Snitch (23 page)

Johnny back
-
ped
a
led for a second and then snapped
.
“Andy, to me it sounds like you are the jealous one here.”

Turning on his heel, he left me standing at the gym door wondering if I really
was
the problem.

Grandpa and Grandma were back in town, so I spent that night doing the family thing, eating some great food and making small talk over dinner. Actually, I enjoy my grandparents
,
so it wasn’t so bad. Grandma makes the
tastiest
homemade chocolate cake with real fudge frosting, and Grandpa has the best stories, so when they visit
,
I basically live for the des
s
ert part of the meal.

I was separating the thick, buttery fudge from the cake when Dad began to talk politics
,
which Mom hates because he’s a Democrat and Grandma and Gra
ndpa
are staunch Republicans, so she quickly changed the subject
before anyone started arguing
.

“Did you
hear
that young man is waking up from his coma? The one they found lying in the middle of the road? They still don’t know if he will live, but things are looking up.”

I forked a small piece of fudge onto my waiting tongue and let its deliciousness dissolve.

“They just don’t know what happened.”

Dad shook his head. “When they catch
his attacker
, they ought to
lock him up and throw away the key. The paper said besides his liver injury, he was hit so hard on the head he doesn’t remember anything from the night of the accident.”

Mom interrupted. “His wife does. It seems someone was messing around on his property. He went out to surprise them.”

Sarah stopped licking the chocolate from her fingers. “Do they really have a key? If they throw it in the garbage, can’t somebody get it out again?”

“It doesn’t explain how he ended up in the middle of the road, left for dead at three in the morning.”

Sarah’s eyes grew wider. “Was he dead?
In the road?
Was it our road?”

Grandpa
coughed and quickly
changed the subject to
distract my sister
. “Sarah, did I ever tell you about
Ol
’ Man Brown?” he asked.

“About a hundred times,” Grandma groaned.

“Tell it! Tell it!” Sarah begged.

“Well, it seems somebody wants to hear it, Alice.”

So he told it.
Again.
It’s a stupid story about some farmer named Brown
—of
course
—
who
had a habit of riding with his dog, Bingo
—
double
of course
—
on his tractor. One day Bingo somehow put it in gear and rolled it over Farmer Brown. His wife didn’t blame the dog, but the neighbor who hated Bingo for one reason or another wanted it dead and spent the next few years trying to convince the sheriff to charge the animal with murder.

By the time the sheriff said he’d do something about it
—
probably just to shut the neighbor up
,
Grand
pa guessed
—
the dog had up and died. We had heard this story about
a hundred times before, but Grand
pa told it in such a funny way, changing details about the neighbor’s antics here and there, we were always happy to groan our way through it.

While the
dishes were being cleared, Grand
pa caught me alone in the living room.

“What’s bothering you, Andy?
You’re not yourself; I can tell.
C’mon. You can talk to me. I won’t go
blabbin
’ to your dad or the women.”

Gramps cracked me up
a
nd put me at ease
,
so I decided to tell him.

“Something’s going on,” I said.

“I already told
you
that,” Grand
pa answered.

“Okay. So, at school, there’s this guy who did a dumb thing, and someone told on
him—we
don’t know who. Then the whole thing snowballed and other people got involved and the one person who didn’t
do anything took the blame for telling. She can’t even go to our school anymore. It wasn’t right.”

“They were rough on her, huh?”

“Big time.
Anyway, one of the people who
was
the roughest got caught, and my…friend had to go tell a judge what happened. Now people are
mad
,
and I might have lost some friends.”

Grand
pa shook his head. “That’s a pretty big problem. Don’t know if there is a solution to that. But I can ask you one question that might make you feel better: If you had to pick one friend from the bunch, would it be the person who had your back enough to tell? Or the person who walked away from the whole mess and blamed someone who was blameless?”

I shrugged.
“Of course it would be the
one who had my back.”

“Smart boy.
Sometimes doing the right thing is the hardest
thing
,
but
you
have to
do it.”

Grand
pa looped his arm around me and gave me a hug. Not a slap-you-on-the
-back man hug, but a little-boy,
I-love-you grand
pa hug that
,
even though I was almost sixteen, I needed so badly right then. Unfortunately, even that couldn’t erase the hurt that came from knowing Johnny no longer had
my
back.

Ninth grade was coming to a close, and even though
Chrissy’s
antics would probably become legendary
,
people were more interested in how many
times they were in the yearbook
or when they traded their learning permits for a license. With only a few weeks of school left, there were parties and exams and final projects to worry about.

I was in the locker room helping Coach
count
some equipment when the hair on my neck alerted me to the fact that I was no longer alone. Johnny stood watching me, his mouth working to say something but unable. He looked horrible with big black circles under his eyes, like maybe he hadn’t slept in a while.

I broke the silence because I figured with the way he
looked,
it would be easier for him if I talked first.

“You okay?”

He nodded
.
“I won’t lie, I’ve had better days.”

“What’s wrong?”

“Nothing.
Nothing I can’t handle.”

I waited, but Johnny wasn’t talking; he was lost in thought. “Is it girls?
Tammera
?”

“Girls?
No. It’s nothing. I just wanted to say I was sorry for going off on you last week.”

“It’s okay. I kind of went off on you, too. I just miss
us.
Our friendship.”

“I got a lot on my mind.”

“I don’t want to say, but you look like shit. What’s going on? Is it school?”

Johnny sat down.
“School?
Yeah. It’s
gonna
be school. I haven’t been keeping up lately. I’m in real trouble with my science project.” He shook his head. “Like, I haven’t even started.”

“Are you kidding? You flunk and you won’t be able to play football next year.”

Johnny raised one eyebrow. “
It’s time to
admit it: I’m kind of small for football. I’m not going out for the team.”

I was quiet. This wasn’t how we had always planned it. It was always the two of us, playing sports, watching each other’s backs, laughing through life.

“
It’ll be okay. I
can help you with science. Between the two of us, we can knock something out to turn in.”

“You’d do that?” Johnny smiled
a smile I couldn’t figure out: c
rooked and sad at the same time. “Of course you would.” His smile widened and Johnny let out a big sigh. “You’re a great friend. I’ve been a shit lately.”

“So we’ll meet tonight?
Your house or mine?”

“I can’t tonight, but I can tomorrow. Let’s make it your house. Mine is too…noisy.”

He stood up and offered a fist bump. “Thanks, O. You’re
gonna
save my ass
,
and it’s
gonna
be okay.”

He smiled and walked away, but I knew things weren’t okay. Even though his mouth smiled,
Johnny’s
eyes were still dead.

***

Liz and I met at an early movie that night, which meant we sat in the back row, watched the first and last five minutes so we could give a half-respectable Mom
-
and
-
Dad movie review, and spent the rest of the time
up
close and personal with each other.

Liz was becoming an important part of me. We had been together long enough so I knew what she was thinking, and she knew what I was going to say. I could tell her everything
—
my problems, my stupid ideas,
everything. Even though we didn’t win, we were on the ballot for the ninth grade cutest couple, so when I told Liz I loved her it felt like the right thing to do.

“So you’re meeting Johnny tomorrow night, right?”

We were leaving the theat
er,
Liz’s hand intertwined and warm in mine. Her parrot earrings caught the overhead lights and winked at me.

“Yep.
I don’t know what his project is about; I just know if I help him get a D he should pass. You’re not mad are you? We’ll have to skip the park.”

“No; go help him. It’s the right thing to do. Besides,” she rolled her eyes, “I have quadratic equations to conquer. I heard the algebra exam is really hard.” She stopped and faced me. “Does Johnny usually do stuff like this?”

“Not really. I mean, he never was really good at science, so I could see him messing up
,
I guess.”

The truth was, I couldn’t see it, not really. Johnny might be a prankster and a cut up, but he was logical and
realistic
for the most part. His grades were important because sports and theat
er
w
ere
important. Maybe he was partying a little too much. Maybe something was going on at home he hadn’t told me about. Whatever it was, I could help him get
one piece of stress off his back: his science project. Johnny was my best friend; he would confide in me sooner or later.

“Text me if you need me to do anything,” Liz said as she pulled out her phone.
“Dang it!
Dad’s here. I
gotta
go.” She pressed her warm body up to mine
,
brushing her lips to my ear. “I love you
,
Andy-O. I love you because you are such a good guy.”

I locked my knees because her body, so close to mine, made them shake.

“I love you too
,
Liz…because…” I thought of all the reasons why. “Because you are the most beautiful person I have ever known.”

She kissed me the way I loved it: her mouth open just a little, her tongue sending flickering Liz
-
tricity
through me that arched all the way to my toes.

Except for the fact that her father was there, I could have kissed her like that all night.

***

By nine o’clock the next night, I was pissed.
Royally, totally, pissed.
I had cancelled a night with Liz
and spent several hours putting a paper o
n
the effects of greenhouse gasses on the weather
just to be stood up by Johnny. What kind of great friend was that? I punched his speed dial for
about the tenth time and got the same annoying voice mail I knew would never be answered.
Finally, I texted Liz.

“
You up?
”

“
Fighting w/
lgebra
its winning
”

“
Lol
am g
oing to fight w
johnny
tmorow
!!!!!!!!
”

“
Y??
”