Eighteen (18)(43)

I don’t even know where to begin with that. “I’m sorry. I’ll go.” I stand up again, but Danny places both hands on my shoulders and pushes me back.

“Just stay here. I’ll get rid of him. Unless you want to go down there, and then I’m out too and you’re on your own tonight.”

“No,” I say. “I don’t want to talk to anyone right now.”

He nods. “OK. BRB.” He pounds down the stairs too. The door down below opens and Mateo is immediately asking about me.

I get up and walk over to the window, looking out through the sheer white curtains. Mateo is mad, I can tell that much. But Danny stands his ground, shaking his head. They are about the same height, but Mateo has ten years on Danny and it shows in the bulk of his muscular body. Mateo’s not wearing his leather jacket and jeans, like he normally does. Instead he’s dressed in the remnants of a suit. White dress shirt, dark slacks, and a loose tie hanging around his neck.

Mateo glances up at the window, and I hold still, but he must not see me, because his attention goes back to Danny. He hands him something and then Mateo walks off and gets in his car. I watch him drive away as Danny thunders back up the stairs.

“He said to give you this.” I turn to look at Danny and he’s holding my phone in his hand. “Said you left it at home and to call him when you’re feeling better.”

“Thanks,” I say, taking the phone and stuffing it in my pocket. I guess Mateo went into my bedroom because I had to have left it next to my pillow when Danny took me to the ER. Why does he think he’s allowed to do that?

“I don’t even know what to say. I mean, Jason is bad enough, but you add Mateo Alesci into this and… What the f*ck are you thinking?”

I have no good answer for that. I really don’t. I don’t see the connection between them and I can’t even begin to explain my relationship with Mateo, because not one thing we’ve done can be justified.

“Well, they’re both gone now. You wanna hide out here with me tonight?”

“Why are you so nice to me?”

“What?” He laughs.

“Nice to me. You have no good reason to be nice, and yet here you are.”

“That’s me, Daydreams. The guy who’s always there.”

“And thank you for the doctor. I’ll pay you back somehow.”

“No need, OK? I have plenty of money from my job with Phil, and you needed it. That’s all there is to it.”

His job with Phil. Jason. Mateo. Blood in the driveway if Phil catches Mateo here. What the f*ck is going on? But I’m afraid to ask. My life has so few good things in it, I really have no energy to solve this puzzle right now. So I settle on small talk. “I’ll still pay you back.”

“I’ll still be your friend if you don’t.”

“Friend, huh?”

He walks over to the old leather couch on the wall opposite the bed and sinks down, leaning into the cushions and resting his long muscular arms along the back. “We’re friends, right?”

“Yeah, we’re friends. But most guys usually want more, you know? Especially when they get invested in a girl.”

“Is that what most guys want? I guess I wouldn’t know. They don’t treat Rocky that way because I’d kick their asses. And if they treat you that way, then you’re selling yourself short, Shannon. I’m not most guys and I don’t want to pressure you into liking me.”

“I do like you.”

“I mean, as more than friends.”

I sigh.

“I’m not going to kiss you or make a move. It’s not my style. You like Mateo?” Danny shrugs. “I can’t stop that. Aside from what I think about him personally, I don’t think a relationship with a guy that much older than you is gonna work. But I’m only eighteen, so what do I know? It’s your life.”

“Thanks for that,” I say, placing my hand over my still tender ear. “I appreciate all of it, Danny, I really do.”

He gets up and grabs the three prescription containers off the side table next to the bed and hands me a water bottle. “You’ve only taken two doses since last night, and I couldn’t get you to roll over for the drops. So take these,” he says, shaking out a pill from each of the bottles and handing them over. “And I’ll put the drops in while you watch some TV.”

I take the pills and gulp them down and then lie on my side with the infected ear up. Danny grabs the drops and sits down next to me, gently moving my hair aside so he can see. “It looks a lot better today.” And then he drops the medicine in and I gasp from the cold sting. “Just call me Dr. Dan, the guy who fixes everything.”

I smile and close my eyes, enjoying the relief that comes from the drops.

The next time I wake, Danny is snoring on the couch and his face is lit up by the TV. I wonder what he meant by what he thinks of Mateo personally? He’s probably known him a long time. Phil must know him too, since Rocky made that remark about blood in the driveway if Phil catches him here.

But I’m not in any condition to think too hard right now. So I eat two more pills and put some more drops in before closing my eyes again, content to sleep it off and let the real world wait me out.





Chapter Twenty-Four