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I read the text to the boys. I sat back, staring ahead. “He’s going to class,” I said.
“Of course he is,” Marc said. “He’s smarter than I was.”
I turned my head, looking at Marc’s profile and expecting him to say more. When he didn’t do it fast enough, I nudged him. “What?”
“When I left home,” he said, “I didn’t go to school. Hell, school was half of the reason why I left. The thing is, if you leave school, it’s the school that starts calling around, talking to the police. They have to, you know? If he’s going to school, he’s staying off police and official radars.”
Marc told me before he was part of a gang when he was younger. I wanted to ask if that was why he left school but skipped it for now. More important things to do. “So...” I said, trying to put our next step together. Anger welled inside me, clouding my thoughts as heavily as the dark surrounding us. Stressing over where I would stay until I found Wil, wondering whether he was starving or dead in a gutter, despite knowing he’d been going to school, the ideas wouldn’t go away. There was also the possibility of my past catching up with me that hampered my ability to consider my options. The more I became confused, the more I wanted to pummel both Marc and Raven as a way to release the pent-up anger and allow me to think.
Raven’s arm slid around my shoulders, drawing me in tight. He grabbed my hands with one of his and held them together at the wrist, as if reading my mind that was trying to connect the dots and needed a punching bag. “It means we wait until Monday. We show up at the school and ask him where he’s been.”
I wanted to say okay, that it sounded like a reasonable answer, but it was Saturday night which left a whole day for my brother to be out there alone. It felt wrong to simply give up on looking for him, but I didn’t have an alternate answer except for knocking on every door in the city until I found him. I didn’t want my panic to cause more problems, and was trying my best to be reasonable, to swallow the pit of fear and think of this rationally.
“There’s a team out at that school, isn’t there?” Marc asked, glancing over at Raven. His lips twisted, and a wrinkle formed between his eyebrows, contorting his face into a confused expression as he looked at Raven holding me like he was. “What’s wrong?”
“She’s angry,” Raven said as plain as telling him the time.
Marc drove in silence for a few moments like he didn’t understand this and then looked back at him. “So?”
“You’re driving,” he said. “I don’t want a wreck.”
Marc grunted. “Okay, well, text Axel and have him contact the other team. Have them keep an eye out for him. We can put a flag out at the police station and the hospitals—”
“No,” I said, twisting my wrists, trying to get Raven to let go, but he was too strong. “You can’t tell the police.”
“I’m not telling them,” Marc said. “It’s just a flag. If anyone shows up with the same description as your brother, we’ll be notified. We don’t have to call them. The flag will call us.”
“You can do that without getting him into trouble?”
“We can do a lot of things,” Marc said.
I sensed that by we he meant the Academy could do things. If they could help, I wanted it. I’d worry about repaying them later.
Raven took the phone from me, and slowly released me when I didn’t protest or hit him. He sent text messages to Axel and Corey with instructions.
What else could I do? If I went crazy looking for Wil, someone would call the police. They’d drag him back to Jack. They might look closer at us, at me. Would it do either of us any good?
Wil had been going to school. He’d been doing what he was supposed to. He just wasn’t at the hotel. He wasn’t going to tell me he was leaving? Did he think I wasn’t going to look for him?
If I hadn’t for three days, did he assume now I didn't care at all?
The anger inside of me reduced, and at the same time, my stomach started to growl. I hadn’t eaten since breakfast.
Raven passed the phone back over to Marc and then focused on me. His scowl deepened. “Hungry?”
Guess he heard my stomach. “Yeah.”
Raven nudged Marc in the shoulder and then pointed out the window. “There’s a McDonald’s.”
“We’ve got food at home,” Marc said. “We’re almost there.”
“Let’s go. I feel like chicken.”
Marc grunted but took the off ramp.
Twenty minutes later, we had three bags of McNuggets and fries. I had a milkshake but Marc told Raven to just have soda at home.
Marc passed the bags over to Raven. Raven pulled out one of the boxes of nuggets and held it out to me.
“Not in the car,” Marc said.
“She’s hungry now,” Raven said.
“She’s not two. She can wait.”
I stuffed two nuggets into my mouth and chewed, staring right at Marc.
Marc slapped me on the thigh. “Spoiled brat, stop it. You’ll get the car dirty.”
I slapped him back, chewing still and my mouth was too full to say anything. I should have been nicer since he bought me food, but I was really hungry. He glared at me, putting up a hand like he’d pop me on the leg again if I went for another nugget.
“If you let her eat,” Raven said, “she gets nice.”
“What?” Marc asked, relaxing his hand. “What do you mean?”
“I mean if you feed her, she stops hitting you. She won’t even be angry anymore.”
Marc squinted at him and then at me. “Is he serious?”
I shrugged, stuffing another nugget into my mouth. “Doesn’t hurt,” I said. I sucked down the milkshake. I wasn’t going to argue if I got food out of the deal.
Marc studied me as he continued to drive into downtown Charleston. I wasn’t sure what he was waiting for. I was too engrossed in eating to put much thought into it.
“How’d you know?” Marc asked Raven after a few minutes. “She’s all quiet now and her face isn’t all twisted like it gets when she’s angry.”
“I’m the same way,” he said. He reached out for a nugget from my open box but I pulled it back and then slapped his hand away. He still managed to snag one and popped it into his mouth. He licked his thumb and finger, causing the ring in his lip to stick out again. “I’ve still got the fries,” he said.
I didn’t care if he was Russian and huge. I’d kill him for a fry. I punched him in the arm but he punched me back. I rubbed the spot where he hit me and made a grab for the bag. “Give me,” I said.
“Okay,” he said, grinning. “Maybe she does calm down, but better not get between her and food or she’ll attack you again.” He opened the bag. “I’m getting the hang of her.”
“Leave some for the others,” Marc said.
By the time we got to the Sergeant Jasper, Raven and I had split o
ur first box of nuggets and a large container of fries. I didn’t bug him to open another box, even if I wanted some. It would do until we were sitting inside one of the apartments.
In the parking lot, I stared at the brown brick building. The drab severity contrasted with the nearby bay, palm trees and general picturesque views surrounding it. I hadn’t thought I’d see it again so soon, and it was surreal to be back. Since I was homeless, I wasn’t going to complain, but again there was an awkwardness. I didn’t want to obligate the boys to take me in because they were the only ones I knew who would. How long would they let me stay this time? Until we found Wil? I didn’t know what to do after.
Why did it feel like I wanted to be here? The sight of the Sergeant Jasper made the anger in my heart ease. I didn’t feel this way going back to the hotel. Raven opened the truck door the moment we were parked and jumped out. He held the door open for me. The moment I hobbled out next to him, he slammed the door and started in. Marc grabbed my book bags and headed in, too, and they quietly walked beside me, like there was no question that I should be going with them. There were more than a few reasons I shouldn’t stay with them like this, even if they invited me in. But it was an odd feeling — it felt right. I squashed the feelings down, not wanting to get too carried away.
For now, though, with Wil being gone, I gave in instead of arguing about it. This was just for now.
In the downstairs lobby, the uniformed night guard was at her post reading a thick romance novel. She glanced up from her book, took a small look at us, smiled and then went back to her reading. Did she really know who we were or did she not care? Was she any sort of deterrent from thugs coming in and just going upstairs?
We were the only ones in the elevator on the way up. On the seventh floor, Marc bypassed his own door and went for Corey’s and Brandon’s apartment a few doors down. He knocked twice and then three times and then once and waited.
“Is that some sort of code?” I asked.
