Everyone in the small town of Hull knows two things. One: Jill Williams doesn't date, and two: Carson Blue is addicted to drugs.
When Carson decides to clean up his act and apply at Jill's family restaurant, she's less than enthused. Between school...
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NOLAN IS MOPING at one of the tables at work the next day while Colleen is at the grocery store for a training shift—or so she says.
"What are you reading, buddy?" I ask him between customers, even though it's clearly a comic book. Things have been strained between us since he called me overbearing. I don't hold it against him; I remember what it was like to be angsty and thirteen and mad at the world. But he hurt my feelings, and I'm pretty sure he knows it.
When Nolan doesn't answer, I sigh and turn away from him, ready to keep serving. The diner is steadily busy today, and the chatter in the air, along with the smell of maple and bacon, relaxes me. It's a normalcy I've gotten used to since I started working when I was sixteen. Mom chirps menu suggestions at a table with the mid-morning sun as her backdrop. It's nice to see her in her own skin again.
Nolan's voice stops me in my tracks.
"Carson was supposed to teach me to play guitar last night," he says. "He never showed up." Frowning, I face him, but Nolan's still looking at the comic book. "I waited at his trailer for two hours."
"Two hours? Why didn't you go home?"
"He said he'd come. I'd seen him at the park earlier, and he told me to meet him at his trailer later. Then when I went over he wasn't home, so I sat by the firepit and waited."
Jesus, Blue, what the hell happened last night? When he left work, I had a bad feeling—but what if it was worse than I thought? Maybe he went to Shae's. Either way, he has some nerve making plans with my little cousin then blowing him off. I can see it all over Nolan's face: he's hurt.
"Carson probably fell asleep," I reason. "It wasn't because of you, bud. He didn't mean to ditch you."
"I knocked on the door and his mom said he went out."
"Well... that's not very nice of him. Carson's shift starts soon, why don't you stick around and ask him what happened?" It'd be good for Nolan to learn how to stand up for himself. What Carson did to him wasn't fair, no matter what happened. But Nolan is already shoving his comic book into his backpack.
"I'm gonna go meet up with Mike and them and go biking," Nolan says. I hesitate; part of me wants to keep an eye on him, but now isn't the time to mom him. I need to let him breathe, and be a kid sometimes, because that's what I'm trying to protect, isn't it?
"Okay," I say. "Just make sure you're back at the park for dinner. Your mom's cooking tonight."
"Yeah, sure."
With that, Nolan zips out of the restaurant. Through the windows, I watch him unlock his BMX bike—the last present his sorry dad ever bought him—and take off into the sunny day. He reminds me of a little lost soul.
Carson owes him a big-time apology. It's all I can think about for the next hour as I keep working. When the clock strikes 9:58 a.m., Carson finally shows up. I'm wiping up a coffee spill when he breezes straight into the sunroom, and the smell of cigarettes carries on the wind he leaves behind.
