It was frustrating. Cal kept finding himself scanning the crowds at school, looking for her, but he was unable to catch more than a glimpse as she rounded a corner. She was hard to spot, and there was no denying that she was going out of her way to elude him. He had so many unanswered questions, but she obviously didn’t want to talk to him. She was driving him crazy, and he didn’t know why.
Girls had always liked him, and he was used to getting his way with them. This one obviously didn’t want anything to do with him, and it was aggravating. He couldn’t understand why his charm didn’t work on her. He’d never been ignored like this before.
Everyone at school thought she was weird, and he knew that she was, but he also knew that she was weird in an entirely different way than his classmates suspected.
He couldn’t shake the image of her at the cemetery from his mind. Sometimes he went an entire day without sighting her, and he felt like a fool for being depressed about it. He figured out where her classes were, and found himself lurking around like some stupid girl, trying to come up with a reason to talk to her.
It must be the challenge, he thought.
Now that his brother was home, the party was back on, and there were always plenty of willing girls around to distract him. His older brother’s dealings with shady characters brought them lots of money all of a sudden, and crowds of friends to go along with it.
Jarod rode with a gang of bikers, and after what had happened at the cemetery, Cal did his best to stay out of their business. They all treated him like he was their kid brother, warning him about the dangers of drug use while constantly smoking pot around him. “Stay in school, man,” they’d say, “You don’t wanna end up like us.”
Somehow, he didn’t really think they meant it.
It didn’t matter anyway, he thought. He had it made: Jarod didn’t give a damn what he did, supplied him with all the money he needed, and never tried to boss him around like his dad used to. Sometimes he thought he should drop out to get a job and a place of his own, but he’d promised Jarod that he’d graduate, and the truth was, the craziness was starting to seem normal. He didn’t really have any plans that went further out than the next weekend.
One particularly rowdy Saturday night the police showed up, responding to a noise complaint. Jarod was drunk and belligerent, and he argued with the cops, ignoring his girlfriend when she tried to calm him down. He pushed her aside blindly, knocking her to the ground, and the cops decided to take him into custody for being drunk and disorderly. She stood wailing as he was handcuffed.
Cal came out of his room to see his brother bent over a police cruiser again, wondering how on earth he was going to post bail this time. Just when he thought it couldn’t get any worse, Rufus broke free and bit one of the cops on the leg. Cal managed to pull the dog back before they could shoot him, but it was too late. Animal control arrived on the scene, and before he knew it Rufus was strangling on the end of a catch pole, loaded into a kennel and whisked away to a certain death.
Everyone scattered, and the harsh light of morning found Cal alone, feeling completely helpless, out of control as usual. He made himself breakfast, put in a call to the bail bondsman, and collapsed on the couch, deflated.
There was nothing more depressing than a party house after the party was over.