All These Things I've Done (Birthright #1)(58)

Scarlet’s words made my cheeks burn with shame. I had behaved thoughtlessly.

When we got to lunch, Win was already at our table. ‘Gable Arsley’s back,’ he said. Scarlet and I turned to look at Gable. We weren’t the only ones looking either.

Gable was waiting in the lunch line in his wheelchair, his backpack draped over one of the handles. He had a glove over the hand with the mangled fingers and a baseball cap pulled low over his still raw-looking face. I watched as Gable struggled to get food on his tray, using only one hand and at a serious height disadvantage.

‘Why isn’t anyone helping him?’ Win asked.

‘Because he was a bully,’ I said.

‘Because he never had anything nice to say about anyone,’ Scarlet added. ‘And he isn’t exactly a gentleman either.’

‘I’d go over, but I don’t think the guy would want to see me again after our last meeting,’ Win said.

‘Why should you go?’ I asked. ‘He ratted us out to the whole world.’

‘We don’t know that for certain,’ Win said.

‘And he kind of tried to force me to have sex with him.’ Maybe I had seen too many hard things in my life, but I found Win’s sympathy for Gable annoying.

‘He’s awful, Annie, but I just don’t know how he’s going to wheel that chair and carry a tray,’ Scarlet said. As she said that, Gable began to wheel himself away from the line with his tray balanced precariously on his lap. The food slipped over – coincidentally, it was the same lasagne I’d poured on his head all those months ago – and the sauce spattered on his trousers before landing on his shoes, one of which must have contained a prosthetic foot. Gable yelled a curse word, and I actually heard several people in the cafeteria laugh. The boy – and yes, in that moment, he was restored to that for me – looked at a complete loss as to what he should do next.

‘Enough,’ I said. It was starting to feel deeply unchristian to let him sit in the middle of the cafeteria, and I didn’t want my parents, wherever they were, to have to be ashamed of me. ‘I’m going over.’

‘We’ll come with you,’ Win and Scarlet said.

I stood up from the table. ‘Arsley, come eat with us!’ I called.

For a moment, Gable looked as if he might say something rude, but then he shook his head and smiled at me. ‘Promise you won’t try to poison me, Balanchine!’ Gable said, sounding like his old self.

A few people in the cafeteria laughed at his joke.

‘I’ll be your food tester,’ Scarlet called out.

‘I’m holding you to that,’ Gable said.

Scarlet walked over to Gable and wheeled him to our table. Win went to the lunch line and got him another tray of food. I went to the bathroom and used all the quarters Scarlet and I had to get Gable enough wet paper towels to clean himself up.

Once we were seated again, Gable commented, ‘This is the last place in the world I want to be sitting. With Mobster Daughter, Stupid Fedora and Lady Drama.’

I kept my mouth shut.

‘We’re thrilled to have you, too,’ Win said.

Gable struggled to reach his shoes and legs with the paper towels. I had to draw the line at helping clean him up. Luckily, Scarlet volunteered.

‘No,’ Gable said. ‘It’s fine.’

‘I’m happy to,’ she said as she bent over to wipe his shoes.

‘It’s,’ I heard him whisper, ‘embarrassing to be this way.’

‘No,’ she said. ‘It’s just life.’

I saw him wince as Scarlet blotted a spot on his trouser leg.

‘Are you in much pain?’ Scarlet asked.

‘Some,’ he said. ‘But it’s manageable.’

‘All done,’ she said brightly.

Gable took Scarlet’s hand, and I could feel the hairs on the back of my neck stand up. ‘Thank you,’ he said. ‘Really.’

Scarlet pulled her hand away. ‘You’re welcome.’

‘Hey, Arsley,’ I said. ‘You know I’d never let Scarlet date you, right?’

‘You aren’t her mother,’ Gable said. ‘And I wasn’t that bad to you.’

‘Um, you were the worst boyfriend in the world, but let’s not go into that.’ I tried to say this lightly. ‘We’re only letting you sit here because you’re lame and we feel bad for you. But if you sitting here’s gonna lead to you wooing Scarlet, you can go wheel yourself back to the middle of the cafeteria right now.’

‘You’re an ass, Anya,’ Gable said.

‘And you’re a sociopath, Gable,’ I replied.

‘Takes one to know one,’ he said.

I rolled my eyes.

‘Honestly, Anya, I was only thanking her,’ Gable said.

‘Well,’ Win said, ‘I’ve got an idea. Let’s agree to make this the sort of lunch table where we keep our hands to ourselves.’

I didn’t see Scarlet again until the bus ride home, though I’d been worrying about her all afternoon. The problem was that Scarlet loved hard-luck cases and wounded things. (Probably one of the reasons why she’d been such a good friend to me and mine.) People like Scarlet tend to get taken advantage of, especially by people like Gable Arsley.