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advised.
    â€œI’ll try.”
    We walked along in silence for a while until a carload of girls beeped and waved. I waved back and Kayla just shook her head. After a serious intake of breath she said, “I’m gonna lose you, aren’t I?”
    â€œWhat do you mean?”
    â€œThis is going to change you.”
    â€œI’m still me. Nothing’s changed but my luck and the amount of money in my bank account.” But I was lying and I knew it.
    Kayla stared straight ahead and said nothing. By the time I said goodbye to her, there was only silence between us. And a wall. I don’t know why it bothered me so much, but it did. I tried to slough it off but it made me feel really bad.
    To make matters worse, my parents were arguing when I walked in the door. I heard them really going at it and I didn’t want to hang around. So I went back out, walked about ten blocks to my bank and withdrew $1,000. The teller didn’t question me at all. Everyone knew who I was now. I wasn’t just the kid with $40 in his savings account. I didn’t even know what I was gonna do with the cash, but it felt pretty cool having this big wad of fifties in my pocket.
    Hey, the sun was out. I was a rich dude and I could go in any store, buy anything I wanted, go anywhere I wanted. Call a cab on my cell phone if I liked. Hell, I could call a limo. I could do that.
    But I didn’t.
    Instead, I went into a Starbuck’s and bought a large cappuccino. I think the girl behind the counter recognized me. She smiled at me like the girls in school. I handed her a fifty, accepted the change and gave her a ten dollar tip. She smiled some more. When I sat down by the window, I looked at the phone number on my hand.
    Nope. Not quite yet. If I was going to call Taylor, I couldn’t sound all nervous and wimpy. I needed a bit more courage.
    Sitting there in Starbuck’s, alone at a small table in a pool of sunlight, I started to see all the possibilities ahead of me. I began to see everything that money could buy. Having money had always seemed unreal to me. My future had always been a fog bank. It still was. But the fog was clearing.
    Back on the street, an old guy with an empty coffee cup asked me for money, and I said I’d give him a big tip if he’d go into the liquor store and buy me a small bottle of Jack Daniels. I’d had a few drinks before, nothing serious. A few beers here and there, some booze that I sneaked from my dad’s liquor cabinet. I don’t know what inspired me now but I remembered how booze had made me feel and I liked it. I handed the guy a twenty and I followed him to the liquor store, where he went in and came back out with a small bottle in a brown bag for me. He went to hand me back the change and I told him to keep it. He smiled.
    â€œThanks, buddy,” he said. “That’s the good stuff you got there.” As I turned to go, I handed him another twenty. I was feeling generous. I tucked the bottle in my book bag and started to walk away, the big wad of bills still in my pocket. After a couple of blocks, I flagged down a cab and took the easy way home. It was only when I was sitting in the back of the cab that I remembered I was now eighteen and could have walked into that liquor store and legally bought the bottle of booze in my backpack.

chapter ten
    My mom and dad were still arguing when I got home. They did that sometimes. My dad had a bad habit of being loud and my mother usually ended up crying. Often, I’d come home and my mom would have saved me some dinner, but tonight I decided to skip whatever was left of supper and head to my room to avoid the drama.
    I stashed my bottle of courage in my desk and decided that tonight was not the night for a taste of the demon alcohol. I copied Taylor’s phone number onto a piece of paper, still not quite believing she had given it to me. I was not ready to call her. I didn’t even know what I would say