Page 15 of Puck Love

More silence.

Fuck this.I motioned for McD to pass me a menu and pretended to study the burger selections. I sneaked a quick peek at Jake, who was quietly seething across the table from me, and something in me snapped. The usual I-want-to-do-whatever-it-takes-to-bug-the-shit-out-of-this-guy times ten. I hated heavy silence almost as much as I hated being ignored. So I shifted on my seat as if to cross my legs, and I kicked Jake’s shin. Hard.

“Oops. Sorry, dude.” I made a yikes face and returned to the menu. “I’ve been jonesin’ for poutine for months. Man, it’s good to be back in Elmwood. Isn’t it, Jake?”

Jake scoffed. “It was until ten minutes ago.”

Vinnie sighed. “Jake…”

“No, don’t do that. I’m in. No guilt trips necessary. I don’t pull out.”

“That’s what he said,” I quipped under my breath.

Jake delivered a reciprocal swift kick to my shin as he stood. “Fuck yourself, Trinsky.”

I bit the inside of my cheek and watched him waltz out of the diner…Mr. Calm and Collected. I should have been annoyed, right? I wasn’t, though. I was…something undetermined. Something that didn’t fit with the expected reaction to your nemesis kicking you in the shin on his way out the door. Dare I call it…giddy?

Maybe even a little horny.

Okay, weird. Let’s leave that one alone.

All I knew was that I was kind of looking forward to the weekend.Bring it.

5

TRINSKY

Iwasn’t at my best at midnight after a day of partying, but with the time difference between coasts, the only way to keep my promise to call home was to FaceTime Eddie before bed. Either that, or try him at ridiculous o’clock in the morning. Eddie wouldn’t mind. He was generally easygoing and…he was an early riser.

A bus came by my mom’s Hermosa Beach house every day at eight a.m. to pick him up for school or summer camp or whatever activities his part-time caregiver advised. Mom always offered to take him on her way to her office in Orange County, but Eddie loved the bus.

It was a sweet, familiar routine. Lou, the driver, greeted him with a secret handshake and his friends, Anthony and Sarah, always saved him a seat. They took the same route and talked about nice things, like horses, funny movies, and foods they liked.

Eddie said they had different teachers at school and they didn’t always see each other for recess, but the bus routine was set in stone. That didn’t mean Eddie wasn’t good about rolling with change. It just took him a little longer to process things andhe tended to go eerily silent, content to scribble his thoughts on paper if he felt the need to communicate at all.

Like me, Mom did whatever necessary to avoid the silent treatment.

She’d even agreed to learn American Sign Language. Eddie became obsessed after he saw a movie where the characters signed. One of his instructors suggested enrolling him in a class and in a twist, my kid brother was now a signing machine. Mom had taken online lessons so they’d have alternate means of communication, and she’d talked me into learning too.

I was fucking hopeless at it. And while I hated sucking at anything, I loved making Eddie laugh.

I pasted an over-the-top grumpy growl on my mug as the giggling freckle-faced sixteen-year-old corrected my efforts.

“You do it wrong. Like this.” Eddie pointed at his chest and repeated the hand motion. “I like hockey. Now you.”

“I like hockey.”

Uproarious laughter.

Okay, I’d signed “I like monkeys,” but like I said, I was a sucker for that laugh. It squeezed my chest and made me grin like a fool. Damn, I loved this kid.

“You said monkey. Do it again.”

Ten minutes later, I’d exhausted every noun I’d learned. Plane, train, dog, cat, flower, surfboard, ocean. Eddie wouldn’t let a repeat slide, but I was also aware that teasing skirted the delicate line into impatience and frustration. I didn’t want to upset Eddie…ever.

I wanted him to be happy. Only happy. I wanted a smile on his face twenty-four-seven, and if that meant turning up the goofball meter, so be it.

On my final attempt, I did it correctly and was rewarded with Eddie’s sunniest grin. He was all cheeks with big dimples, and his eyes disappeared in crinkles of joy.