Towering

the type of friendship where you could just walk over without knocking, so I didn’t tell Tyler I was coming.
    “But when I got there, Tyler’s stepdad was awake anyway. I knew because he was screaming and yelling. I could see them through the little window in the front door. Just barely, but they couldn’t see me.”
    I could still picture the scene, through the thick, mottled glass shaped like a flower. Tyler’s stepfather—his name was Rick—was mad about something. Maybe someone had already woken him up. Anyway, his face was practically purple, and I knew I didn’t want to knock.
    “I started to back away. He was calling Tyler’s mom all sorts of names, and then, he hit her. I couldn’t believe it. Tyler sort of freaked then, and they got into it, struggling on the floor. I couldn’t move. I didn’t really know what to do.”
    “I wouldn’t either,” Rachel said. “It sounds terrifying.”
    I remembered it so well. I had stood frozen, both figuratively and literally, in the November cold, while Ty and Rick were hitting each other. Nikki and her mom ran for safety. I was glad at least for that. Finally, it was like a spell had been broken. I ran home.
    “I didn’t know what to do,” I told Rachel. “If I should call the police or something, but I thought Tyler might call them, and it was over anyway, so I didn’t. After a while, I called Ty on his cell phone.” I realized she probably didn’t know what a cell phone was. “It’s a little phone where you can talk to people privately. Like this.” I took out my phone and, even though I knew it wouldn’t work, I turned it on, so she could see the lights. Weirdly, it had bars. Maybe because I was up so high. Josh had told me his phone worked in the hills. There were three texts too, all from my mother. “I asked him if he wanted to come over, hang out, or go to the mall—that’s a place a lot of teenagers go, to buy stuff and hang out. He sounded a little weird, and I knew why. He said he’d see if he could go. A few minutes later, he called me back and asked if Nikki could come over too. Of course I said okay.
    “So we went to the mall, and all the way there, Tyler was quiet, and Nikki was sort of crying, and I didn’t know what to say, what to do. Part of me felt like I’d seen something I shouldn’t have, and if Tyler wanted to talk about it, he would have told me himself. It felt like spying. But another part said that Tyler was my best friend, and he was in trouble. I wanted to know how often this happened, though I sort of knew. That was why I wasn’t allowed to go over there. Part of me was angry at him for not telling me. I mean, he was my best friend.”
    “It was probably hard for him to talk about it,” Rachel said. “He was embarrassed. At least, I think he might have been.”
    “No, you’re right,” I said. “And, eventually, when I decided to break down and ask him, that’s exactly what happened. He got mad at me, for knowing, for spying on him. I said, ‘I wasn’t spying. I was just coming over your house like a normal person. I can’t help what I saw, man. I want to help.’ And Nikki took my side. She said she was glad I knew, that it was hard, not having anyone to talk to about it. She said she’d wanted to tell one of the counselors at school but their mom said not to. If they told the counselor, the counselor would have to tell the police or something. Then, they’d come and take them away.”
    “‘Isn’t that a good reason to tell someone?’ I said, ‘So they’d come and get you some help, arrest that bastard?’
    “Nikki looked at Tyler, and I could tell they’d had the same conversation before then. Tyler said, ‘My mom’s worried about us all getting separated, that they’d put me and Nikki in foster care. She says she’s going to leave Rick as soon as she can get enough money together to take us to live with my aunt Mel in Florida.’
    “‘Do you believe her?’ I asked. Tyler’s mom didn’t even work anymore. She used to be a nurse before she’d married Rick, but then, she’d quit.
    “‘Sure,’ Tyler said. ‘Why not? In any case, I don’t want to get separated from Nikki.’
    “I told him they could move in with us, but Tyler shook his head. ‘I have to stick around to protect my mom.’”
    Rachel was sitting, hands folded in her lap, staring at me, and I knew she understood. I said, “I know now there were things I could have done. If I’d told my mom, maybe she