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Chapter 6: AJ

I left Sadie’s place with the taste of her strawberry lipgloss still on my mouth. Although it was almost Thanksgiving, the weather was still warm; I wore a jacket more to conceal my knife and carry my smokes than anything else. The walk from her place to mine was about eight blocks, just on the edges of Cat territory. I was taking no chances of being caught out with no weapon.

I smiled as I walked between the pools of illumination made by the streetlights. Sadie was a supreme kisser; if her folks hadn’t been around I might have tried a bit more with her. Of course, she would have probably said no, like she’s said for the last twenty times, but a guy has to try. Still, dating a cheerleader had its perks. I had an instant reputation that most guys only dream about. No one ever had to know that I’d never made it past second base with her.

I’d learned long ago that attitude meant the difference between success and failure. With the right attitude, you could make anyone believe anything. Of course, you never could pull it off with your true friends, because they knew who you really were. I was a smooth liar to everyone else, when the circumstances warranted it, but I could never lie to my buddies. Especially someone I cared about like Howie.

We’d been friends since… man. Since forever. We’d met as kids on one of the local b-ball courts and it just seemed right from the get-go. He was easygoing, while I was hot tempered, but somehow, we complemented each other. He said once that we were like two sides of the same coin. I liked that; Howie was real smart. And he had a heart of gold, even though he’d gotten it stepped on plenty of times. He made me feel good about myself, and I kept him safe. Like I said, it worked.

I looked around, checking my bearings. It wasn’t wise to let your mind wander, especially at this time of night. Suddenly every shadow seemed to be following me, and I quickened my pace. The walk was a confident one, though, not like I was running scared. Like I said, attitude was everything.

I wondered who was home at my place tonight. Hopefully my mom’s current boyfriend, Bill, was otherwise occupied. He seemed to want to father me; when he’d stepped up to the role, I’d laughed in his face. He wasn’t my father, never would be. I was too old to be told where to go and what to do; he’d tried bossing me around about the fourth month he’d been seeing Mom. For my mother’s sake, we’d declared a truce, but that didn’t include anything beyond being civil to each other. Suited me fine.

It occurred to me as I passed Sycamore Street that there was some kind of math test or something the next day; I wracked my brain for details. Yeah, it was algebra. Another useless class, another waste of my valuable time. In six months, I’d be free of school, and could get on with life. I had big plans, and none of them included algebra.

I pulled out a cigarette and lit it, never breaking stride. I had three more blocks to go, plenty of time to finish it before I got home. Mom didn’t like me smoking; I don’t blame her, it’s a nasty habit, not to mention expensive. But, I’d started smoking back in ninth grade, right after my old man got tossed into jail. Mom had divorced him right away, but she felt so guilty about everything that she never really got too hard on my case about it. At first it was to fit in, to look cool, but by now it had become a real habit. Howie had tried to get me to quit, and I had tried several times. At least I only smoked a couple a day, so I guess it wasn’t as bad as it could have been.

As I turned the corner on 37th, I wondered if Howie had any secret bad habits. He seemed to know the score about most things, yet… he didn’t smoke, didn’t swear, and never drank a drop of alcohol. He also never started fights; he was the one that almost always kept the peace. I bet he’d make a great judge someday, although he’d never give anyone the chair. Sweet D, we called him. Like I said, a heart of gold.

I flicked my cigarette into the gutter as I stepped up to my apartment building: I’d made it, with no Alley trouble. Although I wouldn’t have backed down from a fight, I was kind of relieved that nothing had happened. With as much as I’d stirred up in the past, if they’d ganged up on me… well, I probably would have either woken up in a hospital, or just not woken up at all. These days, that was a very good possibility.