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Patrick shook his head.
“I don’t live far, so there isn’t a school bus for transportation. I walk.”
“How about a lift home?” I offered.
“It’s not far. I can walk.”
“Well, if it’s not far, then it’ll only take me a few minutes to drop you off.” I grinned at him, not letting him decline me easily. Besides, it sounded like he had at least some kid looking for him to fight, and I didn’t want something to happen to him.
“Alright, thank you.”
“No problem.”
As soon as we got in my 4Runner, Patrick gave me directions to his place. He really wasn’t too far at all.
“So, who are the kids you’re hiding from? Or, not hiding from, but learning self-defense for?”
Patrick hadn’t said anything, and I felt like a dick for being too pushy.
“Sorry if I overstepped. You don’t have to tell me.”
“My stepbrother and his friend,” rushed out of his mouth. “We mess around and wrestle and fight some.”
“Older?”
“Yeah. By a few years. He just moved back in with us. His college friend is also crashing at our place. His friend took the semester off college. Both are major dicks.”
I at least felt better knowing some punk kid wasn’t after him.
“Does his friend go to college close by? My parents are both college professors at USC,” I offered up.
“No. He’s a Harvard prick. Anyhow, I want to be able to have some moves to counter their moves.”
His serious tone made me decide to drop any additional comments or questions. I started up a conversation about the TCF event tomorrow night as we drove the short distance to his house. As we approached the entrance to his gated neighborhood, I was tempted to ask him what his dad did for a living. Most neighborhoods in Beverly Hills were gated, but a handful weren’t. As it turned out, his neighborhood was right next to Ginny’s.
“You can just let me out here,” he said as I got in line for the gate attendant.
“Why? There’re only a few cars ahead of us.”
He hadn’t answered, and so I continued moving forward in line. When the car ahead of me moved through the gate, I inched my way up and rolled the window down.
“Hi, I’m dropping Patrick off.” I gestured to Patrick.
“Good evening.” The gate guard smiled and nodded, then motioned me through as he waved to Patrick.
“Do you ever wonder what they’d really do if a car tried to drive through the gate?” I asked as we drove through.
“Probably nothing really ballsy,” he said. “Make a right at the stop sign and then a left at the second street.”
“My girlfriend, Ginny, lives in the neighborhood next door.”
“Does she have a car too?”
“She does.”
I downplayed her car because he obviously didn’t have one.
“I’m the last house on the right.”
