(The Stay Away Deal)

YEARS AGO

(Evan)

All I wanted was some damn coffee. I woke up on Scott’s couch and had to get the hell out of there before his mother found me. She hated me. She thought I was a bad influence on her baby boy when in reality he was the most well known dealer in town. If you wanted to get high, you saw Scott. He’d ask what kind of high you wanted. Feel loose? Feel good? Fly in the clouds? See purple elephants?

Yet I was the bad influence because of my upbringing.

So I had to bolt out of the house before sunrise. I had to lay low so the cops didn’t find me wandering the streets. I felt like a reverse vampire or something. Hiding in the dark and emerging in the light.

I emerged with two empty pockets. Which meant to get coffee, I only had one choice.

To take what I wanted.

It wasn’t exactly the way I wanted to live but I had to survive. At least at school I would get something to eat. As much as I hated that place, I got breakfast and lunch. Before that though, I needed some caffeine.

Now, I could have walked into the corner store and stolen a coffee. I could have taken food, drinks, whatever I wanted. But I wanted to try and take something that resembled the higher road. That road presented itself when I opened the door and smelled the coffee. I knew the old man – Mr. Hendricks… but now we called him Harry – made coffee in the back and he drank it all day long. When I entered the store, I saw Harry was next to the window, organizing the newspapers. I never understood why he kept so many in stock. Nobody read the fucking newspaper in this town.

But whatever, it wasn’t my business.

I spotted the coffee mug on the counter. So I made a quick move and grabbed it. It was full. It was hot. It smelled half decent. I made a straight line for the back of the store as though I was going to use the restroom. Except I skipped the bathroom and went to the back supply area and right out the back door.

Coffee mug in hand.

I walked to the station wagon that I had gotten busted for stealing and climbed up on the hood.

I sat there in the glory of a new morning and sipped the stolen coffee.

And it tasted damn good.

I managed to get three sips and four breaths before a cop car came pulling into the back lot of the store.

“Are you fucking kidding me?” I whispered.

I wasn’t going to try and run. I hadn’t done anything wrong. I didn’t steal any product from the store. So whatever. If Dick was going to arrest me for swiping a cup of coffee, so be it.

Dick climbed out of his cruiser, leaving the door open. He approached me with his hands at his belt, like he always did. Trying to be the big, tough cop. He didn’t need to do that. It wasn’t going to impress me. Plus, he had a fucking gun. That meant he already had the loudest voice.

“What are you doing out here, Evan?” Dick asked.

“Sipping my coffee,” I said. I lifted the mug and nodded.

“That your coffee?”

“Sure is.”

“You’re a fucking moron, you know that?”

“Why?”

Dick pointed to the mug. Then he said, “World’s best Grandpa…?”

I looked at the other side of the mug and sure enough that’s what it said.

“Oh,” I said. “That.”

“You stole coffee from an old man?” Dick asked.

“Could be worse,” I said. I patted the hood of the car. “Remember when I stole his car?”

“You know, you were lucky he didn’t want to pursue charges against you then.”

“Luckiest guy in the world,” I said. I sipped the coffee.

Dick curled his lip. “I’m not here to break your balls over coffee.”

“Well, look at that. I just got luckier.”

“Evan, listen to me. Were you with Anna last night?”

“Anna? No. Why?”

“We found her sleeping on a park bench a few hours ago. She was really messed up.”

I slid off the hood of the car. “Seriously?”

“Yeah,” Dick said. “Had to take her to the hospital to get checked. Wasn’t sure if you were with her. Tell us what she had taken.”

“She wasn’t drunk?”

“Not only drunk,” Dick said.

“Dammit,” I said. “No. I didn’t see her last night. I was over at Scott’s.”

“Scott’s, huh? Surprised you don’t have the munchies right now.”

“Did you really just say munchies?” I asked, raising an eyebrow.

“Hey, keep an eye on Anna, huh? It’s the least you could do for everyone.”

“Keep an eye on her?” I asked. “She’s not my girlfriend or anything.”

“I don’t give a shit about that. Just keep an eye on her. It’s not fair to her aunt and her sister.”

“Adena?”

“Yeah. Her sister, right?”

“Yeah. Adena. That’s her name. I don’t really care about Anna…”

Dick laughed. “Don’t even try and tell me you have a thing for Adena. Please, Evan, don’t waste your time.”

“What do you mean?”

“You know exactly what I mean. You don’t even have a place to sleep. You have to steal a mug of coffee from an old man. A mug that his grandkids got him. What the fuck kind of life are you living? And you think it’s smart to drag Adena into that? She’s got a chance at life, Evan. I hope you realize that.”

“What are you, her father?” I asked.

“No. Her father is dead. So is her mother. She’s gone through enough. Now she’s got that mess up of a sister always causing problems.”

“I know all that,” I said.

“So stay away from her. Okay? Do it for me. I’ve given you plenty of breaks. Keep an eye on Anna. Please. If she gets herself into a jam, call for help. Poor Beth couldn’t stomach losing Anna.”

“Right.”

“I mean, look at right now. They’re at the hospital. Woken up at fucking four in the morning because Anna was half dead on a park bench.”

“So it’s my job to make sure she doesn’t do that again?”

“If you really care about Adena and actually want to do something for her that matters… yeah. Do that. Let Adena have a good life. She deserves it. Don’t read too much into fucking fairy tales and cheap romance movies, Evan. A scumbag like you would only ruin the parts of her life that her parents and sister haven’t touched yet.”

The words were honest, cruel, and I had to stand there and take them.

Dick then grabbed the coffee mug out of my hand. “I’ll give this back.”

“I just wanted a cup of coffee before school,” I said.

Rolling his eyes, Dick reached into his pocket. He handed me a ten dollar bill.

“Go get a real coffee. Get a real breakfast. Go to school, Evan. Stay away from Adena.”

Dick turned and walked toward the back of the store. I heard his voice booming with laughter as he said he found the coffee mug outside on the hood of the station wagon.

I stared at the ten dollar bill in my hand. I made a fist and crunched up the money.

What I should have done was bought Adena flowers and tell her I would protect her from everything evil in the world.

But my stomach roared with hunger. And my heart ached with a stinging pain.

So I bought a coffee, some breakfast, and walked to school.

Adena wasn’t there that day because of Anna being in the hospital.

I stared at her empty seat in all the classes we had together.

Everything Dick said was right. I would just end up ruining the rest of her life.

But keeping away from her would only ruin the rest of mine.