Every Other Weekend(105)

“Hey, anywhere is better than here.”

“He might not be home, so don’t get your hopes up.”

“He?” I moved closer toward the stairs, but Jolene didn’t follow.

“Yeah. You’ve met him, the film critic. He lives in 6-2.” She pointed at the door one down and across from mine.

“Right, the homework guy.” I paused, still poised to head downstairs since I still didn’t understand what she was suggesting. “Do you need to pick up his recommendation letter or something?”

She was still biting her lip and staring at the door to 6-2. “He hasn’t written it yet, but he’s been busy.”

I frowned. “So then...you want to remind him about it?”

She shook her head. “He might let us hang out, if he’s home.”

“How is that any better than my dad watching us from over his laptop?”

“Because he’s not your dad.” She half rolled her eyes in my direction. “Or anyone’s dad. And anyway, I don’t see you coming up with a better idea.”

I silently walked back to her. In point of fact, I did not have any better ideas, but that didn’t mean I agreed we should start randomly hitting up neighbors we barely knew.

Jolene hesitated when we both stood in front of the door.

“He might not be home.”

“You said that already.”

“Oh, and his name is Guy.”

“Okay.” She must not have liked the way I said that because she looked at me and frowned. “Okay,” I said again, then before she could stop me, I knocked on the door.

“What are you doing?”

“Knocking. Wasn’t that the plan?”

Jolene directed her frown to the door and swallowed.

“Hey, we don’t have—”

The door opened, and I didn’t finish. The guy—Guy—saw Jolene first, and the way he smiled at her made me think of the stupid look on Jeremy’s face the first time he saw Shelly. Or maybe I imagined it, because a second later he noticed that Jolene wasn’t alone and his smile looked normal. His expression was friendly but curious when he turned back to Jolene.

“Hey,” she said. “We weren’t sure you’d be home.”

He held his hands up as if to say we’d caught him.

“Um, you remember Adam, right?”

“Sure. Paul’s kid.” He nodded at me and shook my hand, all the while casting glances at Jolene, which made me cast glances at Jolene. I felt like I was missing something.

“Okay, good. I was telling Adam how we’ve met a few times—”

Guy raised his eyebrow at her.

“—and I remembered you said something about wanting to get to know your neighbors better, and I thought...”

I raised both my eyebrows, bouncing my gaze back and forth between the two of them. Jolene was obviously uncomfortable. She clearly didn’t know this guy at all. I should have just let us spend an awkward afternoon with Dad and Jeremy. Instead, we were going to spend an awkward afternoon with this guy. A prospect he didn’t look all that excited about either.

“Ah, sure,” Guy said after too long a pause. “You guys want to come in?”

No, but I followed Jolene inside.

“Wow, your apartment is really cool.” She looked at me with wide eyes like I needed to agree with her. It was fine, I guessed. Big TV. Massive movie collection.

“Yeah, it’s cool. Hey, it’s really cool that you’re writing Jolene that letter for her film program application. It means a lot to her.”

Jolene shot me a look like I’d said something wrong, but all Guy did was laugh.

“We need more minds like hers making movies. You guys want a Coke or something?”

We nodded, and when he stepped into the kitchen area, I tugged Jolene to my side. “What are we doing here?”

She didn’t answer me.

Guy came back with our Cokes, and the sound of three cans popping open in unison broke the tension somewhat. “So are you a sophomore like Jolene?” Guy gestured to her with his can.

“Yep.”

“Good times,” he said. “You play any sports?”

“Baseball and some ice hockey. I used to play soccer—not like Jolene, but I’m okay.”

Guy’s eyes lit up, and he looked at Jolene. “I didn’t know you played soccer. You probably end up with a bunch of bruises on your legs.”

That was maybe the strangest response he could have made. I tried to catch Jolene’s eye, but she was focused on her Coke.

“Yep. I totally bend it like Beckham.” She stepped forward to a ceiling-high bookcase full of movies, and quicker than should have been possible, plucked one from the shelf. “Hey, you’ve got it.”

“Of course.” Guy looked over at me. “Keira Knightley, am I right?”

I should have smiled or nodded or something, but I didn’t. The way he’d said her name was, I don’t know, wrong. I didn’t feel like agreeing with anything he said.

“So can we watch it?”

I raised my arm toward Jolene, as if I could get her to take her request back. I’d already been trying to chug my Coke as quickly as possible so that we could leave. How was she not picking up on how weird the vibe was? Asking if we could stick around for another couple hours... What was wrong with her?