“Takes about seven hours to get to Eugene,” Curtis said, switching lanes like he drove my truck for a living.
“We’re moving to Eugene?” Finn yelled in disbelief as I turned to look at him. “That’s in Oregon!”
“It is,” I confirmed, watching as emotions from excitement to horror flickered across his face.
“But what about all my friends? I can’t go to my school if we live inEugene.”
“Dude, you knew we were moving,” Jesse said in exasperation. “Why did you think you’d go to the same school?”
“We always go to the same school,” he spat back. “We moved before, and we went to the same school!”
“We’re moving farther this time, pal,” I said calmly, trying to cut off the spiral before it happened. “You’re gonna make tons of new friends up there.”
“I like my old friends!”
“You can call them,” I replied. “Or write them? You guys could do letters like you’re pen pals.”
“That’s not the same.”
“No, it’s not,” I conceded. “But it’s gonna be good. Okay? Trust me.”
“This sucks!”
“Oh, knock it off,” Jesse said in exasperation. “You were all excited to move like half an hour ago.”
“I thought we were moving to an apartment like Hayden’s! With a pool!” Finn growled back.
“Enough,” I snapped. “Fighters, to your corners.”
Both kids immediately went silent and turned to look out their windows.
“Nice trick,” Curtis murmured, glancing at me.
“They outnumber me,” I replied, facing forward again. “I had to come up with something that immediately stopped the arguing. The trick is to not use it often. Packs more of a punch that way.”
“They didn’t know you were movin’?” he asked.
“They knew,” I hedged.
“Since about an hour ago,” Jesse added grimly.
“Got it.” He looked in the mirror again. “Just rented a big house. You’ll have your own bedrooms.”
“We already had our own bedrooms,” Finn grumbled.
“Big yard,” Curtis continued. “But it needs some work. My son, Dylan, will help with that, but we could use an extra pair of hands. Either of you up for that?”
“Pass,” Jesse replied flatly. “Wait. We’re going tolivewith you?”
I stared at the side of his face, wondering the same thing. What the absolute fuck?
“You have a son?” Finn asked hopefully. “Is he ten?”
“Nah, he’s seventeen,” Curtis replied as we pulled onto the freeway. “But he’s cool. You’ll like him.”
“Fucking fantastic,” Jesse whispered angrily.
“Teenagers don’t hang with kids,” Finn replied to Curtis.
