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were friends.
    “There you are,” he called. “You want a ride to my house?”
    “Um, sure.”
    “Come on, my dad’s waiting,” Liam told me. He pinched off the joint and tucked it away. I didn’t see how that would in any way disguise that he had been smoking weed, but that was his problem and not mine.
    I wasn’t sure what I was expecting to see when I met Liam’s dad, but it certainly wasn’t the average guy in the cheap suit that I found. Balding, a little flabby, he didn’t look to be the sort of guy that would be raising a juvenile delinquent. He looked more like the guy I bought my shoes from.
    We put my bike in the trunk of the old Ford and I got in the back seat. Liam’s dad smiled at me and said I could “call him Mike.” Then he turned to Liam and asked him how he was doing.
    Seriously? A caring dad? I was so confused.
    “Well, I haven’t thrown up in an hour, so I think I’m all better. Does that mean I can get McDonald’s?”
    Mike smiled at his son. “Your mom would kill us both.”
    “Aw, c’mon, I’d give my left nut for a cheeseburger.”
    I gaped at him. Teenagers don’t talk to their parents that way. Do they?
    “Okay, fine, but just a Happy Meal.”
    “Man, lame,” Liam complained.
    “We could just go straight home.”
    “Okay, okay, a Happy Meal sounds good.”
    “Good choice.” Mike looked back at me. “You want anything?”
    “Uh, no, I’m good.”
    The fast food reinvigorated Liam much more than the Red Bull had. He gobbled up every fry and devoured the burger like it was the finest feast in the world. Afterwards, he licked his fingers clean, humming in contentment.
    “That’s what I’m talking about.”
    “There’re breath mints in the glove compartment,” Mike told his son. “Please use one.”
    “In a minute.”
    I watched like some kind of slack-jawed idiot as Liam took the half-smoked joint out of his pocket and lit it with a cheap cigarette lighter. He did it casually, like it was the most typical thing in the world and not an illegal substance.
    “Liam!” Mike snapped.
    “Geez, chill already. I’m getting to it.”
    Liam rolled down the window. That was it. That was all he needed to do to appease his dad. I looked back and forth between them, waiting for the punch line. There just had to be a gag here, even though I had zero guesses about what it could be. I mean, I was just completely at a loss to explain what I was seeing.
    What the shit is going on?

Chapter 5
    W E EVENTUALLY CAME TO AN apartment complex I had only been to once before. My mom and I had checked it out when we were looking for a place. But it had seemed a little too seedy, even if it was a great deal. The thing I remembered most was not liking the way the manager had looked at my mom.
    Mike dropped us off and then left. I watched him go, still trying to figure out how to even ask about the joint thing.
    “Where’s he going?”
    “Oh, he has to get back to work.”
    Liam said this with a look in his eyes I knew to be sadness. It was an emotion I had never expected to see on his face. Before I had a chance to ask about it, he told me to follow him. So I just fell into step with the most confusing guy I had ever met— ever .
    Liam (chewing on an Altoids) led me into his apartment. At once, the claustrophobic feeling of clutter pressed in on me. The walls were lined with bookshelves, and each was packed with massive tomes and binders and reams of paper. The floor, too, was piled high with the same sort of haphazard mess. The den had a worn couch and a desk with an old computer on it.
    A big golden retriever ambled over to us and nuzzled Liam affectionately before sniffing me to make sure I could be trusted. Liam’s face lit up as he knelt down to pet and hug the friendly animal, cooing so adorably that it made me smile.
    “Hey, Sully, this is Justin. Don’t bite him.”
    The way the dog looked up at me with his long pink tongue hanging out the side of his mouth, I wasn’t much