Trailer Trash (8 page)

All those little cliques, and Cody imagined every single one of them turning to watch as Nate parked. Jennifer Parker raised her hand to wave at them. Well, to wave at Nate, at any rate. Then she glanced at Cody, and her brow wrinkled in confusion. She leaned toward her friends, and they all started talking, glancing pointedly toward the Mustang.

“I take it you’ve met her already?” It surprised Cody, because Nate hadn’t mentioned it.

“Once.” Nate didn’t seem inclined to elaborate. He killed the engine and sat there, fiddling with his class ring, sizing it all up. “It’s so small. I mean, is this everybody?”

“I’m sure there are a few more inside.”

“How many students, though?”

“About two hundred total.”

Nate whistled through his teeth and looked down at his class ring. “My graduating class alone back in Austin was four hundred and thirty two.” He scowled. “I guess it isn’t my graduating class anymore.” He scanned the groups again. “Do they ever mix?”

“On the surface, sure. I mean, like you said, the school isn’t that big. We all have classes together. Or, you know, some of the cowboys are on the wrestling team and the football team with the jocks. But once lunchtime rolls around—”

“Or parties on the weekend?”

“Right. Then you gotta know where you belong. And if you don’t, they’ll sure as hell let you know.” Nate glanced Cody’s way, and Cody shook his head, refusing to meet Nate’s eyes. “There’s a few people who manage to sort of float between them all, you know? Like Logan Robertson and Christine Lucero.”

“Christine? I think I met her too.”

Cody looked over at him, his curiosity piqued. “When was this?”

“Last week. The day before we went to Rock Springs. I went out to some mine with a few of them.”

For some reason, that hurt. Cody couldn’t quite say why. “Why didn’t you tell me?”

“Because I knew you’d make a big deal out of it.” And Nate’s tone told him that was exactly what he thought Cody was doing.

“What’d they say about me?”

“Nothing.”

Cody knew he was lying by the way he clenched his jaw and refused to look at him, but they must not have given him the full scoop, or Nate wouldn’t have insisted on Cody riding to school with him. “Did you bang Christine?”

Nate’s head whipped his way. “What? No!”

“Somebody did. Logan can go from group to group because he’s the quarterback, and he does what he wants. That’s just how he is, but Christine only manages because she puts out.” He felt guilty for saying it though. He liked Christine. “It ain’t her fault, you know. Her dad makes my dad look like Father of the Year. Show me a girl who can’t say no, I’ll show you a girl who’s spent too many birthdays staring out the window, waiting for her daddy to show. Seems like having a deadbeat dad’s harder on girls than it is on us, you know?”

This was met with dead silence, and Cody squirmed, wondering why he’d said so much. He finally made himself look over at Nate. He couldn’t read Nate’s expression—he was either impressed, or sad, or both. “No, I didn’t know. I hadn’t ever quite realized that, but you’re right. The girls I knew back home with that kind of reputation . . .” He leaned back in his seat, tapping his fingers against the steering wheel, staring at some distant point in the sky, miles beyond the high school. “So what happens to boys with deadbeat moms?”

Cody frowned, wondering how he’d managed to make Nate so somber. “They become serial killers. Whatta you think?”

Nate laughed, like Cody’d hoped he would, and it felt like they were back on solid ground again.

“Christine’s cool. She’s a year behind us. Her brother Larry is our year though, and he’s the world’s biggest asshole. Just so you know.”

“Can’t wait to meet him.”

Cody sighed, noting the way the Orange Grove residents were all watching them while trying to look like they weren’t. “They’re gonna give you hell for giving me a ride. You should tell ’em we just met, and you felt sorry for me.”

“I’m not telling them that.”

Cody rubbed his forehead, wondering how many times he’d get his ass kicked this year. Then he glanced at Nate and wondered the same thing about him. Of course, once Nate was in tight with the preps, he’d only have the cowboys to worry about. Cody, on the other hand, was pretty much fair game. He felt like the minute he and Nate walked through the front doors, he’d be alone again. No matter what Nate said now, he wouldn’t want to keep being seen with Cody. Not once he heard what those Orange Grove assholes had to say. But putting it off wasn’t going to make it any easier to lose the best friend he’d had in years.

“Well,” Cody made himself say, “I guess it’s now or never.”

“Guess so.”

The first bell rang as they climbed out of the car. On a normal school day, that would have meant five minutes before first period started. Today, they followed the crowd into the gym to pick up schedules and locker assignments. Lines were forming based on the first letter of last names. Not surprisingly, the
B
s and the
L
s weren’t in the same line.

Cody’s stomach squirmed. A lump started to form in his throat, and he swallowed hard, telling himself to stop being such a sentimental fool.

Nate took a deep breath. “I’ll see you at lunch, right?”

Cody shoved his hands deep into his pockets and stared at the toes of his shoes. After the trip to Rock Springs for clothes, he was down to his last five dollars, and he wasn’t about to spend it on a school lunch. He’d scarfed down a peanut butter sandwich for breakfast. That and a smoke at lunch would have to tide him over until after school. But no way in hell was he telling Nate any of that.

“Right,” he lied.

“Okay. Here goes nothing.”

And just like that, Cody was alone.

Not like it was the first time or anything, but it felt a bit lonelier than it ever had before.

Nate found the line for seniors with last names starting with letters
A
through
C
and took his spot at the end, right behind Brian.

“Hey!” Brian said, as if they were long-lost friends and not two guys who’d barely spoken as they’d passed a joint around a campfire. “Nathan, right?”

“I go by Nate.”

“Where’ve you been, man? Nobody’s seen you around at all.”

Nate glanced over at Cody, still waiting in line for his own schedule. He had his arms crossed protectively over his chest and his head down. “At home.”

“Well hey, don’t worry about being the new kid. I got your back, you know?”

Somehow, that didn’t make Nate feel any better. “Thanks.”

They collected their schedules and locker assignments, and Brian stepped close to compare them. They were almost a perfect match.

“Come on. I’ll show you where the lockers are before first period starts.”

Nate looked around for Cody. It took him a few seconds, but he finally spotted him against the far wall. Cody was chewing his lip, staring at his own slip of paper. Nate wondered how many classes they’d have together, or if their lockers were at least close.

Brian caught the direction of his gaze and laughed, throwing his arm over Nate’s shoulder. “Don’t worry about him. I don’t know how you got stuck giving that loser a ride, but he’ll leave you alone now that he knows you’re one of us.”

Nate had a feeling that was more true than even Brian knew. Cody looked up right then, his eyes meeting Nate’s for only a fraction of a second. One brief moment, with Nate trying to say,
Don’t leave me.

He had a feeling what Cody was saying was
Good-bye.

Nate hardly saw Cody the rest of the day. The passing periods were too crazy, with Nate trying to find his way around a brand-new school while Brian and Jennifer introduced him to the rest of their Orange Grove friends. He’d already met Brad, Michelle, and the other Jennifer, but there were nearly a dozen more, across all four grades, all of them in designer jeans and Members Only jackets. By lunchtime, Nate wished his mom had never bought his. He hid it in his locker and looked for Cody.

But Cody was nowhere to be seen. It pissed Nate off a bit. Cody could lay the blame on the Grove and the cliques all he wanted, but the way Nate saw it, Cody was the one abandoning him, not the other way around. It wasn’t until social studies, the very last class of the day, that he saw Cody again. Nate had been placed in the advance classes for every subject, and it seemed Cody hadn’t, but social studies was one of the few classes that wasn’t broken into levels. It was also one of the few classes where they were able to choose their own seats. Nate was sitting behind Brian, with Jennifer on his right and another of their Grove friends to his left. His heart skipped a beat when Cody walked in. He found himself smiling, willing Cody to catch his eye.

Cody scanned the desks quickly, his eyes wary. He stopped on Nate, pursing his lips. Nate waved, trying to beckon Cody to come over. The seat behind Nate was still empty, and he wanted nothing more than to have Cody there, at his back.

“What are you doing?” Jennifer whispered, pulling his hand down. “We don’t want him by us!”

Nate was about to protest, but it was too late. Cody had already chosen a desk on the far side, near the back of the room, right by the door. He stared resolutely at the desk in front of him, refusing to look Nate’s way. Once class ended, he was out the door again before Nate could even gather his things.

Nate cursed under his breath, although whether he was cursing himself or his new Grove friends or Cody, he didn’t know. He assumed he’d give Cody a ride home, and he waited at the car for fifteen minutes. Cody never appeared, and Nate finally admitted to himself that Cody’d chosen to walk rather than ride with him.

Wednesday was much the same. Nate went to the gas station at seven thirty to pick Cody up, but Cody wasn’t there. Nate waited a few minutes, fuming. He wanted to go to Cody’s house. To confront him. To tell him he was being a fool. If Cody’d just lighten up and trust him, he could make things work. He could bridge that gap between Cody and the preps. But he had no idea where Cody lived. He didn’t even know his phone number. It was a shocking realization. He felt like they’d been friends over the summer, but the truth was, unless Cody was at the gas station or in Jim’s field, Nate had no way of finding him.

He’d talk to Cody after social studies. He’d be ready as soon as the bell rang, and he’d run if he had to. He’d force Cody to ride home with him. Cody wanted to shut him out, to pretend they’d never sat across from each other at McDonald’s, dipping fries into their chocolate shakes. He wanted to pretend like they hadn’t talked about their moms and what it felt like to have only one parent around. It felt like Cody’d locked himself away in some secret room, but Nate intended to beat down the door. He’d tear the walls down with his own hands if that’s what he had to do.

That’s what he told himself, at any rate. But when the last bell rang, Jennifer was flirting with him, and Brian was talking about the bonfire they were having on Friday after school, and Michelle was talking about the new Dead Milkmen album and how Nate just had to hear it.

And, in the end, he didn’t even notice when Cody ducked out the door.