The Kindest Lie(91)

Corey lay opposite him on his back, the wet ground beneath him. They were only about a foot away from the river. Corey tossed a baseball above his head from one gloved hand to the other. The way he was lying there, fully open and exposed, made Midnight think that Corey was unafraid. He didn’t fear Midnight’s having any power to ever hurt him the way his very existence had hurt Midnight.

Corey wound the ball between his legs without dropping it. His arms perfect, not like Midnight’s. Looking at his friend’s profile, he noticed that the curve of Corey’s nose resembled Miss Ruth’s. Corey had no idea Miss Ruth was his mother. He was sure of that. What if Midnight told him? That would shut him up and wipe that smug look off his face. But he’d never believe him.

“You got any snacks in there? I’m hungry.” Corey pointed to Midnight’s backpack.

“No,” Midnight snapped, and shoved the bag behind him.

“Stingy.”

“Whatever.”

“I bet you don’t know how the man on the moon cuts his hair,” Corey said.

“How?”

“Eclipse it.”

Midnight wanted to laugh because it was funny, but he coughed instead. “Okay, I got one. What’s a tornado’s favorite game to play?”

“What?”

“Twister,” he said with a laugh.

Eager to get away from Granny and Daddy after what he’d overheard, he had texted Corey Sunday morning and found out his family was skipping church, which they hardly ever did. For hours, they goofed off all over town and ended up staying out all night, sitting in a Denny’s booth and then the twenty-four-hour Walmart in town. At one point he heard Daddy in one of the Walmart aisles shouting his name. They ducked out before he spotted them and headed to Taco Bell. When Corey’s allowance money ran out and they couldn’t afford to order more food, they decided to go to the river.

As usual, Corey had whined about making the Cunninghams worry, but Midnight told him he’d had an important meeting with L-Boogie and could only discuss it face-to-face.

In reality, he needed more time to think about what he wanted to do. They came here, where they often swam during the summers. It was fun to see the water crusting with ice, the smoke rolling off it.

Corey turned onto his stomach. “C’mon already and tell me the big secret.”

L-Boogie had said you needed to test people to see if they were real friends, to know if you could trust them. He’d said, You set the limits and see what they do. You are in control. Always. When Corey agreed to stay out all night without calling or texting the Cunninghams, Midnight figured he could count on him. Your own blood ain’t always loyal. But when you find one who can be loyal, that’s a real one right there, L-Boogie said.

“Okay. I guess I can tell you now about the proposition.” Midnight loved the way his lips and tongue moved around that word ever since he’d heard Bo say it in the alley that night.

Corey propped himself up on his elbows. “What is it? This better be good.”

“I told you it would be good, didn’t I?”

“Just come on with it. You’ve been holding out long enough.” Corey tried to act cool, but Midnight knew he’d been jittery with anticipation. They’d been on the run almost twenty-four hours.

Midnight licked his cracked lips and let the white vapor from the cold seep from his mouth like cigarette smoke. “We’re gonna go into business with L-Boogie and Bo. All we have to do is sell candy for school. They’ll take care of everything else. We could make hundreds of dollars. Isn’t that crazy?”

Corey was sitting fully upright now, his brow scrunched in a frown, eyes wide with fear. “Yeah, you’re crazy. I don’t want to sell anything. I don’t want anything to do with those guys.”

“It’s like a big business with grown-ups. Don’t be such a baby.”

“I’m not a baby.”

“You are, too.”

“Am not.”

Midnight sat up straight. This put him in a better position to make his point. “If you could make a lot of money, what would you buy?”

“How much money?”

“Like a million dollars.”

“I don’t know.”

“C’mon. What would you spend it on?”

“Maybe a different baseball glove for every day.”

That seemed like a stupid way to spend a million dollars, but Midnight didn’t know what he’d do with that kind of money, either.

One time Granny said the state paid people to take care of kids nobody else wanted. Maybe the Cunninghams raised Corey as their own son because the money was good. Maybe that’s why they were rich, and Corey didn’t really care about money.

“Well, if we sell a ton of candy then we can buy anything we want. Baseball gloves and whatever.”

When Midnight first heard the proposition from L-Boogie, he wondered if it might be too good to be true. But the more he looked at L-Boogie’s gold watch, his leather jacket, and the Jordans, he became a believer. Corey shivered and kept the lower half of his face buried in his coat collar. His voice was muffled. “I don’t know. We could get in trouble. My mom and dad made me promise I’d stay away from those guys.”

Midnight sat cross-legged, his knees bumping up against Corey’s. He looked him straight in the face. “Well, you may not want money, but I do . . .” The wind picked up and sounded like a train barreling through town.