When Friendship Followed Me Home by Paul Griffin Page A

little bigger than the one that triggered Kayla’s asthma attack.
    â€œWhat’s in the box?” Leo said.
    She did a double take on him. “How could you, Leo?” she said. “I can smell it from here. I’m
not
going through this again.”
    â€œFor cripe’s sake Jeanie, relax, it was one freaking beer.”
    â€œIt
wasn’t
one.”
    â€œYou have to embarrass me in front of the kid?”
    â€œYou embarrass yourself.”
    â€œA guy can’t even have a couple of drinks in his own house once every five years?” He got up and went to his office and shut the door and turned up the TV loud enough so we could hear it through the wall. Two wrestlers yelled about how they were going to mangle each other once they got into the ring. Aunt Jeanie sat on the couch and tried not to cry. “I’m sorry you had to see that.”
    â€œIt’s okay,” I said.
    â€œIt’s not,” she said. “It’s not.”
    I sat next to her. Flip shivered at my feet. I wanted to pick him up, but Aunt Jeanie had a rule of no dogs on the couch. She put the box on the coffee table. “Tess,” she said.
    â€œOh,” I said. “That’s like . . .”
    â€œLike what?”
    â€œI don’t know.”
    â€œI don’t either,” she said. “I really don’t.” She breathed in slowly and then breathed out fast and choppy and cried. I put my hand on her shoulder. “Thank you,” she said. She held my hand for a second, squeezed it, and then put it on my lap and patted it and took her hand away. “It’s late,” she said. “You don’t want to fall asleep in school tomorrow.”
    We were off for Rosh Hashanah again but I said, “Definitely not. Good night.” I couldn’t get away from those ashes fast enough. I forced myself not to run to my room. Flip stuck so close to my feet I was tripping over him.
    â€œBen?” she said. “I’m glad it went well today. With the dog, I mean.”
    â€œThank you.” I closed the door and then my eyes and I counted. I figured maybe I’d get to ten before it started, but it kicked in at six. I couldn’t hear exactly what Leo and Aunt Jeanie were screaming at each other, but it was louder than the wrestlers.
    Less than four years. That’s how long we had to last before I’d be allowed to go live on my own, legally. I was a year ahead in school, and if I kept working really hard I could make up another one and graduate at sixteen. Flip and I would get the heck out of the city and tag along with Halley to the same college, and she and I would take the same English classes and become writing partners—except they probably didn’t let you bring dogs into the dorm rooms.

28
    ROCKS AND BOOKS
    The next day was like the night before never happened. Leo and I went to Home Depot and bought bags of rocks and spread them out in the tiny yard. “It’s a rock garden,” he said. “I guess you figured that out. You’re a good worker, running those coupon deliveries at the crack of dawn, helping me now.”
    â€œYou too.”
    â€œI been at it a long time,” he said. “I’ll die working. You though, always studying the way you do, I think you just might make it.”
    â€œMake what?”
    â€œChamp, you like golf?”
    â€œMini.”
    â€œThat’s not a crime. Yet.
Ha.
I can teach you how to play real golf, you know? Maybe we’ll go to the driving range sometime.” He farted and covered his mouth for some reason. “’Scuse me. I’ll be back.” He went in.
    Jeanie came out with lemonade. “He’s sick from the beer. Serves him right.” She was looking at me like she wanted me to say something. I shrugged. She sat and patted the porch step for me to sit next to her. “I ordered an angel figurine online. It looks like marble but it’s