JC

I followed Nasaan out of the house and around to the patio, only mildly amused at his tantrum. That was all bravado- I would bet on a normal weekday evening, Nasaan wouldn't give a shit where Tori was at night. But since he'd caught us together, he was angry that she'd been with me. Didn't take a genius to figure that out.

The chairs were still sitting out from the last time I'd sat out on the patio. They were covered with snow, so I brushed off two of them and gestured toward them.

"Join me?" I dropped into a chair, then slouched a little, kicking my feet out to cross my ankles.

"Rather stand," he said, bracing himself against one of the columns that held up the patio awning. Hands in his coat pockets, scowl on his face, brows knit together. Fifteen year olds could harbor a serious amount of anger.

"Okay. Cool. So, like I said, I'm leaving tomorrow, and-"

"You must think you're hot shit, huh?"

He pushed off of the column and took a few steps toward me, until he was glaring down at me. I regretted trying to be cool and taking a seat, so I pushed the chair back far enough that I could stand. He and I were eye to eye, but he had youth on his side.

I started to wonder if I was going to get beat up by a fifteen year old.

"You come down here on your stupid bike with your platinum everything and your gold plated bank account- and let's not forget your celebrity dick. Was it fun for you? Scamming on a woman who didn't know better, who probably couldn't resist that all that modest, ‘I'm just a regular guy' bullshit?"

In a flash, his hands flew from the pockets of his coat and landed on my chest, pushing me back a few steps. My arms flapped around for a few scary seconds, until they found the stability of another wooden column.

I coughed, my breath caught in my throat. "Calm down, dude. I'm not gonna fight you."

"Why not?" He snarled, stepping to me again.  "You seem to like preying on innocent people. You couldn't just find the local whore and do that shit? You had to pull that with my mom?"

"Look, Nasaan, I get that you're upset-"

"Upset?!"

" - and you have every reason to be. What you walked in on-"

I stopped, then, because the way his nose flared told me he was getting ready to throw a punch. I side stepped him and walked around so I wasn't pinned between an angry teenager and a wooden post.

"Okay, just... relax and listen to me. Alright? There's a lot that you don't know, that you won't know because you don't need to know. And I don't expect you to understand it all, but everything that happened between me and Tori was something we both wanted to happen."  

I waited, thinking that would set him off, but he frowned into the night, focused at a spot somewhere over my shoulder. "Whether or not you can deal with that is not my problem, man. It really isn't. But I didn't prey on her. I didn't convince her to do anything. I didn't treat her like a whore. I wouldn't do that to your mom, man."

Nasaan shoved his hands in his coat pockets and hooked the toe of his boot around a leg of one of the chairs. Once he'd dragged it into position, he lowered himself into it and sighed a puff of white smoke in the cold air.

I took the hint and pulled a chair next to him- not too close in case he still felt like punching.

"So... how long have you and... my mom..."

"Longer than you think, is all I'm gonna say. I know you think I spent time with you to mine you for information about her but that wasn't it. I was genuinely spending time with you-"

"Why? So you could be like Mitch and make a bunch of promises but only be in it for what you want? Or to pretend to be my new dad?"

I laughed, dipping my head. "There's nothing I want to take from your mom, Nasaan. Nothing. And I'm not gunning to be your new dad. I can't even..."

I shook my head, still laughing. "Look... she's a cool chick, right? That's why you're pissed, because you think she can do tons better than some celebrity asshole, right? I think she's cool, too. When you... think a girl is cool, what do you do? Ask her out, right? Spend time with her? Get to know her?"

I saw a nod... a barely perceptible nod, but it was there.  "That's... that's basically it, dude. I think she's cool."

"Does she think you're cool?"

I chuckled. "No. She calls me Pretty Boy. She thinks I'm a celebrity asshole but she puts up with me."

"And you're leaving tomorrow. Right when she needs someone to be there for her, you're running."

"To be honest, man, I'm not running. I can't explain everything right now, and don't say anything to your mom, but Kaya and your Aunt are helping me help her. I'm absolutely not running. But I need your help with something."

"What? I'm supposed to run your errands now?"

"No. But I need you to go easy on her. She's stressed about the shop but mostly about you. She worries about you so much, man. Stay close to her. Don't hide out with Logan and whoever, leaving in the morning and coming home late. Be here. Help her out, ya know? That shop is full of junk and it has to be cleaned out. Maybe you and your gamer friends can get going on that. There's gonna be some stuff happening, and I want to know that someone is here for her. Can you do that?"

His lips pursed as he glared at me. "You really think you need to ask me to be here for my mom?"

I shrugged. "For peace of mind, I guess I needed to say the words. But I figured that you'd do it anyway."

Nasaan rubbed the back of his hand across the stubble of a baby beard, rolling his tongue around in his mouth before he sucked in a breath through his nose and finally gave me a nod. "So when do I find out what's going down? Whatever Kaya and Aunt Eloise are helping you with?"

"Soon. And I'll be honest, your mom is gonna shit a brick. She won't want it, at first. But we don't have any choice. It's this or your family loses everything."

Nasaan's head popped up, his eyes round and wide. "Serious?"

"Yeah. Probably shouldn't have shared that with you, but..." I shrugged again. "I'm gonna do what I can, but not too much because like I said-"

"She's gonna shit a brick. And you're gonna be there to pick up the pieces or whatever?"

"Yeah. I plan to be, anyway. So... anything else you want to get off your chest? Need to clear the air some more?"

Nasaan shook his head, his eyelids returning to their usual lazy droop. "Guess not," he mumbled. "I'm not saying I'm sorry for being mad. That was some bullshit. But... I was rude. My mom raised me better." He glanced over at me. "And if it gets back to my Aunt Eloise, she'll smack me upside my head."

I chuckled, knowing it was true. "I won't say anything if you don't."

He bobbed his head in a nod, then pushed himself up from the chair. "I told my mom I did my homework but I lied, so I gotta go do my homework. Will I see you in the morning?"

"Yup," I answered, bobbing my head back to him. "I'm gonna chill out here for a couple of minutes."

"K," he answered, then loped around the house and into the dark shadows. I heard the kitchen door open and close.

And then open and close again, and the lighter footsteps I recognized as Tori's crunch through the snow toward me. She wore her coat and a sympathetic smile.

"I didn't see any bruises on Nasaan. I came to check out the other guy."

I laughed, pulling the other chair closer to me and gesturing for her to sit. "He got a couple of pushes in. Nothing big happened, though. Mostly yelling."

"He pushed you?"

"It's not a big deal, Tori. He's fifteen. There was little chance of him hurting me." At least, that's the story I was going with. No one needed to know that I was actually worried there, for a second.

"I don't know, Pretty Boy. You don't strike me as a guy that knows how to fight."

"Come on, now," I joked. "I grew up on the mean streets of DC. I know how to throw a punch." At that, Tori laughed- one of those head cocked back, loud belly laughs. "You sound like you don't believe me. That hurts me, deep inside."

"Oh, I am sorry," she said, laughing as she said it. "Really, I am. But no, I don't believe you. I'm pretty sure a fifteen year old could take you."

"Yeah, well. you might be right about that." 

"So...did you want to be alone out here? I thought I could convince you to come inside, have some hot chocolate, watch a movie...because we didn't watch any of that movie at the drive in..."

"Can we fuck on the couch and get caught by your son?"

"We already did that. C'mon.... what do you say?"

I stood, then held out a hand to Tori. She let me pull her up, then tuck her into my side, under my arm.

"Can we watch a movie about firefighters? I feel like I was supposed to watch one today, but I got distracted...."