No Parking at the End Times by Bryan Bliss

Author:Bryan Bliss
Language: eng
Format: epub
Publisher: HarperCollins
Published: 2015-01-01T16:00:00+00:00

TEN

E LETS ME WEAR HIS COAT—WHICH IS MASSIVE—AS WE WALK back to the park. Aaron swaggers triumphantly at the front of the group.

“I mean, she’s my sister,” he says. “But if you try to take a man’s crown, there are consequences.”

“Some man,” Jess says. “You totally pushed her—and me.”

Aaron looks offended. “Don’t be a sore loser. Abs, tell them I didn’t push you.”

I’m so cold I can barely talk without my teeth sounding like a machine. Jess stands right next to me, so close our arms brush every few steps. If she’s cold, I can’t tell. She walks tall, fast.

“Look at your poor sister. She’s going to freeze, and for what? So you can be a big man winning all the games?”

Jess is kidding, but the truth of the statement stops Aaron for a moment. Like, Oh yeah, we don’t have clothes or a way to dry them, anything. He could be Mom in the moment, the way anxiety crawls across his face. Before Jess or I can say anything, Silas says, “This boy’s trying to kill his sister and his girlfriend!”

Ohhh!

I don’t know who’s more embarrassed, me or Jess. Her face is red and she won’t look at me—anyone—as E and Silas push Aaron, who smiles and tells them to shut up. When I do make eye contact with Jess, all the confidence she’s built up is gone. All she says is, “Boys . . .”

There were always girls who were interested, but I think Aaron was too embarrassed to bring them to our house. Sometimes they’d come up to me, asking questions. Maybe they’d go to a movie, or one of the school dances. Whether it took days or weeks, the girls always faded away, and when I’d ask Aaron all he’d say is, “You know how it goes, Abs.”

But how does a girlfriend work out here? It’s not like they can go on dates or come over to the van to watch a movie.

Aaron doesn’t say much else as we walk. His smile is Christmas. It’s us getting up ridiculously early and running down the hall, yelling until Mom and Dad got out of bed. Silas tells us how—when he was in school back in Oregon—there was this one girl he liked.

“I asked her out twenty times and she never said yes,” he says. “I used to think it was funny, but now it’s kind of depressing.”

He turns to Laina, smiling. Before he can say anything she says, “No way. Look in a different direction.”

This lightens the mood, but soon Aaron and Jess are walking behind the rest of the group. I try not to eavesdrop and to listen to what Silas and E are saying—asking Jordy about a music store near the park that supposedly still pays money for used CDs. But when Jess laughs, I glance over my shoulder. She’s rolling her eyes and he’s grinning. They walk shoulder to shoulder, their bodies bumping every few steps. Aaron leans over and quickly tries to kiss Jess on the cheek, instead getting her on the nose.

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