The Other Side of the Street

by Nicole Thorn

I went stiff, staring at Harry. He looked totally calm about it and not bothered at all. “Good for you,” I said to Hammy, meaning it. I might have even been smiling despite my own stress. “Very good.”

  “Yeah,” Harry agreed. “Hey, can I ask you a personal question?”

  “Sure?” I squeaked.

  “Were you just fooling around with my kid?”

  I stared hard at him, and then I started running away. I got halfway down the hall before I heard Hamilton shout, “Two months!”

  With my shoes in my hand, I headed toward the door, barely seeing Bea standing there with worry. I felt terrible, knowing she deserved some kind of explanation. My parents were probably worried out of their minds, and they would force me into a bed and say I needed rest. Bea wouldn’t let her eyes off me until she personally decided I was fine.

  “Are you okay?” she asked. “Hey, hold on. You passed out. Where are you going!”

  “Can’t stop!” I said, ripping the door open. “I made out with Hammy!”

  Bea gasped, then yelled, “Yay!” before she ran to catch up with me.

  Chapter Twenty-Three

  Hamilton

  I half expected Jay wouldn’t come out of his room when I went to pick him up the next morning. I half hoped he wouldn’t, to be honest. It had nothing to do with the kiss and everything to do with him passing out the day before. I’d been in contact with his sister, who assured me that she had been taking care of him. That only made me worry more. I pictured him strapped to the bed with rope while she fed him jars of his own honey every time he tried to get up.

  When I pulled up to the house, though, Jay sat outside on their patio table. I might’ve gone for one of the chairs, personally, but I respected his choices. I pulled up along the curb and propped the door open as he started to stand.

  “Hey there, handsome, would you like a ride?” I asked, leaning against the doorframe and trying to put out all the right vibes. I even smiled devilishly, so that he would know what kind of mood I was in.

  Jay shoved me back into the RV. Sadly, he didn’t do this so that we could make-out on the floor and question our decisions later. “Stop that,” he growled.

  “Long night?” I asked, squinting at him. He looked better than he had the day before. For one thing, he actually had some color in his face other than red cheeks. For another, he had showered. He also looked well-rested, or at least more rested than normal.

  “Why did your dad have to tell my parents about what happened?” he whined. Considering the whine, I decided he understood how stupid he sounded.

  “Well, if Dad hadn’t told them about you passing out, then I most certainly would have. They have a right to know that their son is a lunatic that doesn’t listen when his body is telling him to stop. Especially when they would be the ones who had to pay the medical bills.”

  “I wouldn’t make them do that,” Jay said in all seriousness.

  I shrugged. “I never said that you would make them. I just said that they would be the ones who did it. I’ve met your family. Do you really think that they would make you pay the bill?”

  He didn’t say anything. I straightened up and closed the door to the RV. Jay looked wary as I started to walk over to him. Warier still when I put my hands on either of his shoulders and leaned in so that we were practically nose to nose.

  “I swear to god, if you kiss me right now, I’m going to punch you,” Jay said.

  “You worried me yesterday,” I said.

  Jay winced.

  “Today, if I tell you to take a break, please do it.”

  Silence stretched for almost a full minute before Jay finally nodded, glancing off to the side. I let him off the hook and went to get behind the wheel. He followed me, taking the passenger’s seat. “So, how are you and your dad doing?”

  I grimaced. “Pretty well. But he spent most of the night pointing out hot guys on TV and asking me questions about you. I think he was overcompensating for assuming that I was straight.”

  Jay laughed. “It could be worse.”

  “Oh, I know. I’m not complaining, or anything. It was just… awkward. I’ve never had to tell my dad what kind of man I’m into before. I hope to the gods that I never have to do that again, either.”

  “You did that?” Jay snorted on another laugh.

  I glanced sideways at him and started to smirk. “Oh, yeah. I described someone with dark blond hair, light brown eyes, just a little shorter than me, doesn’t mind being called Honey Boy—”

  “I will tackle you and end both our lives right now,” Jay said, gesturing to the road ahead of us.

  “Hey, you asked.”

  “We are sworn enemies,” Jay said.

  “You keep saying that as if it means anything.”

  “It means that we don’t kiss,” Jay said. “We certainly don’t get on top of one another, we don’t hold hands, we don’t do any of that stuff. We are sworn enemies. As far as you’re concerned, if I stepped out into traffic, then your life would be so much better. I’ll do the same.”

  “If I stepped out into traffic, who would drive you to work?”

  “Shut up.”

  “Also, don’t you often feel that sworn enemies just have so much sexual tension that even a knife won’t cut through it?”

  “Shut up.”

  “I’ve read Superman and Lex Luther fanfiction, mostly because Sam insisted that I did, where there was a lot of sex. You wouldn’t think that Lex Luther could suck a—”

  “Oh my god, what is wrong with you?” Jay said. “Go back to being a grump. I liked that more.”

  “Did you?” I asked. “Dually noted.”

  He groaned, putting his head on the dash. “You are the literal worst. Do you know that?”

  “I do know that,” I said. “I also know that you’re being stupid about this. I don’t know your real reason for not wanting to make out with me, but it has nothing to do with being sworn enemies. If you’re worried that you’ll hurt my feelings, you can just tell me that you’re not interested.”

  He stayed quiet, and I started to think perhaps that had been it. Considering how rude I’d been to him at the beginning, I couldn’t say that it surprised me. He had a thing about people stealing his spot, after all.

  Jay cleared his throat and stared out the window. “That’s not it.”

  “Are you sure?” I asked, looking over at him. “Because you really won’t hurt my feelings.” I’d be embarrassed and working him with him would take on a new edge of tension, but I wouldn’t be offended. Sometimes people just didn’t like other people in that regard.

  “I’m sure,” Jay said. “I just don’t want to sleep with my sworn enemy.”

  “I don’t recall saying that I wanted to sleep with you,” I said.

  While Jay sputtered, I laughed.

  “You certainly seemed like you wanted to sleep with me yesterday!” he shouted. “And I’d be good! Granted, I’ve never done anything before, but I know that I could make you scream!”

  “Can you?” I asked. “Wanna prove it?”

  He opened his mouth angrily, saw the trap that he had fallen into, and closed it again.

  “Anyway, I don’t want to sleep with you. Not yet. I think that we should get past this sworn enemy thing first, and then we should probably go out on a date. There aren’t a lot of good places around here, so I don’t know about dinner. We could just pick something up and sit at home in our pjs, playing videogames. It’s been awhile since I did that. I’ve got a hankering to kill some zombies…”

  Jay turned away from me to stare out the window. I assumed that he didn’t want to talk about this anymore, so I let it drop. I didn’t want to cross that line from teasing into bullying, which meant reading his moods as carefully as I could.

  We had almost gotten to the spot when Jay’s phone went off. He pulled it from his pocket and groaned. Answering it, he said, “Bea, I’m fine. See, talking coherently and everything. We haven’t even parked yet.”

 
Since the two of us sat next to each other, I could hear Bea’s response. “I promised Mom that I would call every hour to make sure that you’re all right, and I’m going to do it. It’s that or tell Dee Dee that I don’t know if you’re okay.”

  Jay pinched the bridge of his nose. “Fine,” he said and hung up.

  “They didn’t take the news well?” I asked.

  “No,” Jay said. “The only reason that I managed to go to work today is because Mom and Dad both had early shifts this morning.”

  “Are you supposed to be at home? Did you kidnap yourself?”

  “That’s not possible, and no. I texted Mom and told her that I was fine. She’s just being paranoid.”

  I grunted. “Can you blame her? If that happened to me, Dad would probably have locked me in the house. Of course, I’m the only family that he has left.”

  Jay paled.

  “Sorry,” I said. “Dead mom jokes probably aren’t the best way to start the day, huh?”

  Jay shrugged. “I don’t think I’d care, except you always sound so broken when you do it.”

  We pulled up to our spot a minute later. Much to my shock, Sam had already arrived. He sat in his car, bent over the steering wheel. I glanced at Jay, who looked just as confused as I felt. I parked and Jay offered to set up while I went to see why Sam had come before noon.

  He got out of his car to meet me halfway. “Finally!” he said and thrust an envelope at me. “That’s your take from yesterday’s sale.”

  I peeked inside and did a quick count. Not as much as we usually made, but not bad, considering who I had left in charge. “Do you have Jay’s?”

  Sam lifted up another white envelope. “Right here,” he said. “Do you have any idea how long it took me to sell even that much?” he asked. “I stayed almost two hours longer than we normally do.”

  That didn’t surprise me. “Well, you managed it, and that’s the important thing.”

  Sam glared at me. “Two hours, Ham. I didn’t even take extra for that amount of work.”

  “Well, normally we make this much because Jay and I pick up the slack,” I said. “So, if you had taken more, we would have had to talk.”

  “Hey, I worked my ass off,” Sam said. “Do you know how many people called me names? Or how many times those fucking food truck owners came over to poach our customers? It was hell.”

  “And I thank you for enduring it,” I said. “Why don’t you go give that to Jay?”

  Jay took his envelope and looked shocked by the amount of money in there. Sam took offense, but he actually helped us set up the tables. He had brought the jars of honey that he hadn’t managed to sell the day before, and we put those out first, along with our new wares. He even hung the signs up himself.

  I sat behind the table, frowning as Sam started walking up and down the street with an even bigger sign that announced everything that we had to sell. “It is me, or is he actually… trying?” I asked.

  Jay, who sat so that the mister my father had repaired blasted right at his face, cocked his head. “I give it two hours before it stops.”

  Sam didn’t take a break for almost three hours. When he did, it was because A Little Taste of Heavaii had showed up and he didn’t want people to stop and take their sandwiches over our wares. He sat down, sweaty and swearing. “They don’t even know how lucky they are to have that spot,” he grumbled.

  Jay glared at him.

  “Drink some water,” I said, handing Jay a bottle. I hadn’t been babying him, because I knew that would get on his nerves fast, and I could tell that he hadn’t reached a breaking point yet. I just wanted to make sure that he didn’t get into a fight with Sam before the lunch crowd even came in.

  He took the bottle and drank, mostly out of spite, I thought.

  I’d just started to relax, thinking that we might get through this day without breaking any necks… when Helen started across the street, that stupid smile of hers already plastered across her face. My frayed nerves couldn’t take too much of her bullshit, but I braced myself anyway.

  “Hello, boys,” she said. She put her hands on the edge of our tables and leaned over.

  We all stared at her hands. She did not move.

  “I’m so sorry to hear about yesterday,” she said, looking directly at Jay. “Your friend here told me that you didn’t feel good. Was it too much sun?”

  “No, there was an awful smell coming from across the street that made me nauseous,” Jay said. “It smelled like rotting pork.” This last he said just loudly enough that their first two customers heard and glanced over at us. Stanley started to reassure them. One of the customers listened, while the other one hightailed it back to their car.

  “Are you sure the smell wasn’t coming from your own cooler?” Helen asked, eying it. “I can’t imagine that anything in there was made fresh.”

  If she thought this would trip us up, she was a moron. “Actually, I made most of those sandwiches less than an hour ago,” I said. “And they’re wrapped up tight, to keep them from going bad. We also have some of those lunchbox ice things that keep the heat from getting to them.”

  Helen smiled at me, wrinkling her nose. “How cute.”

  Sam glared.

  Jay glared.

  This started to feel like an all-around bad idea.

  “Thanks,” I said. “Why don’t you head back across the street. I’m sure the lunch rush will come soon, and you don’t want Stanley taking all the orders, do you?”

  “I’m sure he can handle it.”

  Jay raised his voice again. “So, you don’t care about your customers’ experience? Only their money?”

  In this game of subtle bitchiness, Jay had lost.

  Helen looked at him. “I’m sure that we won’t get too busy for another hour, considering how many of our customers you three like to steal.”

  Jay’s eyes flashed. “Me? Stealing your customers?” He stood up, putting his hands on the edge of the table as well. I got the distinct feeling that this had just gone from bad to worse. “You are the one that saw how well we were doing and decided to park across the street. If anyone is poaching customers, it’s your foul, unoriginal truck, with its mediocre menu.”

  Helen’s eyes flashed, and I decided that now would probably be a good time to interfere, before things got out of hand. I stood up as well, pushing Jay back with one hand as gently as I could. Then I looked at Helen, and said, “I’m sure that you have a good reason for coming over, but unless it’s to buy something, I’m going to have to ask you to leave.”

  She glanced at all the things that we had laid out on the table and looked back up at me. “I’m afraid that I don’t want to waste any of my money on this.”

  “Then leave,” Jay said.

  She pushed off the table and sauntered back across the street. It might have looked more impressive if she had looked both ways first. She almost got nailed by an SUV, trying to pull in to get some of her sandwiches. Instead of getting a customer, she just pissed one off and they drove away while screaming at her and giving all sorts of hand gestures.

  Jay seethed. I leaned my shoulder against his. “Don’t worry,” I said. “She just wants you to get angry.”

  “It’s working.”

  “Why?” I asked.

  “Because she’s smug about ruining our business, so that hers can flourish. What kind of a monster does that?”

  “An insecure adult woman who feels the need to try and intimidate two boys fresh from high school off a road next to a grocery store,” I said. “When you think about it, she doesn’t come off in the best light.”

  He frowned at that.

  I hooked my arm around Jay’s shoulders, pulling him in against me side. “Don’t think about her anymore. I’m sure that she’ll do something else to piss us off, but if you don’t think about her, then all the things that she can do don’t mean anything.”

  He eyed my arm.

  “Right. Sworn enemies,” I said, removing it from his shoulders.
“Still, don’t think about Helen. Just try to sell our stuff, so that we can make it to the end of the next week.”

  Jay didn’t look too happy about this, but he agreed, leaning back against his chair. Helen started loudly taking orders, to remind us of her success. It might have worked better if a few people didn’t look incredibly irritated.

  As usual, our business slowed down during the lunch rush, but that didn’t stop us from selling goods. Sam got up and started waving his sign around again, shouting about all the amazing stuff that we had. When he put his mind to it, he could really hock some sandwiches. He spoke of the fresh bread that I had gotten from the bakery like it had been a gift from heaven itself.

  People stopped by to purchase everything. Jay and I both put our best faces on, acting like cheerful kids that just wanted to make a buck. We smiled at the old ladies, we shook hands with the middle-aged men that felt weird buying honey on the side of the road, Jay charmed people while I packaged up their food. All in all, we didn’t do terribly during the lunch rush. But we all knew that the dinner rush would annihilate us.

  People driving home from work didn’t want honey when they could have real food without having to cook. They didn’t want jerky when they could get a bag of food for the family for damn near the same price.

  But the lunch rush treated us well, and that was better than we had done the day before.

  Chapter Twenty-Four

  Jay

  “This feels like a bit much,” I said, holding the front door open.

  Hamilton eyed me up and down, staring a bit too long at the game show boxers I shouldn’t have answered the door in. “I appreciate your kind greeting. I wish every boy I liked would answer the door in their underwear.”

  I hoped it didn’t show that I enjoyed the sound of him saying he liked me. I didn’t want to give him even more ammo.

  I cleared my throat and crossed my arms. “Are we not going to address the weirder thing happening?”

  He held the massive bouquet of wildflowers in his hands, moving it so I could see his entire face. “I don’t know what you mean.”