Ryan Hunter

on between the two of you?”
    “Why do you want to know?”
    “Why don’t you want to answer?”
    Alex bumped his shoulder into Tony’s. “Because this dude is in love, and it’s not with the sweet Matthews girl.”
    Tony shoved him back. “Knock it off. I’m not in love with anyone.”
    “Then why are you so touchy all of a sudden?” Alex asked.
    “And so defensive,” I added.
    “I’m not. You’re just idiots.”
    Okay, we couldn’t contradict that, but Tony’s secretive love life interested me more and more. And then it hit me like a hammer on the head. “It’s because of her!”
    He quirked his brows at me. “Huh?”
    “It’s Cloey. Not me. She’s the reason why you don’t want to bring Matthews along. You don’t want the girls to meet, that’s it.” Heck, I almost sneered at my friend because of my ingenuity.
    And suddenly something weird happened, with which none of us boys had reckoned. Anthony Mitchell blushed a pretty girlie pink.
    “Oh my fucking God!” I slapped my brow. “So you have something running with the chick. And you’re scared to tell little Liza.”
    Tony raked a nervous hand through his hair. “She won’t understand it,” he whined, and it didn’t help that at this moment another text from Liza came in.
    I knew it was an asshole move, but this time I couldn’t resist. As soon as he fished the phone out of his pocket, I grabbed it and opened the text. Tony jumped at me, but I held the device out of his reach and wrestled myself free.
    “We can do whatever you like. Go for a swim? We haven’t done that all summer. But then, you were gone all summer, you scamp,” I read out loud, and the other two repeated, “ You scamp !” in the gayest way one had ever heard. We laughed our asses off.
    “Give it back. You’re such an infantile, Hunter.”
    “ Infantile !” we repeated again and stuck our heads together like the three Stooges, already holding our stomachs from laughing. I was too weak to withstand Tony’s attacks, so I let him have his cell phone back. God knew what he texted Liza back then. Likely, that he was trapped in a train compartment with the leftover Kindergarten of Grover Beach.
    When the train stopped at our station, we grabbed our bags, jumped off the coach, and into the warm Friday afternoon sun. I stretched my back and cracked my neck, which had gone a little stiff during the ride. Then I scanned the place for a delicate brunette with apple green eyes. She hadn’t come, not even to pick up her best friend and childhood love. Not seeing Liza for half of the summer and staying sane had been a challenge. Not seeing her now was torture.
    But school was only three weeks away. I would be a man and bear the time with a grin. Or so I told myself.
    The guys and I bumped fists and shouted goodbyes to several other friends we’d made at camp. Then we fanned out to find our rides home. My dad would pick me up today, but before I found him, I ran into my friend, Justin. He had a broken little brother by his side. Well not everything of Nick Andrews was broken, only his right wrist, which didn’t bring me any money, but it made me feel bad for him. It had happened only three days ago, and we all had wondered if he’d make it home sound for once. No such luck for the boy.
    Justin came over to me with a grim expression, but before he could say anything I cut him short. “Dude, I wasn’t even near him when it happened. He slipped in the shower. How could I have prevented that from happening, huh?”
    He considered that for a second, then a grin curved his thin lips, and we went through our handshake ritual which ended with a fist pound on each other’s shoulder. “What’s cracking?” he asked as he and Nick walked with me to the parking lot. Then he leaned in closer, so that only I could hear his taunt. “Did a nice babe come along and blast the Matthews girl out of your head?”
    I grinned back. “Did you run a truck over your sacred BMX?”
    “Nah,” we said simultaneously and laughed. Then I slapped his little brother on the shoulder and told him, “See you at Charlie’s in a bit,” before I left my friends.
    My dad was waiting by our black Ford Chrysler. I gave him a brief one-armed hug, dumped my bag in the truck, and climbed into the passenger seat. Though this year’s summer soccer camp had been epic, it was nice to go home at last.
    Mom must have been waiting like a lynx behind the door, because the moment I opened it, she