As he had for the past couple of summers, Deeks settled into a routine of work and as many as trips to the beach as he could hustle out his friends with cars, and bouncing between their houses in between. Fortunately his boss, Mr. Chowdry, let him work later shifts if he wanted, so he didn't have to miss out on too much. Like usual, he spent the majority of his free time with Kensi.
Today Kensi had a string of little league games to umpire, so Deeks was left to occupy himself in other ways. He'd come to a few of the games in the past to show his support, but Kensi had all but demanded that stay home, reasoning that he already worked enough, and didn't need to come to her job too.
While Kensi spent the day corralling 8-year-olds, Deeks built up a sweat playing horse with Ray. Kip was busy meeting with an athletic representative from a college (yeah, he was that good already) and the other guys they played with sometimes had better things to do than hanging out with a couple of high school kids. So, it was just the two of them.
"Ok, watch this," Deeks said, lining up a shot. He paused dramatically, making eye contact with Ray, then launched the ball forward. It arced through the air, bouncing off the rim off the rim, and finally through the hoop. "Try and beat that."
"I hate you sometimes. You've gotten very cocky since that last growth spurt," Ray grumbled.
"I can't help my genetics. Are you going to take the shot?"
Rolling his eyes, Ray gestured for Deeks to throw him the ball, taking up his position. His shot missed the hoop by about a foot.
"Dammit!" Going to retrieve the ball, Ray came back, slapping a dollar into Deeks' hand.
"You wanna play again?"
"Nope. I lost enough money to you already," Ray answered, pulling his hair back into a messy bunch and tying it off. "Speaking of money, my friend Phil said he can get us six boxes of CD players at a real good price," Ray told him, with an expression that suggested he'd stumbled upon an actual gold mine.
"Ray," Deeks sighed. He should have known this was coming; it had been too long since his friend suggested some new scheme. The last one a couple months ago had involved working for a mechanic of shady reputation.
"Don't Ray me. This is legitimate." He passed the ball to Deeks, nodding several times, like it would help convince Deeks he was right.
"It's Phil. The same guy who tried to sell you knock off watches that didn't run and gets picked up by the police every other week."
"I checked one of the players myself. They're good," Ray assured him. "We could make enough money off of this, you wouldn't have to drive your ass into the ground working every day."
Deeks spun the basketball between his hands, trying not to let his annoyance show too much. Deep down, he knew Ray meant well. He never seemed to realize that he was one bad decision away from actual jail. That one day they wouldn't get lucky.
"Who in their right mind would buy anything from a couple of teenagers. Especially with how scruffy you look," Deeks said, nodding to the scraggly beard Ray had managed to grow.
"Funny. Stop tryna change the subject. Are you in?"
"No." Ray's face fell, and Deeks quickly rushed to explain. "Man, I have a good job. Maybe it's not the most glamorous, but Mr. Chowdry treats me well, and it has the added benefit of not being illegal."
"When did you get to be such a whimp?" Ray asked scathingly, shaking his head with a disgusted look.
"Oh I don't know, maybe after the time we got stopped by the police," Deeks retorted, anger flaring. He jabbed his finger in Ray's chest. "Because you insisted it would be fun to "borrow" a car, and I let you convince me like an idiot."
Are you really still mad about that? C'mon Marty, that was months ago."
"Yeah, and an official arrest on my record could mess everything up for me. We're already got people holding what our dads did against us, why would we make it worse? It's just stupid."
Ray's eyes narrowed, his jaw setting with a familiar expression. "Screw you," he spat out, his glare making Deeks' flinch, and turned, stalking away.
"Ray!" Deeks called after him, but Ray ignored him, throwing back a rude gesture as his only response. "Please don't do anything stupid," Deeks muttered to himself.
It turned out to be an overall crappy day. His shift got cut short because Mr. Chowdry had a family emergency and had to close early and when he got home, he realized there wasn't really enough food to make dinner. He ended up at Kensi's house that evening, hungry and in a bad mood.
"What do you think about going to Hawaii?" he asked, squinting his eyes as he looked up at Kensi's bedroom ceiling. He was spread out on Kensi's unmade bed, one hand loosely draped over his chest. "Just spend a couple months surfing and exploring.
"It sounds amazing," Kensi answered, turning away from the pile of clothes she'd been sorting through for the last 20 minutes in search of a missing textbook. "But isn't surfing season in the winter? Not to mention, I'd have to break into my college fund."
"Might be worth it."
Kensi shot him a questioning look. "What's going on? You've been weird since you got here?"
"Do you think I'm a whimp?" Deeks threw back at her instead of answering. He'd tried not to let Ray's insult get to him, but he couldn't get it out of his mind. Along with Kensi, Ray had been one of the first kids to befriend him early on. It was hard not to feel like he owed him. Or fall back into that role of idolization he'd fallen into in the beginning.
"Of course not. You're one of the most courageous people I know. Who told you that?" Making a dismissive noise, she plopped down on the bed next to him. She landed at an angle, her feet rising in the air, and coming to rest against the wall.
Deeks had a vague memory of being in a similar position when they were about thirteen. Donald Blye had walked in on them, and Deeks had stilled, thinking he was about to be forcibly dragged out of the room, even though he and Kensi had done nothing but lay there and talk. Instead, Donald had tilted his head, told Kensi to get her dirty shoes off the wall, and informed Deeks his mom had called.
Shaking off the memory, Deeks squinted at the ceiling again. If he looked just right, he could see an armadillo. Kensi nudged his knee with her foot.
"Ok, what's going on?"
He sighed, sitting up and hunching over his crossed legs. "Ray has a new plan to make money," he told her.
"Oh my god, not another one," Kensi said, her tone losing its easy cadence as she say up too. "Deeks, you need to tell him you're not doing it. No matter how good he makes it sound."
"I did. Why do you immediately assume that I would go along with him?" A hint of irritation spiked through him at the implication. "I knew I shouldn't have told you."
"Because you've done it before and look at what happened last time. You almost got arrested."
"I know what happened. Look, I know you don't like Ray—"
"I don't like that he makes really poor decisions, and every time, you let him pull you into it. Even though it gets you in trouble," Kensi retorted. "I don't like seeing you in that position when you're so much better than that."
"God, you must think I'm so irresponsible," he said, standing up and crossing the room, filled with a jittery kind of energy even though he was simultaneously tired and hungry.
"No, I don't," Kensi insisted, crossing her arms. "Don't put words in my mouth. What I think is that you're incredibly loyal to the people you care about. Which sometimes makes you do things you wouldn't consider otherwise."
That deflated Deeks' anger slightly, but he still wasn't ready to give in so easily. Facing the wall, he poked at an old hole from a tack.
"He's not a bad guy." He glanced up from under his bangs, seeing Kensi watching him with a curious expression. "Ray…he's had a really awful life, so he doesn't always see things the same way that other people do. But he's still had my back when it counted. He's just doing the best that he can."
Deeks wondered if Kensi realized that Deeks had a lot more in common with Ray that he would ever like to admit. More than he and Kensi did in many ways.
He heard Kensi stand up, felt her come up behind him, stopping just a few inches away.
"That doesn't mean that he has to keep making these choices," Kensi said slowly, and he had the sense she was treading very carefully. "You're proof of that."
Deeks chuckled softly, always amazed at the way Kensi seemed to read his mind. "I don't know if I'm any kind of beacon of morality. I make an awful lot of stupid decisions."
"I think you are. You're one of the best people I know." Her hand fell on his shoulder, her touch light, but steadying him all the same. "I'm sorry I jumped to conclusions."
"I'm sorry I snapped at you," he apologized back.
"I'll forgive you. This time," Kensi said easily. Deeks turned finally, leaning against the wall with a tired sigh. "You wanna tell me what's really going on? Is everything going ok with your mom?"
"Yeah. I don't think it's anything in particular. Just a not great day, and arguing with Ray kind of set it all off," he explained with a shrug. His stomach chose that moment to growl extremely loudly, and they locked eyes, breaking into unexpected laughter.
"Did you eat dinner, Deeks?" Kensi asked in a way that sounded more teasing than judgmental.
"It depends on if you count strawberry jello as a meal?"
"Of course not! No wonder you're grumpy. I'd be murdering you by now if that's all I ate. Come on, there's stuff for sandwiches in the fridge and some leftover macaroni."
"That sounds pretty good," Deeks admitted, too hungry to be embarrassed about scoring another free meal of the Blye's.
"Oh my god, you didn't even ask if I made the macaroni. You really must be starving," Kensi observed. As they made their way downstairs, she tugged Deeks back a step. "At the risk of starting another argument, I'm glad you told Ray no."
"Me too. I just hope Ray doesn't try to do it on his own."
"Well, for your sake, I hope he doesn't either. If he does, it's definitely not your fault though."
Deeks watched Kensi run down the rest of the stairs. He wished it were that easy. He supposed in Kensi's world, it was.