Breaking Her Bad by Michelle Mankin

 

 

 

 

 

Kyle

Spotting Tommy as soon as I stepped inside the small Vietnamese restaurant with Bob, I lifted a hand. “Hey.”

“You came.” Tommy smiled warmly and set down the bucket full of dirty dishes he was holding to move toward us. “I’m so glad.”

“You texted me the address. Of course I came,” I said, glancing around.

The walls of Pho B were an inviting avocado green. Framed inspirational quotes were on the walls, along with black-and-white photographs of impressive temples that I assumed were in Vietnam.

“This is nice. Peaceful.”

“Thank you. My dad and I painted and fixed up the place. He’s the visionary.”

“It smells good in here.” Bob rubbed his belly. “I’m hungry.”

Tommy grinned. “Glad you brought your appetite. My dad’s a great cook.” He held out his hand to Bob. “Hi, I’m Tommy Evans.”

There was no hesitation on his part to touch Bob. Sadly, some people seemed to think his Down syndrome was contagious.

“I’m Bob Murphy.” He pointed to me. “This is my nephew, Kyle. My brother died, so I’m Kyle’s guardian.”

“Nice of you to stop by.” Only raising his brows a little at my uncle’s explanation, Tommy shifted and spread his arms wide. “Sit anywhere you like. As you can see, there’s no one else here with the dinner rush over.”

“It’s kinda late.” I rubbed the back of my neck.

“We were getting ready to close,” Tommy said. “But my dad can easily whip up anything from the menu.”

“We went to see birds.” Bob smiled, his gray eyes twinkling. He was a total bird nerd like Claire. Thinking of her, pain pierced me. “Kyle took off from work. We rode the train. We went to a nice park. It was a long trip but worth it.”

“That sounds great.” Tommy nodded. “Most long trips that have a reward at the end are worth it. Like me coming all the way here from Texas and getting to meet you two.”

I lifted my chin. “Thanks, man.”

“Thank you for taking a chance on the new guy.” Tommy’s brown eyes twinkled as brightly as Bob’s gray ones. “Just have a look at the menu.” He gestured to a wall-mounted chalkboard behind the counter. “Come to the counter when you’re ready, and I’ll put in your order.”

“Sounds good,” I told Tommy, then shifted to look at Bob. “Would you like grilled pork with vermicelli?”

“Is that what you’re having?” Bob asked.

“Yeah.” I glanced at the menu again. “It comes with an egg roll.”

“I love egg rolls.” He licked his lips.

“How about boba tea? Mango for me, and strawberry for you?”

Bob nodded eagerly. In Renton, we’d had a Vietnamese place we enjoyed.

“You got it.” I gestured to a nearby booth. “Have a seat while I order.”

Bob turned, and I went to the counter.

“Ready?” Tommy asked, squirting his hands with sanitizer and then rubbing them together.

“Yeah.” I gave him our order, and he typed it into the point-of-sale computer.

“Shouldn’t take long.” He hooked his thumb over his broad shoulder to where a cut-through in the wall revealed the kitchen. “I’ll just pop the dishes I gathered into the washer and bring your order out as soon as it’s ready. Sound good?”

Grinning, I said, “Great.”

“I told my dad about you. Mind if I bring him out to meet you?”

Sudden tension gripped me as I wondered what he’d said. I leaned over the counter and lowered my voice. “Parents don’t usually like me. Because of what I do.”

“Well, my dad’s totally non-judgy and cool.”

“Really?” I found that hard to believe.

“Yeah, really.” Tommy’s expression turning thoughtful, he rubbed his chin. “Let me put it this way. My dad’s parents hooked up when they were in high school, and his mom took off after he was born. His dad quit school to raise him alone. In Southside, with or without an education, raising a kid on your own isn’t easy, but his dad did his best. He worked a lot of shitty jobs until he got arrested for stealing on his last one.”

I winced. “I’m sorry. That sounds tough.”

“Yeah, it sucked,” Tommy said. “His old man was all he had. That shit he stole was to make rent so they wouldn’t be put on the street. Jury didn’t care. Rules are rules to most people. He went to prison and died there. How did his doing time, then dying and leaving a kid behind, make the world a better place?” Tommy raised a brow.

I didn’t have an answer for that. I didn’t think there was one.

“My dad probably would’ve ended up on the street doing illegal stuff just like his old man, except he had a group of friends who cared about him. He couch-surfed at each of their places until he graduated from Southside High. He did some wild stuff, some good stuff, and some not so good in his life, but he doesn’t regret any of it. He says what goes around comes around. That what we put out comes back to us. That life is a continuous circle, a pattern that will repeat and repeat unless we do something different to change it.”

“Yeah, I guess I can see that.” I’d certainly heard stuff like that talked about before. Just not by someone my own age. Someone that I liked. Someone who had a background similar enough to mine that he got me.

“Right.” Tommy’s gaze narrowed. “So you get that my dad knows from personal experience that you do what you’re supposed to do, but when that’s not an option, sometimes you do what you have to.”

That was my life in a cosmic nutshell.

“I get that.” I breathed a little easier. “I’ll meet him.”

“Good.” Tommy lifted his chin. “Be back in just a few.”

When he disappeared through the swinging door to the kitchen, I went and sat in the bench seat opposite my uncle. As Bob chatted excitedly about the birds we’d seen today, my mind wandered to Claire, and I absently rubbed the charm on her bracelet.

I’d fixed the clasp and now wore her bracelet around my wrist. I figured I needed to make a show of wearing it to perpetuate the lie that I’d fought Neto for it. Eventually, I’d figure out how to return it to Claire without her or anyone else figuring out that what I’d done was for her.

Tommy reappearing as if out of thin air. “So, that’s the bracelet that caused the trouble today.”

I startled, so deep in my thoughts that I hadn’t noticed him approach our table. He carried our food on a tray, and it was steaming. Garlicky and rich, it smelled delicious.

Going for nonchalant, I shrugged. “It’s Claire’s bracelet. But it wasn’t her that caused the trouble.”

Actually, trouble seemed to find Claire. Darkness encountering light like hers was drawn to it, or that was how it had been for me. In Belinda’s case, I think she was offended by it.

Tommy glanced at me as he placed our food and drinks on our table. “Claire seems like a nice girl. You know, she was upset by what you said during the fight. She was crying in the practice room. No one else saw, but I did.”

He studied me closely as he shared. I hunched over the table, registering his words like physical blows.

“You wanna tell me what the real deal is between you and her?”

I lifted my head and gave Tommy an assessing look, and he steadily stared right back.

What you saw with Tommy seemed to be what he was. I liked that. I liked him, just as I had right from the beginning.

Besides Bob and then Claire, I hadn’t really trusted anyone enough to share secrets with. But Tommy and I had similar personalities, and we had a common background. He’d had my back at school when I’d needed someone. And now he wasn’t dancing around the fact that he disapproved of the way I’d treated Claire. Rather than make me mad, that made me like him more.

“Can you have a seat for a minute?” I asked while watching Bob shoveling in his food like he hadn’t eaten in years. “I’d like to share.”

“Yeah, man,” Tommy said, and I scooted over on my side, making room for him. His expression expectant, he shifted to face me. “Proceed.”

“I met Claire in Lakeside. My boss ordered me to deal at a formal function at her school. The moment I saw her, I was hooked. She’s an amazing vocalist, but she got nervous onstage, so I sang with her. After her school thing, we spent an entire night together that felt as long and significant as a lifetime, but it was over in the blink of an eye.”

“Did she know you were at her school dealing?” he asked softly.

“No, I didn’t tell her what I did or where I was from. I just told her I couldn’t stay. And I haven’t seen her again until today.” I exhaled heavily. “She’s a nice girl from a nice place. She doesn’t belong here, but here she is for some reason.”

Tommy nodded thoughtfully. “And now she knows about you.”

“Right,” I said. “So it’s over.”

Remembering how Claire had looked at me after the fight and the pain I’d caused her, I gripped the table so tightly, the Formica top seemed to groan.

We have to be over.If I kept repeating that often enough, maybe I could convince myself to believe it.