End of the Innocence (29 page)

“Hey, you’re the one who brought it up,” I said, writing the totals down. “I was just making an observation.”

In silence, he watched me fill out the deposit slip and lock up the money bag. When I was done, I looked over at him. “You wanna grab some food?”

He looked over at the window, and I could tell that was a bad idea. “Um, I’m not really hungry.”

That was bullshit because Kelly was always hungry. “I have an idea,” I said, pulling out my cell phone. I dialed Nancy’s diner, and Gayle answered. I explained to her that I was stuck across the street at the store and wondered if she could bag up two burgers, and I’d run over and grab them real quick. She said she’d do me one better and bring them over, which I tried to talk her out of. But she insisted and hung up before I could stop her.

I put my phone away and said to Kelly, “I think food is coming to us.”

He got off the stool, looking slightly panicked. “Someone is coming here?” he asked looking around. “Can I wait in the back room?”

I could not believe this guy who was afraid of his own shadow was the same Kelly Aimes I had known my whole life. “It’s okay, dude,” I said, trying to calm him down. “No one is going to try any shit here.”

He didn’t look convinced, but he didn’t run out the back door, which I took as a compromise.

I grabbed a stool from the back room and brought it out front. “So, how does it feel?” I asked.

“How does what feel?” he asked, confused.

“Well, you just had your first openly gay conversation with someone,” I said, smiling. “Though Mr. Parker is hot enough to turn straight guys’ heads. You did admit he was hot.”

He blushed slightly and took a long drink of Coke to cover it. “I did say that, didn’t I?” he marveled after a few seconds. “It feels good to say it to someone out loud.”

I held up my Coke in toast. “To feeling good.”

He clinked my bottle, and I could see him relax slightly.

We began talking about the football season, and he visibly became more excited as he talked. If there was one thing Kelly loved, it was football, not just playing the game but everything about it. He knew more about the players and the teams’ stats than anyone I had ever known. I liked baseball, but I had to admit that, outside of the Rangers, I didn’t know squat. We talked about Tebow some, and when I said he was hot as well, I could see Kelly redden slightly and then hesitantly agree.

That was when someone knocked at the door.

He almost fell off his stool as he scrambled for the back room. “Calm down,” I said, walking toward the door. “It’s okay.” I used the same tone I would if I was trying to convince a nervous horse not to trample me to death getting away from a snake. I unlocked the door and cracked it open. Ten seconds later, Gayle pushed the door open the rest of the way and walked in carrying a cardboard box filled with Styrofoam containers.

“You didn’t say you wanted anything to drink, but I brought Kyle a tea in case…,” she began to say and then saw Kelly half crouched behind the counter. “Kelly? Kelly Aimes?” she asked, not believing her own eyes. She looked back at me. “I thought you were in here with Kyle.”

I shook my head as I locked the door. “Nope, just us.”

She put the box down on the counter and walked over to Kelly. “Kelly Aimes, get over here.” He froze, not sure what to do, so she walked right up to him and gave him a huge hug. Kelly just stood there, dumbfounded. “Kelly, do not listen to what those asshats are saying. I mean it. Greatness is always met by hatred. The true test is overcoming it.” I saw Kelly’s arms move around her as he hugged her back. I had to admit, I should have thought of doing that earlier.

When Gayle pulled back, I could see both of them were a bit teary. “You know you can eat across the street anytime you want. I mean it.” He nodded, no doubt not sure if he could speak without his voice cracking. “I’ve thrown more than my share of idiots out before and am always ready to do it again.”

Kelly laughed. “I was one of those assholes not so long ago.”

Gayle shushed him with a gesture. “What happened in the past stays in the past.” She turned and looked at me. “And if you start to pull your wallet out, we are going to throw down right here in the store.”

I slowly stopped reaching for my money.

“If you boys need anything, call,” she said, moving toward the door. “And Kelly?” she asked, looking at him. “Anytime at all.”

Kelly smiled and waved good-bye to her. I locked the door after she left. “See?” I said, walking back toward the food. “Not everyone is out to get you.”

He didn’t say anything, just nodded and grabbed his burger. I took him home once we were done.

The next day Andy and the library crew came into the shop. Mr. Parker had asked me to cover for him. He said something about getting his computer worked on. He sounded
way
too happy to be getting computer work done, but I didn’t question him.

Andy set his laptop down on the counter. The look on his face told me he had found the information I had been looking for.

When I had been feeling helpless about being able to help Kyle, I had asked my role-playing friends, who were much smarter than me, if they could find out where Kelly’s video had come from. Besides Facebook and YouTube, I didn’t know a thing about the Internet, and I had been hoping there was a way for them to find it.

“You found out who?” I asked hopefully.

“Yeah,” Andy answered cautiously. “But you aren’t going to like it.”

I made a face. “Someone is responsible for making my friend’s life a living hell. I can’t imagine liking anything about this.”

“Well, you are going to not like this even more,” he added cryptically. He looked over to Jeff.

“We ran a search on the video, trying to find out where it had started.” He pushed a couple of buttons on the laptop. “It’s been shared a lot, but it’s still essentially the same file over and over again. So we looked at the first indication when it popped up on the web, and we found a YouTube account it had been uploaded to the night of the party.”

Mike stepped forward. “Which was very cool, by the way. Thanks for inviting us.”

I smiled and nodded but looked back at the laptop. Jeff kept talking. “It looks like someone took the file from that account and uploaded it again under a new account that was created the next morning. So if we are going by time, whoever uploaded it that night is the person who started all this.”

“So then who is it?” I asked, getting impatient.

“The YouTube account has been turned to private since, so it is impossible now to even tell who the channel belongs to or who uploaded it. Luckily Google cached the page before it was locked down.”

I gave him a blank look. “You know I don’t understand a word of what you’re saying.”

He ignored me and kept going. “When it was cached, it had the user name on it.” He turned the computer around and showed me a screen capture of the page.

The account belonged to BluehairedgirlinTx. Kyle’s friend Sammy stared out at me from the profile box.

I barely remembered to thank the guys, and we made plans to start gaming right after Christmas before they left, but I honestly wasn’t paying a lot of attention. I sat there, mindlessly helping customers while I tried to figure out what to do with this information. Did I confront her? Or did I tell Kyle? Better question, did I tell Kelly?

I literally had no idea what to do, and as the day went on, I became more and more upset by what I’d learned.

It wasn’t like Sammy was a big fan of mine. The fight we had the day Kyle took off was proof enough of that. And, to be honest, I had no idea what to say to her. Walking up and knocking on her door just seemed like a waste of time to me because as far as I could figure it, her next move would be slamming the door in my face.

Finally, I decided I had to tell Kyle. One, because if I didn’t and he found out, he’d kill me. Two, because I hated keeping things from him. And three, because he’s like a million times smarter than I am, and he would know what to do. I texted him to see if he wanted to meet me at the shop when I closed. I had been stopping by his place when I got off work instead of having him come to me because he lived so far from the store.

He showed up around four in the afternoon, a worried look on his face.

“What’s wrong?” he asked without even a hello as a preamble.

I began to explain what Jeff had explained to me. His expression got darker and darker as I went on. When I told him Sammy had uploaded the file, he didn’t even look like he was breathing. I waited for him to react, to say something, even blink, but I have seen more expressive statues. Finally he looked at his phone. “What time do you close up?” he asked.

“Um, five if there is no one in here,” I answered, confused.

“I’ll be back,” he said, turning around and walking out.

Even a lifetime season ticket to the Rangers Ballpark wouldn’t have been enough for me to want to be Sammy.

K
YLE

A
S
I charged down First Street, I didn’t even notice the cold, I was so mad.

Here was exactly the reason I didn’t have friends before Brad. Well, okay, I didn’t say that right. This was the reason I told myself I was better off not having friends when I needed a pep talk to get me out of the depression I felt being alone. The reason was this simple: no matter how well you thought you knew someone, you never really knew them. You or I could run the math and try to come up with answers to all the what-if’s your brain could muster and still be completely stunned by what people actually do. Human beings are just too chaotic creatures to accurately predict, and I have to admit that drove me positively insane.

Obviously, I had forgotten everything I’d ever taught myself, since I couldn’t help but feel betrayed by Sammy.

I tried to get my anger under control as I walked up to her front door, but I wasn’t doing a very good job of it. When she answered the door and made eye contact, I could see the look of guilt in her eyes. “Why?” I asked her, not even bothering trying to work up to the point.

She took a step out into the cold and closed the door behind her. “Does it matter?” she said in a completely lifeless voice. I had heard more emotion out of a GPS than what came out of her mouth.

“Of course it matters,” I snapped. Something in the back of my mind began to bother me. “You ruined someone’s life!”

“Yeah, well, he deserved it.” Again, her words held none of the feeling they should have. She was almost reciting a script rather than actually speaking to me.

“You think anyone deserves what he is going through?” I asked, outraged. “His entire life is ruined, and you think that’s okay?” She stared intently at the ground, refusing to keep eye contact with me. “Was this your way of getting back at him for something?”

She looked up, and I saw a small spark of anger in her eye, but it faded almost immediately. “Sure, let’s go with that,” she agreed sarcastically.

Now that “something in the back of my mind” marched forward and became an identifiable something in the front of my mind. “So you’re such a petty lowlife that you wouldn’t be happy until you got back at Kelly for—for what? Something he did months ago?” She glared at me again, and I saw that same spark. I didn’t let up. “You are so small-minded that instead of trying to bury the hatchet and just enjoy the party, you went just to get revenge?” I could see her anger flaring, but she still refused to say anything. “You must have been pretty mad, to carry around that anger for so long. And what about Brad? He was there too. Why not get him also?”

If looks could kill, I’d be six feet under right now.

“I will admit, I underestimated you. Not just about you being angry, though. I didn’t know how fast you can run,” I added quietly. Sammy couldn’t stop her gasp. “Because when I got downstairs, you were still by the music… which was coming from Jeremy’s iPhone, right?” She said nothing. “In fact, if I remember correctly, the only person who wasn’t there was Jeremy.”

Her anger faded, and she looked down again.

“Just out of curiosity, did anyone borrow your phone that night, Sammy?”

She nodded and peered at me through the tears in her eyes. But I wasn’t in the mood to go “Awww.”

“Why would you cover for him?” I asked, pissed. “Why would you let me think you’d done that?”

She shrugged. “Because. If I was in your shoes, I wouldn’t believe me either.” A tear ran down her cheek. “When I saw what he’d put on my phone, I freaked. I didn’t know what to do.” She sighed, resigned. “Somehow I knew you’d figure it out. And you did.” A strangled mix of ironic laugh and broken sob escaped her. She wiped her cheek, although the tears kept leaking out of her eyes. “What are you going to do?”

That was when I realized I was being a complete asshole. That I’d been a complete asshole from the second I saw Sammy’s face on the laptop and stormed off to confront her. I’d committed the same crime I’d accused Robbie of when I’d told him he was a bigot the previous week.

I had assumed that, because she was straight, she couldn’t be trusted. “I don’t know,” I finally admitted. “It’s not like confronting him will do any good.”

“Not even a little,” she agreed. “Jeremy’s angry. He thinks the world hates him.”

“Hard to see why,” I said bitterly, then, more calmly, “I shouldn’t have been so quick to think you did it.”

She gave a small unfunny laugh. “If I was you, I would have thought I did it.”

“I should have trusted a friend,” I said as earnestly as I could.

“And I should have told you he did it,” she countered. “So we’re both idiots.” She held her hand out. “Do-over?”

I nodded and shook her hand. “Total do-over.”

“You want to come in out of the cold?” she asked, rubbing her arms. “I’m about to get frostbite out here.”

“I need to get back to the shop,” I replied, wishing I could get inside. “Brad’s waiting for me.” At the mention of Brad’s name, she went wide-eyed.

“You know if you tell Brad about Jeremy, he will beat him senseless.”

I did know that, which was why I hadn’t planned on telling him what I had figured out.