Yesterday's Stardust (24 page)

Dani laughed. “This is my new paint shirt.” She tilted her head to one side. “I minored in art in college.” Her smile wavered when he didn’t return it. She reached for her glass and took a long drink. The side of her right hand appeared bruised. He looked again. Dropping the spatula, he walked toward her. Not bruised. Paint. Mixed with grime. He’d seen the exact same color many times. On his own hand.

She looked up at the clock. “I didn’t realize it was so late.” Faint smile lines curved around her mouth. “I’ve got a busy day tomorrow.”

“So I hear.” Todd dumped room-temperature pizza into the box. “Here. Take this—in case you don’t find time for supper in your busy schedule.”

Picking up his keys, he led the way to the back door.

“I take it Nicky mentioned I’m having dinner with him tomorrow night.”

“He did.” Todd stared straight ahead, the glow from the dash lending a bluish cast to his features.

“Did he tell you why?” She pressed her hand over the throbbing part of her arm. Her head pounded in unison.

“There’s a why? Other than the obvious?”

She looked out her window. She didn’t have the strength for this. The last time two males had fought over her she was nine and didn’t like either of them. “I wanted some history of the neighborhood for a story I’m working on. Since his family’s been here for generations, he seemed a likely place to start.”

“And he agreed?”

“Yes. Does that surprise you?”

“If I thought he was doing it just for your story, I’d be surprised beyond belief. He hates reporters.”

Now what? Make things worse by saying she wasn’t interested in either of them? It had worked in third grade. Her two pursuers became best buddies—a friendship based on the common ground of tormenting Dani Gallagher.

They passed two boys leaning on a utility pole, smoking cigarettes. “Do you know them?”

“Yeah. Two
un
success stories of the Boys and Girls Club.” He tapped the steering wheel with an open hand. “I just thought of something.”

“What?”

“You need stories of kids like that, right?”

Saliva sat at the base of her tongue with nowhere to go. “Yes.”

“So if you can go out for dinner with Nicky tomorrow night and call it work, why don’t you go out with me on Friday night and call it work?”

“Uh…”

“You can ride with me on my shift—right here in this neighborhood. You’ll get firsthand stories. What do you think?”

“I think…”
It sounds like a conflict of interests. For both of us.
“That sounds interesting.”

A
REA
Y
OUTH
F
IND
I
NNOVATIVE
W
AYS TO
E
ARN
M
ONEY

I
n a Monday midmorning fog, Dani scowled at the line, pushed the backspace key, and tried to reword it.
KENOSHA TEENS CREATE UNIQUE SUMMER JOBS.
She rubbed her forehead and took a sip of room-temperature coffee. The website created by a sixteen-year-old boy and his fourteen-year-old sister was colorful and creative. The two charged a flat rate for setting up and promoting garage sales and had almost more business than they could handle. Dani had spent an hour with them and had more than enough material for an interesting story. But it wasn’t the story she wanted to write, and she couldn’t keep her mind on it.

She picked up her phone and dialed Rena’s number.

A sleepy voice answered.

“Good morning. It’s Dani.” She forced a smile into her voice. She needed cooperation not defensiveness. “Do you have plans for the next couple of hours? I’d like to take you out for lunch.”

The time on the computer changed from 10:23 to 10:24. “Uh. Yeah. Okay. I have to be somewhere by two.”

“That’ll work. Can I pick you up in half an hour?”

“Sure. I’ll be outside. Wait. Are you free the whole time until two?”

“I can be.”
For the answers you promised.

“Let’s go shopping first. No offense, the retro thing’s cool and all, but you need some girly-girl clothes for my brother.” She giggled. “For
you
for my brother.”

“Rena. I’m not…” Not what? Not interested? “Fine.” When girls shop, they talk. “We’ll shop.”

Rena sat on the cement step and leaned against the side door. She spent too many afternoons working and never seemed to get her fill of sunshine.

Or maybe it was something else that made her crave light. She was tired of the dark, tired of feeling the need to hide in her secret room with the light off to shut out the world, tired of the person she became after the sun went down. She’d teased Jarod about being a vampire, about sleeping all day and prowling the streets at night. It wasn’t funny anymore.

Ever since the moment at the park when Jarod took off his sunglasses, everything was different. He’d looked at her, but he hadn’t seen her, and for the first time she realized he never had. One of his favorite lines was, “I look good when I’m with you.” It used to make her laugh. Now it made her sick. That was her job, her role in Jarod’s life. He was the winner. She was the prize.

A single cloud slid over the sun, stealing the heat from her skin. Blocking the light. She pulled rolled-up paper and a pencil stub out of her pocket. There was a song in the tug-of-war of black and white. The moment reflected her life. People like Gianna brought warmth and light. People like Jarod blocked the sun.

The door handle clicked above her. She sat up straight and stuffed the pencil and paper back in her pocket as Nicky walked out and sat beside her. His hair stuck out and eyes narrowed in the light. Nicky was a night person but not by choice. “You look bad. What’re you doing up so early?”

“Todd’s bringing the car over. I’m going up to see
Nonno.”

“You’re amazing. You get the world’s best grandkid award.”

Nicky shrugged. “You need to give him another chance.”

“Nuh-uh. Nobody’s ever yelled at me like that in my whole life.”

“If you sit with him long enough sometimes things get clear for a while, and he knows who you are and he talks about the old days. He’d like to see you.”

Rena shivered. “I can’t stand that place. Old people smell.”

“So will you someday.” He nudged his shoulder into hers. “What are you up to today?”

“Shopping.”

“With Gianna?”

“No.” She turned to watch his face. “With Dani.”

She hadn’t seen the dimple on his cheek for a long time. He seemed to be trying not to smile, but it wasn’t working. He turned and looked up the sidewalk.
Gotcha!
“So what’s going on with you two?”

“Nothing.” He pretended to act surprised. “She’s working on a story about some things that happened around here back in the 1920s.”

“And you’re an expert on stuff that happened sixty years before you were born.”

The smile popped through. “So maybe I like her. What do you think of that?”

She copied his smile as a little blue car pulled up to the curb. “I think it’s just fine.”

He stood before she did and opened the passenger door for her. She gave him a minute to poke his head in and say hi. They looked good together, and something had changed in Nicky in the past few days. She wouldn’t exactly call him happy, but he wasn’t blowing up nearly as easily. She got in the car, and Nicky closed the door.

“You ladies have fun.”

“We’ll try.” Dani giggled.
So
not mature.

“See you tonight.”

Dani’s face turned pink, and she waved with fluttery fingers as they pulled away from the curb.

“You liiiike him. You think he’s handsome.” She said it in a sing-songy voice. “You want to kissssss him.”

The pink turned to the color of the stop sign in front of them. Dani put on the brake and put the car in park. In slow motion, she turned her head then her shoulders. Her eyes got squinty. Her lips tightened. “So this is how it’s gonna be, huh, punk?”

Laughter spewed out. For a second Rena didn’t even realize it was hers. “You got the street thing goin’ on, girl. Scared me right outa talkin’’bout how much you want my bro.” With a smile locked in place for the first time in months, she fastened her seat belt and leaned back. Dani was a sunlight person.

Dani dipped her fork in french dressing then jabbed a piece of lettuce as she tried to figure out how to segue into deeper topics. They’d spent the last hour in the vintage corner of her favorite consignment shop, trying on goofy hats and chunky jewelry. She’d found the perfect dress for tonight—a pale yellow A-line from the sixties. Sleeves just long enough to cover her bandage, with a turtleneck and a bright orange belt around the hips. Rena had tried on a flowered gauze blouse that made her look very feminine. Dani bought it when she wasn’t looking and surprised her with it when they got to the car.

The morning had gone so well, she hated to change the mood, but she had to. “What do you want to do with your life now that you’re out of high school? Do you plan on staying at the restaurant?”

“What do I
plan
on doing, or what do I want to do?” Rena swirled a french fry in ketchup.

“Both. Let’s start with what you want to do.”

“I’d like to go away to college. I’m
planning
on going to school right here, if I go at all, but I’d love to get away. See something new, and have the whole experience.”

“What would you go to school for?”

“Music. Or English. I love poetry and music and songwriting.”

“The song you sang at the memorial service was beautiful. With all the craziness, I don’t know if I told you that.”

“Thank you. Yeah, that’s what I’d like to do. Be a singer-songwriter. I don’t have big goals. I don’t need to be the next American Idol. I just want to get better at it and get a job where I can sing songs that make people think.”

Dani set her fork down and leaned forward. “You’re not the kind of girl I’d expect to be mixed up in a gang.” There, she’d laid the question on the table.

Dark lashes closed then slowly opened. “I know,” she whispered.

Dani waited.

“Geography. If I had all the same heredity, but I was born to a rich family in a rich neighborhood, I’d be a whole different person. I’d go to football games and school dances, and maybe I’d be dating the class president or a guy who plays basketball and goes to church instead of…” She wrapped her straw wrapper around her finger and stared out the window.

Dani waited then moved on to another question. “Tell me about the Sevens. How do you join?”

Rena shook the hair out of her eyes, looked out the window for a moment then took a drink of her soda.

“You promised to answer questions if I did that one thing for you.”
That thing you’re going to explain before I take you home.

“Yeah. I did.” Rena pushed her plate aside. “The guys don’t have to get rolled in or anything, they—”