Read Home is Where You Are for Free Online Page B

hands me a paper bag, and I place it inside my backpack. I’ll wait until the stomach pains are too much to take before indulging.
    Marv’s dark eyes widen. “What the hell happened to your face?”
    Here we go. “I walked into a door knob. Those things just jump out at you.”
    “The hell you did.” Marv grabs my face and examines my lip before his eyes settle on the cut above my eyebrow.
    “I got jumped the other night. My fault, really.”
    “Is that why I haven’t seen you in a few days?”
    I glance away. I know what’s coming, which is exactly why I’ve been avoiding him.
    “You best answer me , boy.”
    “Yeah,” I mumble.
    “How many times do I tell you to come to me? How many?”
    All the time. But I don’t want his help. I’ve been doing this long enough. And once I accept it, I’ll expect it. I’ll become weak. Vulnerable. I just can’t let that happen.
    I shrug and try not to wince when pain shoots up my abdomen . “It’s not as bad as it looks.”
    Marv cocks his eyebrow . “Mmmhmm.”
    “It’s not,” I repeat.
    “If you say so.”
    I take a spot on one of the milk crates beside the dumpster, glancing over my shoulder every few minutes. Call it paranoia or whatever you want, but after getting the shit beat out of me, I’m even more aware of my surroundings. I always have an eye over my shoulder. Which is probably why I ran face first into that girl.
    “Thanks,” I say, pulling on my backpack strap.
    “So other than getting your ass kicked what else have you been up to?” Marv asks, sitting on the crate across from me.
    “Same shit.” There really isn’t much to do. The highlight of my day—though I would never admit it—is coming here. Pretending to be normal as if Marv is just an old friend I come to bullshit with.
    “You get into the Y last night?”
    “Yeah.” The few times I admitted not getting into the Y, he got mad. Told me I should have called him. He made me take his number just in case I was in trouble. I keep it behind the picture of my family. “How’s the wife?” I ask before Marv can drill me further.
    “A pain in the ass,” he laughs for a second, “but God knows I love her.”
    “What about your daughter?”
    “You mean the devil child? Yeah , she all right I guess. Driving me crazy that’s for sure. She’s fifteen and thinks she’s twenty-five. I got a call from her teacher yesterday who told me she cut class. When I confronted her she had the nerve to tell me that she just didn’t feel like going.”
    I laugh and Marv gives me a dirty look.
    “Cut her some slack,” I say. “I’m sure you were no angel when you were fifteen.”
    “ That’s what scares me,” he says with a smirk. Marv’s told me all about his past. Drugs and grand theft auto were a huge part.
    I shake my head and smile. “You turned out fine, and she isn’t nearly half as bad as you were.”
    “That I know of.”
    We bullshit a little longer, but the sun is starting to set and the line at the soup kitchen will only get longer. “I gotta split.”
    “And where exactly do you have to be?”
    “Soup kitchen. Looking forward to a hot meal.”
    Marv points a finger at me. “I offer you hot meals all the time, and all you ever want is that damn cinnamon raisin.”
    “That’s because I know it’s good.”
    “What you trying to say? You don’t think I’m capable of making a good hot meal?”
    I pat Marv on the shoulder. “I didn’t say it.”
    “Challenge accepted.”
    “Excuse me?”
    Marv hitches his thumb over his shoulder. “Get your ass inside. I’m making you dinner.”
    I hold my hands up. “Marv, it’s not necessary. I was kidding.”
    “Don’t make me fatten your top lip , too. Inside.”
    I go to argue, but then I think of my last time at the soup kitchen. The twenty fucking questions I endured. Granted the girl was hot, but hot or not, I’m not in the mood tonight. I suck up my pride and head inside.
    Two hours later, filled with some of the best