Out of Nowhere(53)

“Yeah, well, we get it from a new place now,” Brian says, not quite ready to forgive.

“Okay, whatever you want.”

And Brian, incapable of holding a grudge for more than five seconds, grins and starts bouncing up and down on his toes, drumming on my shoulders.

“Sweet!” And he darts away.

It’s always been me, Pop, Brian, and Sam. Since Mom died, anyway. Hanging out with them always felt normal, easy. Now, though, the last repair done and the tools put away, following Brian into the living room feels strange. The house seems darker or something. And the smell of beer that starts in the kitchen and gets stronger in the living room seems sharper.

Pop comes in from his room looking like he just woke up, which is strange because I saw him in the shop an hour or two ago. Jesus, for the first time, when I look at Pop, I see an old man. He grunts when he sees me and settles heavily into his chair.

“Son,” he says, and he nods approvingly. Warmth washes through me. He immediately turns his attention to Brian.

“You order yet?”

“I’m about to.”

“Just not that crap place from the other day. Where’d you find that place, anyway? Pizza tasted like fuckin’ cardboard.”

Brian looks embarrassed. Guess they don’t have a new favorite after all.

As Brian and I walk to the corner to get the pizza and more beer, I ask, “So, what was that other pizza place you tried and how’d you live through Pop’s fury?”

Brian blushes. The only time I’ve ever seen Brian blush is when—

“Hey, did you go to a new place because one of the servers is in love with you?” That’s what Brian always says about any girl he thinks is cute: “she’s totally in love with me.” He’s a hundred percent cocky and only about 20 percent accurate when it comes to recognizing when someone’s actually flirting with him. But right now he’s practically tripping over his own feet to avoid looking up. I catch his shoulder.

“Dude. What’s up?”

Brian sighs like he’s been desperate for someone to ask. “Aw, man,” he says, shaking his head. “There’s this girl… I think…. Dude, I think she’s my soul mate.”

“Okay,” I say. Soul mate is a new one. “Who is she?”

“Callie,” he moans, like this is the end of the world. “I accidentally barfed on her cat and she was so cool about it, man.”

“You what?”

“I was drunk, right, and I kinda wandered into an alley, only it was more like a space between two houses, and there was this nice step and I sat down but then I didn’t feel well and I barfed. But I didn’t see that there was this cat on the porch—”

“You wandered into someone’s backyard and sat on their porch?”

“Well. Yeah. But I didn’t know that at the time.”

I shake my head.

“Anyway, the cat just sat there, man. It, like, let me barf on it. And then it started to try and lick it up. And this girl came out and saw me and I was like, ‘Dude, is this your cat, ’cause he’s messed up,’ and she was so nice and asked if I needed help, and she’s so pretty, bro, like, seriously, the prettiest girl you’ve ever seen.”

I have no words. “Um, and she works at this pizza place?”

“What? No. She’s a hairstylist.”

“So…?”

“Oh, she recommended it to me. I gave her my phone number and we’ve been talking.”

“That’s great, Bri. I kind of can’t believe that some girl whose cat you puked on wanted anything to do with you. But that’s great.”

“Yeah, I haven’t seen her again, but we’ve talked, like, every night for the last three weeks. And when I said Pop and I got pizza a lot, she was like, ‘Do you ever go to Blackbird?’ It’s her favorite. So I got it for me and Pop the other day. And, um, yeah, it did taste like cardboard. She’s one of those whattaya call ’ems that doesn’t eat anything that comes from animals? So it was that kind of pizza.”

“Vegan?”

“Yeah, that’s it.”

“Oh my god, you fed Pop vegan pizza? That’s hilarious, bro. Did he know what it was?”

“Nah. He liked the fake sausage part. But, uh, I thought it kinda tasted like feet.” A look of panic crosses his face. “Don’t tell Callie, though! If you meet her, I mean. I, uh, I sorta told her that I liked it.”

I laugh. “I won’t tell her,” I reassure him. “But you should probably be honest with her, or you’ll end up eating vegan pizza for the rest of your life.”

I’m joking, but Brian looks horrified.