I heard a rustling outside, and boys' voices. The voices sounded slurred. Johnny glanced quickly out the window, put out his cigarette on the bottom of his sneaker and pitched it, then grabbed my arm.
"C'mon," he said. I followed, he still had my arm. We went through the door to the hall.
"What? Why? Who was that?" I said, blinking in the new darkness.
"Could be a gang, they use that apartment, too," he said, and on the other side of the door I heard drunk voices and the clink and slosh of beer bottles.
"Why did we have to leave?" I said, and my eyes had adjusted to the gloom of the hallway. There were fist size holes and gouges along the narrow walls. Graffitti, obscene words and drawings.
"It's better," Johnny said, heading down the hall.
"Don't you know those guys in those gangs?" I was puzzled. I thought he was actually in a gang himself.
"Some of them," he said, and we were on stairs, three of them, that lead to the front door. And out into the night again, the wind grabbing my hair. Johnny leaned me up against the building and kissed me.
"Why'd we have to leave?" I said between kisses.
"It's better that we do. Because of you," He didn't say it mean, just matter of fact, "you ain't the typical girl I've brought here,"
"You've brought other girls?" I said, smiling, teasing him. He ducked his head, "yeah," he said.
"Where do you live?" I said.
"Near here," he said vaguely.
"In an apartment?"
"No. A house,"
"Let's go to your house?"
"Why?"
"I want to," I said, and he shrugged, gave in. Couple blocks over, salt box single frames, most with porches. Junk in the yards, junk on the porches.
"Hear that yelling?" he said, stopping. I listened. Faintly I heard yelling. The high tones of a woman answered by the baritone of a man, and the sound of objects crashing into objects, into walls.
"Yeah,"
"Well, that's my folks. So let's not go to my house, okay?"
"Okay," Wow. It was louder now, and the voices sounded more angry, more desperate. Johnny bit his lip and looked away from me.
"Okay," I said again, and touched his cheek so he'd look at me. He smiled a little, but his eyes were sad.
"So where should we go now?" I said.
"Beats me,"
I snaked my hand into his, entwining our fingers. From the corner of my eye I saw a slow moving blue Mustang and dragged Johnny behind a car.
"Shit," I said. He watched the Mustang with big eyes and I noticed he was breathing faster.
"That was Bob," I said, watching the Mustang sail past us.
"Your boyfriend?" he said, his voice steady. But he was trembling.
"Yeah, the one I left at the movies because he was drinking…" I looked at Johnny in alarm. He closed his eyes, looked pale all of a sudden.
"He's kind of a jerk when he drinks. Johnny, what's the matter?"
"Nothing," he said in that same steady voice, and fumbled a cigarette from his pack. After a few drags some of his color had come back and his breathing had slowed down.
"You sure?" I said.
"Yeah, everything is fine,"
He was lying, but about what I wasn't quite sure. He smoked the cigarette to the filter and watched for the Mustang.