Page 77 of Here & There

Five minutes later, I bang on the door of bus number seven, which is, in fact, about to pull away. The door hisses open.

“Mac?” the driver says.

I say a silent prayer of thanks.

“Hey, Joe. Good to see you.”

Joe’s a regular at the Dinghy. I went to high school with his older brother. We played rugby together. Good dude.

“Yeah, you too, but…the hell are you doing?”

I step onto the bottom step and look back at the crowd of kids on the bus. Literally everyone is staring at me. I spot Nate, whose eyes are like dinner plates. He shrinks down into his seat, face pink with embarrassment.

Across the aisle from him is the smarmy kid. He’s leaned over toward Nate’s seat, as if I caught him mid taunt. Shelby wasn’t kidding. He really does look like a miniature of those ATV dickheads. Crew cut, to be exact. They probablyarerelated.

“We’re not really supposed to let adults on the bus,” Joe says apologetically. “Even if they’re parents of students.”

“Listen, I’ll give you all-you-can-eat wings next week at the Dinghy if you let me catch a ride just this once.”

Joe looks skeptical.

“Beer on the house too. For you and…three buddies.”

He grins. “Shit. All right. Just this once.”

I give him a nod of thanks. Then I get the rest of the way on board while Joe goes arm-over-arm on the giant wheel, pulling us out of the parking lot.

I walk by the kids, eyeing them one by one to see if there are any others looking at me funny. I’m still polite, though. “Hello,” I say as I pass them. “Afternoon. Nice to see you.” I recognize a few kids I know and give them friendly winks.

When I reach Nate, he shrinks even lower in his seat. But I don’t sit with him. Instead, I say “do you mind?” to the kid sitting next to the bully, who scurries out of the seat to another near the back. Then I lower myself down into the seat next to little crew cut.

I have to sit with my legs out in the aisle to fit properly.

I stick my hand out. “Name’s Mac. Yours?”

The kid clears his throat. “Mark.”

“Another good solid M-name. I like it.”

The kid looks pale.

“You wouldn’t happen to be related to Cecil Beaufort, would you?”

Mark looks down. “He’s my uncle.”

There’s something about the way he says it. Like he knows what kind of man Cecil is. I nod. “He’s kind of a douchebag.”

The kid looks like he thinks he’s supposed to refute that, but I hold up my hand.

“It’s okay. I won’t say anything if you agree. I probably shouldn’t have said it anyway. But he harasses people. Women. He vandalizes city property like he doesn’t know any better, which he does. He’s not a great role model, you know?”

Mark swallows. “I…uh…” He clears his throat. “I heard what you said to him when he was here.”

I nod. “It sucked I had to do that. I was defending a woman’s honor, though. You know how that goes.”

Mark nods.

“It’s worth it, though. It makes the world a better place. The good guys always win in the movies and shit, right?”

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