“What class is it for?”
“It’s not for class,” I answered, then looked into my lap. I really am a nerd.
“Cool. So, how ya doin’?” Wesley asked, looking down at the pool and then back to me. “You seemed kinda out of it earlier, when your sister walked in.”
I looked around the bleachers self-consciously, remembering bits of conversations that I overheard. “Um, I’m okay.”
“Has your sister been up yet?” I shook my head. “Let’s go outside. It’s too damn hot in here and I wanna have a smoke anyway.”
I hesitated but then picked up my book and followed him outside. He led me to the side of the school, in a shadow between yellow streetlights. He ran his hand through his hair and smiled at me.
“I wasn’t sure if you would be here or not, so I took a chance,” he said, lighting a cigarette and letting it dangle between his lips. “I wanted to see if you were okay. You seemed a little freaked out when your sister walked in.” He looked at me and I looked down to the ground. “But your sister didn’t seem surprised. She actually seemed pretty cool about it.” I nodded and Wesley took a couple hits of his cigarette.
He talked and I listened. I kept my eyes to the side, on the constant lookout for anyone. I felt so nervous around him, but it wasn’t like anyone could know what had happened earlier just by looking at us.
“Well, I guess we should go back in.” He took the cigarette from his lips and flicked it to the side. He kissed me quickly; then he smiled and walked toward the door. “C’mon, we don’t wanna miss your sister.”
I followed Wesley inside, and we returned to the same place in the bleachers. I still felt nervous around him, but it was a different type of nervous, an exhilarating nervous. We talked about school, and books and music, about everything. We cheered hard for Alycia. She won both the 50- and 100-meter butterfly. After the first race, she pulled her goggles up to her forehead and searched the crowd for me. A smile brightened her face when she saw Wesley sitting beside me. Now I just had to make sure she kept her mouth shut.
Chapter 5
“HEY. HEY! Toren!” Wesley whispered loudly. He was at the end of the hall, poking his head around the corner. “Grab your bag. Let’s go,” he whispered as I walked over to him.
“What?” It was kind of amusing; he reminded me of a cartoon bank robber looking around to see if the coast was clear.
“C’mon, hurry up! Before Hannity sees us,” Wesley urged. I looked at him blankly and he widened his eyes at me. I hesitated, then grabbed my book bag from my locker and followed Wesley to the parking lot. “I’m turning you into a delinquent, aren’t I?” Wesley said proudly as we drove away from the school.
We drove for a while, taking the back roads outside of town. He turned onto a narrow dirt road, pocked with potholes, and I asked him where we were going.
“You’ll see,” he said with a smile.
We drove past flat cornfields and thick forests, winding around the vast maze of dirt roads that gridded the farmlands. Wesley pulled off to the side next to a small patch of trees, like a mini-forest in the middle of an open field. He led me into a ring of trees that surrounded a small pond. Cattails grew at one end, and the little pool was green with algae. Beside the water, a fallen tree served as a low bench and Wesley sat down, patting the crumbling log next to him.
“It’s way too nice out to be cooped up in a classroom,” he said as I sat down beside him.
“Yeah, it’s beautiful out today,” I agreed, looking through the tree trunks at the stark field on the other side. I could hear a bullfrog and I searched the pond, but I couldn’t see it.
Wesley sighed lightly. A shy smile passed his lips, and he glanced at me. “You know, you’re the first person I ever brought here.”
“Really?” I asked stupidly. I didn’t know what to say, but I felt special.
“Yeah, I guess you seemed to be the right person to share it with.”
I smiled and fiddled my hands in my lap. “It’s really pretty out here. How did you ever find this place?”
“I don’t even know,” he said, peeling off a piece of bark. “I come out here when my folks get on my case. It’s just sorta… relaxing.”
Wesley pulled out a pack of cigarettes and lit one. There was a silence and I felt a little awkward. But the quiet passed and we talked for almost an hour. Wesley told me a little about his family, about his brother away at college, about his job, about everything. I liked listening to him talk; he seemed different from the Wesley I saw at school: he was sensitive and smart and he could be serious. I felt like I got to see a side of him that not everyone got to see.
“So, have you decided where you’re gonna go to school?” I asked after a short silence. I stretched out my legs and glanced at Wesley from the corner of my eye.
Wesley shook his head and snubbed out his cigarette. “Nah. I’m not going to school. I figure that I’ll start working full-time at the body shop.” He placed the cigarette butt in a neat pile beside him on the log.
“You’re not going to college?” I asked, turning and looking at Wesley with surprise.
“School’s never really been my thing,” he answered.
I looked down and bit my lip. I had always planned on going to college; my mom would kill me if I didn’t go. “But what about your parents? Don’t they want you to go?”
“Nah, they really don’t care. They’re pretty much counting down the days till I move out. They pinned all
