Page 146 of A Quick Buck

There was a knock at the side of the doorway, and Junior poked his head in.

“Ah, Junior.” Alistair reached for the remote to pause the movie. “Come on in.”

“Hey, Mr. Star. Noah.” Junior cleared his throat. “That Landon guy is here to see Noah.”

Noah jerked his head up. “What?”

“Oh?” Alistair raised his brow. He rubbed Noah’s shoulder. “Do you want to see him?”

“Yeah. Totally.” Noah sat up, straightening out his shirt. “Show him in, Junior.”

Junior made a face at the command, and he looked to Alistair for confirmation.

“Go on,” Alistair said. “Show him in, please.”

“Right away, Mr. Star.”

Noah was suddenly anxious, and he rubbed his hands together to stop himself from fidgeting.

“Are you all right?” Alistair asked quietly.

“Yeah, I’m good. I wanna see him. It’s sort of weird because he hadn’t texted me back or anything, and then he just shows up here.”

“Perhaps there are some things that need to be said in person.”

“I guess.” Noah watched the doorway expectantly, his pulse fluttering.

Landon walked in holding a shoebox, and his hair and clothes were rumpled as if he’d recently woken up. There were dark circles under his eyes, and his voice was hoarse when he spoke. “Hey. I need to talk to you.”

Junior and Crybaby were standing a few feet behind him, silently watching.

“Yeah, sure.” Noah quickly waved Landon in. “What’s up?”

“Alone?” Landon refused to make eye contact with the others.

“Uh.” Noah patted Alistair’s leg. “Can you maybe give us a minute?”

“Of course.” Alistair kissed his cheek. “I’ll go freshen our sodas, hmm? Crybaby? Junior? If you’d be good enough to wait outside.”

“I want to talk to Noah alone,” Landon said firmly, though he still refused to look at anyone. “The two of us.”

“My apologies, Landon,” Alistair said, “but that is simply not happening. This is the most privacy I can offer you at this time.”

“Fine.”

Alistair, Junior, and Crybaby left, but Noah could still see Junior’s gangly figure peeking out from the edge of the doorway. He clasped his hands together and asked, “So, what did you wanna talk about?”

“You’re a serious dickwad.” Landon let out a sigh, as if he’d been practicing how to deliver that and had failed. “Look, you’re just… you’re a terrible friend, and I’m done pretending, okay?”

“I’m sorry,” Noah said earnestly. “I get it, okay? I was. I was a major dickwad, and I—”

“No, no, no.” Landon shook his head. “It’s way too late for any of that.” He pushed the shoebox at Noah. “I just came by to tell you that you’re a dickwad and to give you this.”

“What is it?” Noah frowned. He hesitated to lift the lid. He had no idea what it could be.

“Your thugs at the door already checked it.” Landon scoffed. “It’s not a bomb or whatever so don’t get all worked up. It’s just… stuff.”

Noah opened it and found a collection of papers. There were movie ticket stubs, newspaper clippings, concert flyers, class photos, and more. As he sifted through them, he realized these were from events he had attended and school pictures going back to middle school. He didn’t understand why Landon was giving them to him.