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let me forget that, are you?
    BYRON: Hey, somebody’s got to keep you humble. Big-city lawyer … Too good for her old friends… ANDY: Shut up! SHUT UP! Look. I was a kid. I made a mistake, a huge beeping mistake! And I am sorry!
    BYRON: Well, here’s your chance to do something about it.
    ANDY: HOW MANY TIMES DO I HAVE TO TELL YOU? I can’t! Even if I believed you, there’s nothing I can do.
    BYRON: Yes, there is. I got everything you need to take him down.
    ANDY: So you do it then.
    BYRON: Yeah, right. You’re just tryin’ to get rid of me.
    ANDY: Bingo!
    BYRON: I guess it worked for you before.
    ANDY: Beep .
    (20-SECOND PAUSE) ANDY: Why the beep me? Why don’t you go to somebody else? BYRON: I don’t trust anybody else.
    ANDY: You? Trust me? What are you, nuts?
    BYRON: No. Logical.
    ANDY: Now he thinks he’s beeping Socrates.
    BRYON: I know I can count on you.
    ANDY: Oh, right. And how do you know that?
    BYRON: Because we both need something from each other.
    ANDY: I don’t need anything from you!
    BYRON: Yes, you do, baby doll.
    ANDY: DON’T CALL ME BA … BYRON (INTERRUPTING): You need me to keep my mouth shut. And I will, ’cause you know how much I’d hate to have to tell Cyril the truth about his dear old mother … ANDY: YOU BEEPING BEEP BEEP BEEP BEEP ! That’s my choice? Ruin my career or ruin my life?
    BYRON: Think of it as a chance to do something good for someone else.
    ANDY: Beep off. I’ve looked after you for weeks. That’s good enough.
    BYRON: Hey, it’s not for me! It’s for my friend. You know, the dead guy.
    ANDY: Yeah. Right. “It’s not for me!” You expect me to believe that? You just want revenge.
    BYRON: Can you blame me? It’s about time I got something out of this deal.
    ANDY: (SUSTAINED CURSING. BARELY AUDIBLE.)
    FINGERNAILS CLICK AGAINST THE TABLE.
THE SOUND OF A LIGHTER FLICKING IS FOLLOWED BY AN INTAKE OF BREATH AND A LOUD SIGH.
    BYRON: (COUGHING) ANDY: What do I have to do?
    BYRON: Put out that cigarette and I’ll tell you.
    ANDY: Beep off. This is my apartment.
    BYRON: And these are my lungs.
    (30-SECOND PAUSE) BYRON: Okay. I’m a reasonable man.
    ANDY: Oooooooh, right!
    BYRON: You can smoke outside.
    ANDY: Fine.
    BYRON: (COUGHING) Do you mind not blowing it right in my face?
    CHAIRS SQUEAK ACROSS THE FLOOR. A DOOR OPENS AND SLAMS SHUT.
    SILENCE

chapter
thirteen

Truancy
    Unexcused absence from school
    I made it through history class the next day, but I couldn’t hack it after that. I had to get out of school. I needed to think.
    When the bell rang for second period, I snuck out the back door and over the parking lot fence.
    Kendall had moved to another school. I thought about trying to catch him at lunch, but what was I going to say? We never really talked about private stuff before, and I thought I should maybe ease him into it at first. You know, ask him what his father does, for example, or tell him I’m afraid of spiders or wet my bed until I was eleven. See how he handles that before hitting him with some story about my mother being blackmailed into doing something illegal by this homeless ex-convict. It was sort of a lot to dump on him out of the blue like that and all.
    And anyway, what could Kendall do about it? Lend me that fancy new skateboard of his? Introduce me to some hot girls? Show me how to do a kick-flip? That would take my mind off the problem for a while, but in the end, Andy would still be in trouble.
    I decided to pretend I was sick and go home. Maybe I could get Byron in a chatty mood again.
    I was just coming round the corner on Cornwallis Street when I saw Byron leave the house. I couldn’t believe it. He’d lived with us for almost a month and hadn’t left the apartment once, at least that I knew of.
    It was pretty clear that he didn’t want anybody else to know about this little excursion either. He wasn’t dressed in a disguise