Chapter
12:
You Don’t Run With the Crowd, You Go
Your Own Way
I sat on the bus,
staring out the window and let my mind wander.
I thought about how cool it was that all five of us guys were on choir
tour. We were all going to Chicago together. It would be my last time, and I was sure that
it would be awesome. I was seeing a
little more of the old Alex coming back every day.
Denise didn’t know
if it was a good idea for Alex to come, given everything that had
happened. She only let him go because I
would be there too, and I promised to watch out for him.
Right now, he was
a seat ahead of me antagonizing Nick, who was trying to concentrate on his Game
Boy. “Nicky! Come on, can’t I play? We’re gonna be on this stupid bus
forever!” I could see obviously that
Alex’s pleas meant that he just wanted acknowledgement. But Nick had him pretty well figured out, and
was totally into his game.
I looked across
the aisle where Kevin and Brian were sitting.
Kevin was sleeping—he snored lightly and his mouth hung open. Brian was trying to get different things into
his cousin’s mouth, and watching to see what happened.
I laughed as he
leaned over exaggeratedly and managed to squirt Easy Cheese in Kevin’s
mouth. (Brian had a big supply of
that—he lived on cheese.) He tried to
muffle his giggles as Kevin smacked his lips loudly and consumed the cheese,
moving barely any the entire time.
To my horror, Alex
and Nick noticed what Bri was doing to his cousin and the two of them crept
over the seat the cousins occupied. Poor
Kev had picked a bad spot—the outside seat, and Jay and Nicky knelt down in the
aisle, motioning for the offensive cheese can.
“Hey fellas,” I
whispered, “Knock it off!”
“Shut your
pie-hole, Howard!” Alex hissed, emphasizing my full name.
“You better watch
it, Jay,” I warned playfully, “Only my mama calls me that!”
They were all
distracted now, though. Alex had the can
and was whispering something to Nick.
Grinning deviously, Nick took it and began expertly squirting the orange
string of cheese. I gasped and leaned
over as I realized that Nick wasn’t aiming it at Kevin’s mouth, but just above
his upper lip. Nick was creating a very
fancy-looking moustache. It curled at
the ends and would have looked very formal, had it not been made of orange gunk
from a can.
The boys leaned
back to admire Nick’s artwork. Brian was
laughing hysterically, not even trying to muffle it now. To my surprise, Kevin still lie there, his
head back, looking extremely relaxed and totally unaware that his face was
being sabotaged by a projectile dairy-product.
Alex grabbed for
the cheese, and continued to decorate Kevin.
Within seconds, Kev’s eyebrows were the color of macaroni and
cheese. Brian took out his candy stash
and supplied two yellow Skittles, which he placed over his cousin’s closed
eyelids.
Laughing
helplessly, Alex cradled his stomach and tears rolled down his face. “Howie,” he gasped, “Get my camera. It’s on the seat right there,” he pointed.
Sighing, I picked
up the camera and handed it over. Alex took
great pride in snapping pictures from various angles. Mr. J walked a few steps down the aisle
toward us and stopped, trying to hide his laughter. “Guys,” he greeted us.
“Hey Mr. J! You wanna have a turn?” Nick asked as Alex
took another picture.
“No, Nick, I don’t
believe that’s part of my job,” he smiled a little though, and Brian saw
it.
“Isn’t this
great?” Brian asked, his eyes shining.
All four of them
jumped as Kevin twitched slightly.
“Y’all better run!” he exclaimed, sitting up. The momentum caused the Skittles to fall in
his lap.
Brian scrambled
over his cousin and hid out with Nick in his seat, but Alex was slower to
move. Kevin managed to grab his
arm. I laughed watching the two
struggling until I heard Kevin’s voice.
It was low and menacing. I, for
one, couldn’t tell whether he was serious or joking.
“You little
pipsqueak,” he shouted, confiscating the camera. “What’d y’all think y’all were doin’ over
here, huh? Answer me, kid!”
“We were just,
um. We were just . . .” I could tell by
Alex’s hesitance that Kevin was scaring him pretty bad.
“Hey, Kevin,” I
called. He looked up, and I had to
stifle a laugh. He was raising those
orange eyebrows—made it hard for me to talk seriously to him, let me tell
you. “Uh, why don’t you go and see about
washing off, or something?” I suggested.
“Yeah, some fun
this is!” Kev touched his face
experimentally to determine the damage that had been done. “Guy can’t get a decent nap if he tries
‘cause the peanut gallery might come and attack him with a can of spray
cheese! Good Lord!” In a huff, Kevin rose and stepped over Alex
and made his way back to the small restroom in the back of the bus.
I reached out to
Alex, who remained in the middle of the aisle.
He stiffened at my touch. “Jay,
why don’t you come sit down?” I offered, patting the seat beside me.
As he turned, I
saw that Alex had gone pasty white and was breathing hard. I scooted over, so he could be near me and as
far away from Kevin as possible.
When Kevin
returned, Brian reclaimed his original spot.
“Kevin, what the hell was that for, huh?” I heard Brian whisper. “We were just messin’ around! Don’t get after Alex for something we did
together! You weren’t there in that
classroom, Kev! You didn’t see how he
was treated! You got no right comin’
down on him like that!” Brian’s blue
eyes were flashing angrily as a mist of tears came to them. “There ain’t no way you’d go after me that
way, so don’t you dare go after him!
Understand?”
Kevin nodded, his
lips pressed in a thin line, and I leaned back in my seat letting out a
breath. We’re in for more than we bargained for, I thought.
***
