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“Seriously, Patrick,” I said again, hoping to get my point across that it didn’t bother me. When the light turned green, I changed the subject. “I hope you’re hungry. My mom goes all out with dinner and snacks.”
“I’m starved. It sounds good.”
“Is, um, your hand okay?” I asked as we pulled into the neighborhood.
He quickly looked down and then shoved his hands in the front pocket of his hoodie.
“It’s fine.”
“Are you sure? It looked red and maybe a little bloody. We can clean it up before dinner.” I wasn’t going to let him sit around all night hurting or needing a bandage.
“Okay,” he replied.
I pulled into our three-car garage and led Patrick into the house. When we walked into the great room, I glanced at the TV. It was showing a preview of tonight’s TCF event with a countdown ticker in the lower left corner showing we still had almost two hours before the event.
“Hey, sweetie,” Mom said from behind the counter. She was rinsing off some grapes. “I was starting to get worried. Did you have any trouble?”
Since turning sixteen and being a new driver with a brand-new SUV, Mom always worried when I was even a few minutes longer than I should be.
“No. I met Patrick’s dad and stepbrother,” I said and left it at that. I wasn’t going to go into my opinion of them in front of Patrick. “Mom, this is Patrick.”
“Hello, Patrick. We’re happy you could come over.”
This afternoon when Dad and I got home, I explained to Mom and him about why I invited Patrick over in what appeared to be the last minute or with little warning. I hadn’t mentioned that I’d seen any marks on him but that I just felt like he didn’t have any friends and a not so great home life.
Unfortunately, I’d just witnessed crap that validated my thoughts. Even though I wasn’t able to say exactly why things felt off, or why I felt the way I did about his home life, Mom and Dad told me to keep an eye on Patrick at school and to let them know if anything seems off. At this point, I didn’t really know what was going on with Patrick’s family. All I knew for sure was that he was very guarded, shy, and fought often with his stepbrother. I didn’t know what or why exactly, but I felt like something was off with Patrick’s family situation.
My parents said to make sure Patrick always had something to eat, or to offer him something if he didn’t. They said they would never be upset with me for inviting Patrick anywhere without talking to them first.
“Hi, thank you for having me,” Patrick said. I noticed he hadn’t brought his hand out of his sweatshirt pocket.
“You’re staying the night, right?” Mom asked him.
“He is,” I spoke up and answered for him. There was no way in hell I was letting Patrick go home to that shit tonight.
“You’re more than welcome to stay, Patrick. Do you have any food allergies?” Mom asked. She always did the cover-your-ass type of stuff with our friends.
“No, ma’am,” he answered.
“He’s obviously not allergic to nuts because he hangs out with Hollis,” Morgan said as he walked into the room and playfully bumped me. Patrick grinned and then laughed out loud at Morgan’s sarcastic jab at me.
“Very funny,” I said and laughed along. “Patrick, this is my brother, Morgan. He’s in the ninth grade at our school.”
“Hey, nice to meet you, Patrick.”
“Nice to meet you too. I hear your name mentioned a lot during the morning announcements. It’s good to have a face to go with your name,” Patrick said.
“It’s nice to have a face to go with your name too,” Morgan said. I could see the panic setting in on Patrick’s face. Maybe he was worried I’d said something less than nice about him, and I thought Morgan picked up on it too, and he quickly spoke up to explain. “Hollis has mentioned your name a few times from karate class and said that you work out with him at school.”
“Yeah, I help make sure the weight bar doesn’t collapse on his chest,” Patrick joked back. I was glad to see Morgan helped Patrick ease into the atmosphere.
While Morgan talked to Patrick about karate, the top of Chase’s head caught my attention. He must have been lying on the floor watching the TCF preview and now was attempting to stealthily make his presence known. I turned my attention away from Chase when Morgan said my name.
“What’s the name of the two boys at our school that we took karate with when we were younger?” he asked.
“Um, Seth Roberts and Blaine Webb,” I said.
I had turned my back on Chase and then heard him make his wrestling roar right before he jumped from the back of the couch onto my back. Chase’s body weight wasn’t enough to move me from my spot. He had wrapped his arms around my neck but was slowly sliding down my back. I rolled my eyes.
