Heartless Boy

7

"What did you say to her?" I roll up on Cami, a lot more pissed than I thought I would be. Abe grabs my shoulder, and it's then I take a step back realizing I was close to getting in her face. "You told her to stay away from me, are you serious?"

She barely looks up from her phone and throws her cigarette on the ground. No matter how pissed we get, it comes like second nature that she'll never smoke around me. "If you know what I said, then why are you asking?"

"You don't get to play those games with me, Camille."

That gets her attention. Looking up, there's a hard look in her eyes that lets me know I'm about to get it. "If you go after her, you're an even bigger fool, no an even bigger asshole than I thought you were."

"I'm not going after her." I mean, not really. Jasmine's new here. To a place where everyone gets so caught up in their own issues, their own drama, and all the life or death shit going on that they've stopped noticing when someone's new — when someone is lonely. As you get older, making friends is hard. But as you're dying or battling an addiction, or needing a place to live; making friends is the last thing on your mind.

At Silent Hearts, we're all in at least one of those camps.

"Then why are you so upset?" Cami smiles, one eyebrow raised higher than the other.

Sometimes, I can understand why my people are the way they are — why my friends and family are always worried about what someone new might to do me or what I might do to them. But just 'cause I can understand it, doesn't mean it's not getting old as hell. "You need to mind your Goddamn business."

"Lucas," she whispers, taking a step forward. It's her calming voice and what makes me realize I'd just gotten loud with her.

Abe says something behind me and I hear him walk off, just as Cami grabs my chin to make me look at her.

"Lucas," she says again, this time in her regular voice. "I know it's none of my business, but that girl deserves better and you know it."

"You're right." I nod, yanking my face away. "It isn't any of your business." Just because she's speaking truths, doesn't mean it doesn't sting.

I stomp off in time to catch up with Abe — and he doesn't have to say it out, his face tells on him.

He agrees with Camille.

"She's cute," he says, bending down to sit on the steps of our brownstone. I follow his lead, waiting. "I mean, she also seems like a bitch, but yeah cute too."

"I hope you're not calling Jasmine that."

He raises his palms. "No offense, just an observation."

We don't say much else for the next few minutes. There's enough noise in the neighborhood that even if silence bothered us we wouldn't feel phased by not talking. Whereas Abe is what people would call the strong but silent type, I guess, Dylan is strong but loud.