Shine - Lauren Myracle [15]
It was possible he knew who did, though.
The first order of business was to find out what happened in the hours prior to Patrick’s attack. Patrick went out that night with my brother and some others, including Beef and Tommy, and I needed to know what happened when he was with them, before he was beaten up, strung to the gas pump, and left to die.
Christian wouldn’t tell me. I’d bugged him and bugged him, and he flat-out denied that anything had happened. Yet with every denial, he’d get the same stubborn look I’d seen him wearing all week. One time he said, “Just lay off. It’s nothing you need to worry about.”
If it was nothing for me to worry about, what was the “it”? If he didn’t want me worrying, why not come clean?
There was no point asking Tommy. He’d lie, and a lie was no better than Christian’s closed-lipped agitation.
So that left Beef. Beef and I weren’t as close as we used to be, but maybe I could get a straight answer out of him anyhow. He was almost a second brother to me, after all. We had a lot of history between us.
Once, when I was a fifth grader, a bigger boy at school told me to move. When I didn’t jump to it, he elbowed me in the face and barked, “Move!”
Beef found me huddled on the side of the playground with Gwennie, holding a scratchy brown paper towel to my bloody nose.
“Who did it?” he said, his face darkening, and before recess was over, that bigger boy knew never to bother me again.
Another time Beef came over to see Christian and found me crying at the kitchen table.
“Uh . . . what’s wrong?” he asked with all the finesse of a farmer in a fancy ladies clothing store. He’d gotten a new buzz cut, and I remember thinking he looked like a baby chick, all scalp and fuzz.
I swallowed and waved my hand to indicate my book, lying facedown on the table. It was To Kill a Mockingbird. I’d just finished the chapter where Scout finally meets Boo Radley, who she always thought was scary, but who turned out not to be. Turned out, he was just scared to death of the world. Even so, he put his life on the line and saved Scout from a truly bad and scary man. Afterward, Scout’s daddy said to Boo, “Thank you for my children.” It killed me every time.
“Just a sad part,” I told Beef. “I’m okay.”
“Haven’t you already read that book?” he said.
“Only a couple hundred times.”
“Do you cry every time?”
I sniffle-laughed, seeing how he might not understand that sometimes it was good to cry.
He squinted, unsure what to do. He wanted to go shoot things with my brother, but because he was Beef, he didn’t feel right about leaving me behind when I was all weepy. “Well . . . wanna rub my head?”
I laughed again. I loved rubbing his freshly mowed head. He knelt on one knee before me, and I moved my palm over his bitsy chick fuzz. Sure enough, it stemmed my tears.
I’d grown up with Beef. I could trust what he told me, and—a big bonus—I could be in the same room as him without wanting to shrivel up and die. But mainly, I needed to get up off my butt and do something. Anything.
I’d made a promise—to Patrick, to Mama Sweetie, and to God—and I was going to keep it.
AFTER BREAKFAST, I BIKED TO BEEF’S HOUSE. His dad, Roy, answered the door.
“Well, well,” he said. “Look what the dog drug in.”
He thought that was funny, but then, he thought most everything he said was funny—or smart, or clever. He considered himself to be a pretty big deal, and most of Black Creek agreed. He wasn’t rich like Tommy Lawson’s daddy, but Roy Pierson was the wrestling coach at the high school, and he was good at it. Beef was the star of the team until he dropped out.
“Is Beef here?” I asked.
Roy stretched, his shirt hiking up to reveal his abs. His long hair was in a ponytail, and his frame was lean and mean, though on the smallish side for a man. Beef was built the same way, but Beef was a good guy, and goodness, rather than meanness, shone through him.
“You wanna see Beef, do ya?” he said, leaning against the door frame. “Whatcha wanna see that sack of shit for?