The Dogs of Balboa by Christo Rose

Author:Christo, Rose [Christo, Rose]
Language: eng
Format: epub, azw3
Published: 2014-06-25T22:00:00+00:00

* * * * *

At the end of the school day my fist had ballooned to the size of a grapefruit. At least I was left-handed. After walking Noah and Fawn back to Tlisuk Tamika came home with Kirste and me and I took my fist out of my jacket pocket. Kirste gasped when she saw it, closing the front door behind us.

“Hey, calm down,” I said.

“It looks broken!” Kirste panicked.

“It’s not,” said Tamika, who had taken kickboxing since she was four and broken her wrist twice. Without another word she went into our kitchen, like she lived here. I mean, she kind of did.

“Michael,” Kirste said emotionally. “If you get suspended—”

“I won’t,” I said. “It’s fine. Hey, our telenovela’s starting.”

We sat on the couch, Kirste eyeing me like she was afraid I’d fall apart. I grabbed a pillow off the end of the sectional and hid my hand underneath it. Mom wheeled out from the kitchen with a bowl of popcorn on her lap.

“Mom,” I said. “You’re going to ruin your dinner.”

Nothing distracts Mom when she’s watching her soaps. She chewed and she chewed, eyes glued to the screen. She didn’t notice when Tamika loped out of the kitchen, grabbed my hand, and started taping my knuckles.

“We keep the gauze in the kitchen?” I asked, bewildered.

Tamika shrugged. She said: “Mom wants to talk to you.”

I cringed. I’d avoided Mrs. Jones since the start of October—not because she wasn’t a nice lady, but because I didn’t feel like dissecting my feelings with my best friend’s mother. If something was on my mind, Joel was the one I went to. I knew I shouldn’t have. I knew I ought to have left him alone. But look, he was my brother; I’d known him longer than I’d known myself. I needed him to tell me who I was.

“Tell her I said hi,” I said. I flexed my newly bandaged hand. The pain subsided, but my throat was tight.

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