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“I know who he is.”
I hang my head. “I’ve been looking forward to this all morning.”
“And he’s not going to ruin it,” he says, taking my hand and leading me back towards my car. “I’ll meet you outside the library.”
* * *
Simon
He’s my brother’s friend.
There’s more to it than that. The way Wes Keller looks at her isn’t innocent, and that wasn’t some conscientious cop or concerned family friend routine I just witnessed. He looked pained when he placed his hand on Charlotte’s shoulder, like he was struggling to regain some measure of control.
He’s affected by her, same as me.
Christian’s pack of wolves. Not one of those boys set foot near the courthouse during his trial. They were all in on it, and I still to this day don’t know how they can live with what they did. I try to imagine it, to put myself in their shoes. But I can’t picture anyone persuading me to turn on a friend like Garth, or getting me to turn on the worst, least likable guy in my school for that matter. So I see people like Wes Keller as weak, easily manipulated—as less than a man.
He’s a piece of shit. He doesn’t get to touch her.
She looks left and right as she makes her way to my car. “Hey,” she whispers, avoiding my eyes when she clicks her seat belt into place.
I wait her out, and it’s nearly a full minute before she looks my way. “Hey,” I say back, smiling.
She lets out the breath she’s been holding. “I’m sorry, he just showed up out of the blue. He’s angry with me.”
“For what?”
“I know what happened to your brother. And I can’t pretend. I can’t just go on acting like Wes is the person I thought he was.” Shaking her head, she says, “I wanted to take up where we left off last night. I didn’t want all this between us again.”
“None of that is between you and me, do you understand?”
“Since when?”
I take her hand and give it a gentle squeeze. “Since I said so.” She nods, her mood lighter. “Let’s get out of here. I feel like I’ve got you on borrowed time.”
“Where to?”
“One of my brother’s friends works at a go-kart place in Rumson. You up for that?”
“I’ve never tried it before, but yeah, sure.”
“How do you have a license already anyway? I was wondering that the other day.”
“My father got that waiver for me…To drive back and forth to work.”
“But you drive everywhere and at all times of day.”
She’s smiling when she nods and says, “Yup.”
“Friends in high places.” I say it without thinking. “Sorry, didn’t mean anything by that.”
“It’s all right,” she says, but it’s not. I know she’s trying to change the subject when she asks, “This guy is a friend of Timmy’s?”
“No, my brother Mike. You wouldn’t know him. He’s been living up in Chicago for the past two years.”
“Oh, so you’ll be near him this fall. That’s nice.”
“You know about Northwestern?”
