Weight of Silence(6)

“So what’s your major?” Gavin asked.

“I’m undeclared.” Jace swallowed back the unhappy sigh that always seemed to follow that statement. He was running out of time to decide and, likewise, running out of patience with school in general.

“Any ideas?”

“Not really. I like my lit classes, but you can’t do much with an English degree except teach.”

“You don’t want to teach?”

“Hell no. I barely function as a student. I can’t imagine choosing to stay in a classroom forever.”

“Ditto that. I was the kind of student every teacher dreads. I swear, half the time they pity passed me because of my mother.”

Jace frowned. “How’s that?”

Gavin’s face tightened, and then he shook his head. “Never mind.” He negotiated a turn that cut around downtown Stratton and would eventually take them out to Tillman Road. “So what’s it like having a cop for a pop?”

“I don’t know, it’s always been normal for me.” Jace never understood the fascination or surprise when people found out his father was a police officer. Keith Ramsey was his father, plain and simple. He was fair, he took care of his family, and he’d always done his best to show up for school functions and sports events. Sometimes his hours were a little odd now that he was back on third shift, but he was looking at a good pension when he retired.

“Find a job that will support you and your family after you retire, son,” Dad had said so many times that Jace lost count. “Put in your time now, so you can invest in your future later.”

Great words, if only Jace had any clue what he wanted his future to look like.

An awkward silence fell between him and Gavin for the rest of the drive out to the house. Tillman Road wound out into the forest north of town, not too far from Carter’s Lake, and was sparsely populated. As Gavin turned into a dirt driveway, his headlights flashed over a white mailbox with the name “Blonsky” painted on the side.

Jace’s stomach flipped as he finally made the connection to Gavin’s friend Casper and why the name had seemed familiar. His real name was Anthony Blonsky, and his psychotic cousin Nathan had assaulted his ex-girlfriend back in the spring. Nathan was in jail and the ex, a Dixie’s Cup waitress named Jennie Walsh, was coping. The idea that Gavin was friends with someone so closely connected to Nathan worried him. He didn’t really know Gavin that well, and this house was in the middle of nowhere.

He discreetly checked his cell for service. Two bars didn’t make him feel much better.

“I can hear you thinking over there,” Gavin said.

“Huh?”

“Casper’s not Nathan.”

Jace’s cheeks burned. He didn’t insult Gavin by denying that the thought had crossed his mind. A large farmhouse came into view, lights burning bright in every window. The distant bass of music made its way to the Jeep, vibrating in Jace’s chest. Gavin parked along the driveway, behind a line of at least a dozen other vehicles, but didn’t shut off the engine.

“Look, if you’re uncomfortable, I’ll take you back home,” Gavin said.

“No!” Jace flinched at the volume and tone of his own voice. “I mean, I’m fine. I really want to hang out with you.” Had that sounded as thirteen-year-old-girl as it seemed?

Gavin studied him in the near dark. “Okay.”

The party was in full swing when they walked in without knocking or ringing the bell. Jace doubted anyone would have heard them anyway. Music assaulted his ears, along with the mixed odors of beer, pizza and cigarette smoke. Familiar things that brought back so many memories of school and friends—and hiding, pretending to be as straight as everyone else when he’d rather be ogling the football players than the cheerleaders.

“Perez!”

A guy with white-blond hair and the complexion of a hospital bed sheet bounced his way through a group of people. He had a beer bottle in one hand and an opener in the other, as if he’d been in the midst of popping one when his focus shifted completely.

“Hey, Casper,” Gavin said. The pair exchanged friendly half-hugs and back slaps.

“Opener, dude!” someone yelled from the living room.

Casper popped the top of his beer then sent the bottle opener sailing into the crowd. “Hey, man,” he said, “you finally showed up to one of these with a date, or what?”

Jace’s hand jerked and his heart kicked. He stayed silent while Gavin chuckled and poked Casper in the chest. “Why, you jealous?”

“Hell, no, man, Julia Franz is here and she’s been totally scoping me since she walked in.” Casper drank from his beer. “Think I got a chance?”