17-Joe

Joe tried his best to ignore the buildup of screams and shouts he heard in the distant background. He knew they stemmed from a fight, and without even looking he knew it surely had every bit to do with Rob and Paul. Joe cursed them both, bitterly, their callousness, their idiocy, but mostly their timing—they had to get in a fight right now?

With Katherine still in his arms he finally looked up and saw the eruption on the back porch, a tidal wave of people coming down the stairs and over the railing before flooding across the backyard, their running disoriented and panicked. They were all painted in the red and blue of police lights and with a deep sinking feeling Joe realized how this changed everything.

“C’mon, Katherine, we gotta go, we seriously gotta go,” he whispered, pulling her along by her hand.

She followed, and they ran together into the darkness. Normally in such a situation Joe would have morphed into Carl Lewis and been gone in a flash, risking life and limb to do so. Carefully guiding someone along in such a manner was quite new to him. But he wanted to do this, he wanted to do it more than anything else.

There were adjacent backyards to run into, but Joe didn’t dare. It wasn’t good enough, he knew. Instead he ran blindly into the woods.

Tree branches lashed at him, and he tried to block these with his one free hand. They were relentless, and seemingly never-ending, but finally there was light at the end of the tunnel. Up ahead, Joe saw the tall dark structure of a house—they’d emerged into a backyard, but in another part of the neighborhood.

Still holding her hand, they crouched together in the darkness, their deep breaths the only sound outside of an occasional shout in the distance. His adrenaline surged, and Joe marveled at how much had happened in just the twenty minutes or so since he’d arrived at the party.

“Are you okay?” he whispered to her.

“Yeah,” she replied.

After a few minutes their breathing quieted and Joe stood fully upright, peering back through the trees from where they’d came. He couldn’t see anything at all, which was no surprise.

“I’ll be right back,” he whispered, and then tread quietly toward the street. He felt sweaty and dirty from the sprint through the woods, and as he walked he rubbed his arms and hands over his head, trying to rid himself of cobwebs.

Ahead Joe saw sprawling mulch beds and a lawn in the thin glow of streetlights. He paced down the narrow alley of a side yard while praying he wouldn’t trigger a motion sensor floodlight, which would surely scare the hell out of him. Finally, some luck—the yard stayed dark, and from it he crept out onto sidewalk. Peering down the street, he could see nothing out of the ordinary. It looked safe enough. He wasn’t sure what he might have expected to see otherwise.

He turned and tread quietly back through the yard, finding it much, much darker than before. In the blackness he whispered her name several times, but she didn’t answer. With growing unease, he hurried his search, still calling out her name. Finally, she replied.

“I’m here.”

Then, hearing her heavy, unsettled breathing, he realized the situation.

“Katherine…are you okay?”

She didn’t reply, and Joe felt himself sinking.

“It’s okay,” he whispered. “Really. Just do it. You’ll feel better.”

He put his arm lightly on her back, trying to comfort her, but wincing all along. He hated how he’d led her here. Indirectly, but still—he’d driven this. And now they were crouched in the dark woods, there were cops about, and there was a distinct possibility he’d be carrying her soon. What a great first date he’d planned for her.

The shitty feeling got about ten times worse at the sound of her throwing up.

His sweet Juanita, knelt there atop unseen leaves and brush, in the complete darkness, throwing up. She deserved so much better. His mind shakily concocted various scenarios about what might happen next.

Instead, after taking a few moments to gather herself, she bounced back up to her feet—like it had been nothing.

“God, I feel so stupid. Sorry, Joe.”

Joe gaped at her in awe. I love you, he thought earnestly, and had to catch himself from saying it.

“Where are we, anyway?” She looked down toward the street.

“I don’t know. But I think we should head that way.” He pointed in the general direction that he surmised would take them further away from Zack’s house. “Then we can try to loop back around to my car,” he finished.

“Okay,” she said, her voice raspy.

Joe suddenly remembered, and his hand shot into his pocket. “Do you want some gum?” he asked.

“Yes,” she said, her expression one of extreme gratitude.

He gave her some and Joe waited patiently as she unwrapped it and brought it to her mouth.

“You sure you’re okay?” he asked.

She gave a slight nod and a smile as well as she chewed quietly. Still with great relief Joe wrapped his arm around her and led her through the darkness and out onto the sidewalk. While walking she clasped onto his hand in response. He smiled shakily.

“What time is it?” she asked him.

“It’s probably like…ten thirty,” Joe guessed. “Where do you live, anyway?”

“Brookstone Circle. It’s close to here, I’m realizing.”

“Oh, yeah? This is your neighborhood?”

“Yeah. My house is probably like a five or ten minute walk from here.”

“Well, damn, it’d be a pain to get back to my car, anyway, and potentially risky. How about I just walk you home, Katherine? Is that okay?”

She smiled, a big lazy one. “I would love that.”

She clasped onto his hand a bit tighter, even rested her head on his shoulder briefly as they walked along. Joe buzzed with that pleasant shaky feeling heightened ever more.

“Are you okay, Katherine? Seriously? I’m so sorry about how all this turned out.”

“I’m fine. And why are you apologizing? It’s not your fault. Anyway, tonight was fun. I had a blast.”

“Really?”

“Yeah! Well, I probably shouldn’t have played quarters so much, but…”

“Oh, don’t worry about that, I’ve been there. We’ve all been there. Many times.”

She released an anxious smile, but bottled it up quickly.

“You look fine! Don’t worry about it! I’m actually impressed how you bounced back so fast.”

“But it’s so embarrassing.”

“Hey, that was a tumultuous event back there! We risked life and limb to escape in one piece. Getting sick for half a second is perfectly fine. I mean, Katherine, we did it! And I was impressed at how you were moving back there. You got some wheels, girl.”

“That was crazy. Do you always end up running from cops, Joe?” She grinned, her eyelids heavy.

“Hey, I came to this party looking for you!”

“And you got here just in time to rescue me.”

“Glad I could help.”

“We didn’t have much time to hang out, though.”

“I know! I feel bad, because that is what I really wanted to do tonight, more than anything else. Just hang out, you know? Just like, you and me.”

She smiled. “But at least this night will be super memorable for us to look back on, right? Now we have this wild story together. And we’ve plenty more time to hang out later. Just you and me.”

Joe exhaled, as though in disbelief. “You rule,” he said, hugging tightly with the arm he had wrapped around her.

“I’m just so worried about Nikki. I hope she got out of there.”

“Yeah, me too.”

“Aren’t you worried about your friends, too?”

“No, they’re fine. They all got out. There isn’t a doubt in my mind.”

“You guys.”

Her eyes were narrow and tired, and her voice ever more raspy. Joe still held onto her as they walked along, and she seemed grateful for it. The night was humid, and the streetlights showed halos of fog around them.

The five or ten minute walk to her house was really more like twenty, but it went by in a flash anyway, and before Joe knew it they stood in front of her house. They hugged, a long and slow one, and again Joe noticed how heavy her eyelids were.

“Will you be all right getting in?” he asked.

She nodded. “I’ll be fine.”

“Can I call you?” Joe wasn’t going to forget this time.

She nodded again, smiling. But there was a problem, though, because neither of them had anything to write with.

“I’m in the phone book,” she said, finally. “Lisi. On Brookstone.”

“Okay. That works.”

They were quiet for a second, their eyes starry.

“Bye, Pedro,” she said.

He loved it. “Bye, Juanita.”

She turned and waved once before going in. Joe then began the long walk back to his car.

He smoked a cigarette, but it wasn’t enough. He lit up another one almost immediately. His strut took him past houses that were mostly dark and quiet. He coolly exhaled the clouds of smoke into the misty air as he walked along briskly, joyously.

He altered his route back through the neighborhood, taking the long way around the block, hoping to get to his car while also bypassing Zack’s road. He didn’t know what he’d run into there, and he had no interest in finding out.

It worked—he first recognized the street, and then he saw his car in the distance. Joe grinned in triumph, and even did a fist pump. But then his brow furrowed in curiosity.

Two figures stood by his car.

One was Paul.

The other was Brad.