One for the Team

9| before

Levi insisted on stopping by his house to get his notes on Greek History before driving us to the local library. He drives the old truck I saw parked in front of his house that first day, says it used to be his dad's car before he got a van. I don't drive anything. I wouldn't know how to.

"Why don't you get a driver's license?" Levi asks when it comes up.

"I don't have the money," I say.

"Get a part-time job."

"I don't have the time either."

"Should I start paying for your help with volleyball?" he asks, reaching for the keys to his house inside his backpack and opening the door.

"No," I say, following inside. "You're good."

"Levi?" someone calls from another room in the house. I suppose it's his mother. She shows up in front of us in the next moment, a pretty woman in her forties, wiping her hands on her apron, and smiling the way Levi does, genuinely.

"Hi, mom," Levi says. "This is Finn. He's the captain of the volleyball team."

His mom walks closer to kiss the top of his head and then smiles even more at me, "You've been helping Levi with his passing, right?"

"When I can, yes," I say. "It's nice to meet you."

She frowns. I don't know what I said wrong.

"What happened to your lip?" she asks instead. I take my hand up to my mouth. I had forgotten about the bruise.

"I got hit in the face in gym class. It's nothing," I lie.

Before she can say anything else, like that doesn't look like something you get in gym class, Levi cuts in to say he's going to get a few books from his room before we head out to the library. His mom looks disappointed.

"You're coming home for dinner, right?" she asks him as he runs up the steps. He says he doesn't know and disappears around the corner. She looks at me instead, "You're obviously invited."

I smile, "Thank you but I told my mom I would be home for dinner."

"Well, some other day then," she says and before she can say more, Levi's coming down the stairs already with a bunch of books in his arms.

"By the way, mom, Finn really liked Moonlight, so it sounds like a you problem," he says. Then he looks at me, "My mom didn't like it."

"I just didn't get it," she says. "I'm not smart like you."

Levi rolls his eyes, "She says, you know, like a liar."

I'm on the outside looking in, watching them talk to each other like long-time friends. Levi's mom frowns but smiles almost immediately after. They're saying something about his dad and the bakery, and I'm looking around the house while I still can.

There are framed pictures everywhere – the making of a perfect family. First, just his parents, years in the past, hugging up in the mountains somewhere. Then a baby boy in their arms. Years later, another one. Levi's brother looks like him, except stronger in every way, stronger jaw, stronger nose, stronger mouth. He has a shaved head where Levi has curls, big muscles where Levi has nothing but flesh and bones. There are no pictures of them together, except from when they were children.

"Right, let's go," Levi says next to me.

I say goodbye to his mom and follow him outside, where the sun's disappeared behind the suburban homes and left a soft purple hue behind. We stop at a drive-through for food and eat it on the way to the library. Levi steers the wheel with one hand and eats his burger with the other one. There are tiny planets hanging from his rear-view mirror and a lemongrass air-freshener, and he's telling me if we get on the highway at night, the furthest we get from the city, the more stars we'll see in the sky.