Some Boy (What's Love? #1) Read Online Free PDF Page B

“Brendan?”
    “How are you doing? How’s your mum?”
    “Uh. Fine. Yeah, fine. She’s going home tomorrow. It was a false alarm.”
    “Oh, shit. That’s great. I’m glad everything’s okay.”
    “Yeah. And thanks. Like, for driving me and everything.”
    “Yeah, no problem.”
    A pause.
    “Um, so…” I started.  
    “Yeah, okay. I just wanted to check that you were okay. Could I talk to Justin again for a sec?”
    “Uh, yeah…” I handed the phone back, then wrapped my hands around my drink, staring at him.
    “Yeah?” I watched Justin’s face contort as he listened to whatever Brendan was saying. He kept glancing at me, and I was making what-the-hell faces at him.
    “Shit. Okay, man. I’ll see what I can do. Be there ASAP.”
    And then he hung up.
    I waited. I splayed my palms out and stared at him, still waiting.  
    “Um… Brendan’s in jail.”
    “What? What for?”
    “Stealing a car.”
    “Fuuuck,” Izzy slurred. And that said it all.
     

four

    “Y OU DON ’ T HAVE to come.”
    “I’m already coming, Justin.”
    “Yeah, but—”
    “If I’m paying, I’m coming.”
    I could see a tick in his jaw, but he didn’t say anything. He knew he couldn’t get together enough for the security payment so quickly without me.  
    I stared out the bus window. It was raining outside, drips of water criss-crossing the glass turning the lights from the street beyond into a blurred kaleidoscope.  
    “I thought you said he was a smart kid,” I murmured.
    “I meant in science and maths. I said nothing about life.” I could feel him looking at me, but I stayed staring out the window. “Why are you helping?”
    “I guess I’m not so smart in life, either,” I said. Then I laughed wryly and looked at him. “If it was anyone else, any other of your friends, you know I’d help you out. So just because it’s Brendan… I don’t know… should that make it more or less of an issue?” I shrugged. Then I lay my head down on Justin’s substantial shoulder. He shifted so he could put his arm around me, and he slowly rubbed my arm. The smell of him was comforting. I felt a lot of things deeply for Justin, like a brother.
    Maybe that should have been a little weird, considering we had slept together on the second night we’d moved into our housing on campus. But it didn’t feel weird — and now I didn’t know what I’d do without him. We got along so well, but had quickly realised we weren’t each other’s types.  
    I wasn’t a stripper and he wasn’t enough of a fuck up. We’d actually joked once that if he became a drug dealer or stole a car, then maybe we’d have a chance. I laughed out loud remembering that, a sharp, harsh sound.
    “What?” Justin said.
    “What is wrong with me, Justin?”
    “Nothing. I think you just try too hard to not be like your parents, to care about the people they despise.”
    “Huh.”
    “Maybe that shouldn’t filter so much into your love life, though.”
    “I didn’t know he was a car thief.”
    “Neither did I. Honestly, before this I was going to tell you, you could do worse.”
    I laughed. Then sighed and stared back out the window.
    “He stole it for me,” I murmured quietly.
    “What?”
    “When I got the phone call — or Izzy took the phone call — and I thought something terrible had happened, he offered to drive me to the hospital so I could get there quicker. I thought it was weird when he pulled up in a BMW like my dad and all his cronies drive, but I was just thinking about getting to my mum.”
    “Oh my God. That’s, like, the most fucked up romantic shit I’ve ever heard.” Justin laughed like it was the joke of the year. I just blew out air with puffed cheeks.
    “So it’s kinda my fault. Maybe that’s why I’m coming to help.”
    “It’s not your fault. He could have just not offered to drive. Besides, pretty sure it’s actually Izzy’s fault.”
    “Ha. Yeah.”
    I tucked myself deeper under his arm and we rode in