sound. He clenched his hands into fists and shut his eyes tight.
"This is why we didn't want to tell you, David," Nick said. "Because you never know the whole story and you pull this weird, self-righteous bullshit."
"Then tell me!" I blasted. "Stop telling me I don't know the whole story and just tell me!"
"You don't know how far Myriah pulled Jackie down!" he shouted. "And for you to just suddenly decide that you think he's a bastard for not "being there" for Myriah, whatever the hell that means, just pisses me off, okay?" Nick turned around and let out another aggravated sound. I was getting a little worried. Nick was really getting scary. He pulled his fist back and made as if to slam it into the wall. Karen stood up, getting ready to pull him back.
Then suddenly, he was stalking towards the car and he pulled out of the driveway so fast the tires squealed. He raced out of the neighborhood. I hoped he wouldn't get a ticket; the police are hawks in this area. I turned around to look at Karen, facing me with her arms crossed on the porch.
"Look, Karen, I don't know what I said that was that wrong," I started. She held up a hand to stop me.
"Have you seen Jackie's arms lately?"
I shook my head. "No, he always wears that weird hoodie."
"Have you seen his legs?" When I was silent, she said, "I thought so. Think about it." She disappeared through the front door, slamming it behind her. I stared at the closed door for a long time. Finally, I walked around to the back but I couldn't even summon the courage to go inside through the back door. I felt like an idiot. I wanted to be alone. I sat down, heavily, on one of the chairs on the back porch and watched the sky slowly change from blue, to red, to black.
It was completely dark and I was still sitting in the same position, thinking, thinking about Jackie, about how Jackie always wears his sweatshirt and long pants even when it's 80 degrees outside. And I had just considered it another one of his idiosyncrasies. I was an idiot.
There was a sudden banging noise on the fence that surprised me. I started in my seat, trying to make out the dark figure that was climbing over the fence that separated my house from the Papadakis'. The shadow was too small to be Linny; it was Hannah. She walked towards me, shoulders hunched and shivering. She was only wearing shorts but had a big hooded zip-up wrapped around her. The sleeves were too long and her hands were swallowed up by the fleecey material. Her arms were wrapped tightly around herself. Hannah looked small and tense.
"Hannah, hey, what's up?" I asked. She was looking at me with wide eyes.
"Hey listen is, um, Karen home?"
"Yeah. Hey you know, next time you can just call or maybe use the front door?" I said, trying to lighten the mood, but Hannah was obviously too stressed to take it as a joke.
"Sorry," she mumbled. I blinked several times, looking at her. She was staring off into space, looking nervous.
"Um, me too, sorry," I said. "I didn't mean it like that. Listen, want me to go get Karen for you? I'm pretty sure she's upstairs, doing homework or something."
Something in Hannah's face changed. She suddenly seemed more alert and shook her head.
"No, no, you know what? Forget it, it's not important. I'll see you at school tomorrow."
I almost made to grab her arm, to tell her it's no big deal but she kind of shied away from me and made her way to the fence door. She let herself out and walked around to go back home. No more jumping fences for her, I guess. Hannah didn't look well at all. I considered telling Karen about it but Karen probably didn't want to see me right now. I sighed and sat back down on the chair. I didn't like how things were looking at all and I was definitely not looking forward to tomorrow.
