“Plug it in and play,” I said to Rhett as he stood there with my guitar.

“I’m nervous, Foster.”

I pointed to all the empty seats. All the chairs were flipped up and over the tables. Beth had a wet mop and earbuds in her ears as she cleaned the floor. Stephanie was behind the counter rearranging stuff and taking inventory.

It was a really slow day at the coffeehouse thanks to the pouring rain.

Rhett probably should have been in school, but I hadn’t asked why he wasn’t. At least not yet.

He showed up, soaking wet, without his guitar, asking for a lesson. I saw the look in his eyes. That look of tough guy terror. I’d lived with that look on my face for years. Getting through the years and the streets, but forever looking over my shoulder waiting for the cops to show up.

I bought him a coffee and instead of giving him a lesson, I gave him my guitar and put him up on stage.

“Work through it,” I said. “Nobody here. And if someone comes in, who cares? Just play, man. Come on.”

Rhett looked at me and sighed.

He strummed a chord. It was choppy. But coming through the amplifier behind it, it was loud and powerful.

Rhett strummed the same chord over and over. He switched to another chord, missed a note, but kept playing. That was the fun part of live music. Even if you messed up, you could just play through it.

“See?” I called out. “Not so bad, is it?”

“I guess not,” Rhett said. “Can I play something I tried writing?”

“You wrote a song, Rhett?”

“Yeah. I mean, I tried.”

“Well, let’s hear it.”

Rhett stared at the neck of the guitar. He tried to play up the neck a little. It was rough sounding, but if he wrote it, that’s how it was meant to be.

I stepped back and sat on the black barstool and crossed my arms.

Rhett was a lot like me as a kid. You tried to keep some distance, but sometimes things would just fall into your lap. What I meant by that… he got about ten seconds into his song when the door to the coffeehouse opened. In came a girl about his age, soaking wet from the rain. She was in a t-shirt that clung way too tightly to her body. A backpack slung over her shoulder. I could tell she had been crying, even though her face was soaked by the rain.

“Carrie?” Rhett asked.

“You know her?” I asked.

“That’s Carrie,” Rhett said as though I should have known who it was.

“Right,” I said. “That’s Carrie.”

The girl - Carrie - looked right at Rhett. She started to shake and the look on her face told me, again, that it wasn’t because of the rain. They both should have been in school, but as I watched the way Rhett took off the guitar and jumped off the front of the small stage, it reminded me of me and Rose.

Rhett went right to her and grabbed her arms. “What are you doing here?”

“You weren’t in school. So I left. To find you.”

“You’ve been walking in the rain?”

“Yeah.”

“You’re crazy.”

“I know,” Carrie said. “I needed to make sure you were okay. There were rumors…”

Rhett looked back at me. Then back to Carrie. “They were rumors. I’m just hanging here.”

“I’m cold,” Carrie said. “And soaked.”

I gritted my teeth and slid off the barstool. I went to my bag and unzipped it. I found an old hoodie and took it to the front door of the coffeehouse. Beth was still slapping the mop around the tables. Stephanie behind the counter, counting mugs, clanging them together.

“Here,” I said to Carrie. “Take this. Warm up.”

“Thanks,” she said.

Rhett looked at me again. He nodded.

“You two okay?” I asked.

“Fine,” Rhett said.

“You’re the guitar teacher?” Carrie asked.

“Yeah,” I said.

“Rhett really likes you.”

“Hey,” Rhett said. “I never said that.”

I smiled. “Right. I know I’m an adult. But the way you two are acting… I need to know if everything is okay or not. You two just ditching school to hang out? Or is it something bigger?”

I saw Carrie hesitate and wait for Rhett to answer.

“Come on, Foster,” Rhett said. “You know how it goes…”

“Try me, Rhett.”

“It’s none of your fucking business,” he snapped.

I raised an eyebrow.

“Everett,” Carrie said. “Don’t…”

“Don’t call me that,” Rhett said.

He walked away from Carrie and left her hanging.

I touched her shoulder. “Stay here. I’ll talk to him.”

She grabbed my wrist. “It’s not that bad. I mean, there was a rumor at school about him fighting my stepdad.”

“Your stepdad?”

She nodded. “He doesn’t like Rhett. And he caught me sneaking around to hang out with him.”

“Right.”

“He slapped me across the face in front of Rhett. I’d never seen Rhett that mad before. He wanted to fight my stepdad.”

“Does your stepdad do that a lot… to you?”

“No. He’s a total jerk though. But that was the only time he really slapped me.”

“So I take it Rhett has been through something like that before?”

“You can ask him. He didn’t show up in school and people were saying he was going to fight my stepdad. I hate school. I hate teenagers.”

“Yeah, me too,” I said. “Stay put.”

As I turned, Beth stopped mopping and took out an earbud. “Everything okay?”

“Perfect,” I said.

“You sure?”

I didn’t answer.

Beth’s cheeks turned red. She put her earbud back in and went to clean a different area.

I felt someone else staring at me. I turned and saw Stephanie standing behind the counter, eyeing me. I gave a quick wave of my hand - everyone stay calm - and Stephanie went back to taking inventory.

Rhett sat on the edge of the stage with his hands in his face. I had to admit, walking toward him felt like I was walking toward myself at his age. At his age. Christ, that made me feel old, and believe me, I wasn’t old. I had just been through enough shit in life that it was like I’d lived a lifetime already. I was only ten years older than Rhett. Time was a strange thing. When I was his age, going through life, he was just a little kid, learning his ABC’s and how to write his damn name.

Now look at both of us.

I sat down on the stage next to him.

“You’re going to fight her father?”

“Stepfather,” Rhett said. “Scumbag.”

“You didn’t tell her you were ditching school?”

Rhett looked at me. “I didn’t ditch. I was told not to come.”

“Suspended.”

“Yeah.”

“For what?”

“Doesn’t matter, Foster,” Rhett said. “This isn’t fair.”

“What’s not fair, Rhett?”

“Life.”

I laughed. “Get used to it, kid.”

“Foster, how did you end up here?”

I shook my head. “Nobody is walking that path, Rhett. Right now you’ve got a girl over there worried sick about you. Whether you like it or not, she’s got a stepfather that doesn’t like you. You have to find a balance there.”

“He hit her.”

“She said that. Does he do it all the time?”

“No.”

“Well, I can call the cops, Rhett. You two can talk to an officer. That officer is then going to take her to school and call her parents. They’ll investigate the house, everything, determine if she’s in a good or bad environment.”

“Shit,” Rhett whispered. He stood up. “She’s got a good life. I don’t. She says she loves me. I don’t get it. She’s got a nice house. Her mom is nice. Her stepfather is a dick. But I get it. I’m a loser. I’m a poor kid with no future.”

I growled under my breath. I rubbed my jaw. “Ah, dammit. Look, Rhett, I’m not getting in the middle of family issues. Or legal issues. Unless I have to. The way I see it, she’s scared right now. She’s scared because she believes you would fight her stepfather. She’s scared because she loves her mother. Her house. Her life. That doesn’t mean she doesn’t love you.”

Carrie looked over at us. I stood up and nodded at her. She slowly walked toward us.

“Carrie,” Rhett said. “I…”

“You two listen to me,” I said. “Sit right here.”

I turned and walked to the counter. Stephanie had a tower of tin tea cans in front of her and added one more to the pile.

“Is this is a game for you?” I asked. “Seeing how many you can stack until they fall. You’re like a preschooler.”

“And what exactly are you?” Stephanie asked. “A therapist now?”

I grinned. “Not quite.”

“Are the cops going to come?”

“No,” I said. “Give me two coffees and something to eat.”

“They’re staying?”

“They’re paying customers. Anything else isn’t your business. Deal?”

“You help me carry these stupid tins to the back and it’s a deal.”

“Fine,” I said.

I put money on the counter as Stephanie got the two coffees and an array of sweet snacks. Nothing wrong with a little coffee and sugar on a rainy day.

I took everything to Rhett and Carrie as they sat on the stage, facing each other, holding hands.

Puppy dog love…

That was a dangerous thing though.

I put the coffee and food on the stage. “You two. Figure this out. Stay here. Talk. Laugh. Whatever you have to do. My advice? Carrie, get your butt back to school. You know this is only going to get worse if you’re cutting out because of Rhett. And, Rhett, man up and prove your worth to her stepfather.”

The two just stared at me. Slowly nodding.

“I have your hoodie,” Carrie said.

“Keep it,” I said. “Get warm and dry.” I reached into my pocket and took out some more cash. “Get a ride back to school. No walking.”

“Jesus, Foster,” Rhett said. “Why are you doing this?”

“I have no clue. Just don’t do anything stupid.”

I felt good with what I had said and done, which was what nobody ever did for me.

The truth though?

The last thing I said to them - just don’t do anything stupid.

I should have said that to myself.