Disguise DeLimit was born out of that trend. The store became the go-to destination for the clothes to match whatever someone dreamed up. Some towns have a Macy’s. Our town didn’t need one. We had five thousand costumes in our inventory, and if you didn’t like them, we could make you what you wanted. Assuming you weren’t looking for long-term quality. It wasn’t about the clothes themselves, it was about the character you could be for a couple of hours.
Kirby and I organized pieces of costumes that had been cast into go-back boxes behind the register. Somewhere between the fourth box and the fifth, it became clear that he could handle the shop on his own. He practically knew the layout better than I did. Besides, my mind was still caught in a loop about Blitz in the costume Grady had said he was going to wear, and though I knew there could be a simple explanation—like Grady letting Blitz wear what he wanted since it was his party—I couldn’t shake off my questions without getting the facts.
“Kirby, can you watch the store while I go out and run a few errands?”
“Sure. Do your errands have to do with what happened yesterday?”
I sighed. “I can’t help think about how Grady must be feeling today. He and Blitz were best friends, but they ribbed each other constantly. Today, his best friend is gone. I know I just met him, but I need to offer my condolences.”
“That whole friendship is funny, considering what Blitz did to Grady in high school.” While he spoke, Kirby sorted a wad of neckties into piles by color. “I don’t know if I’d be so quick to look the other way if I were Grady.”
I picked up a tie and smoothed out the wrinkled silk. “What happened?”
“Somebody snuck booze into Grady’s eighteenth birthday party. Probably Blitz. But then he thought it would be funny to call the cops. Grady spent the night in prison and was suspended from high school.”
“I guess that would be pretty hard to forgive.” I set the ties down on the counter.
“That’s not all. Because of the suspension, Grady didn’t graduate that year.”
I thought back to being eighteen. Graduating high school was just about the biggest thing to happen at that age. “I can see why you say their friendship is funny.”
“Yeah, and it actually gets worse. Blitz’s prank cost Grady admission into the college he wanted. Plus, the whole incident is on his permanent record.”
Chapter 8
“HOW LONG AGO was this?” I asked Kirby.
He stopped sorting ties for a moment and rolled his eyes up while he thought. “Must have been eight years ago, I think. For a while, it was all anybody talked about. Our coach made everybody over fourteen sit out of practice so a drug and alcohol counselor could talk to them about the dangers of drinking. Coach never let anybody out of practice, so even though I was only ten, I knew it was a big deal. Blitz graduated but Grady didn’t get his diploma until the following year.”
“If something like that happened to you, how would you feel?”
He misunderstood. “Something like that wouldn’t happen to me. I’m an athlete.” He puffed himself up and tapped his chest. “I keep poisons out of my body.”
“I don’t mean that. I mean, how would you feel if your best friend did something that destructive to you?”
“My best friend wouldn’t do that. But Blitz and Grady and all those guys, they’re in a whole different league. When Blitz turned eighteen, he inherited twenty-five million dollars and his new dad gave him a dune buggy. Not that he even appreciated it. There’s not a lot you can’t buy with that kind of money,” he said, looking wistfully at his magazine.
“Kirby, you’ll appreciate your dune buggy a thousand times more than if it had been handed to you,” I said.
“I know,” he said. His dejected body language suggested that I was not the first person to point this out.
I pushed myself up until I was standing and adjusted the beaded Indian headband on my forehead. “I’ll be back later to close up.”
“Don’t worry about the store. Jerry lets me work by myself all the time.”
My Vespa was still inside where I’d rolled it after Tak had unpacked it from his SUV. I unlocked the steering and walked it out the front door, pulled my helmet on, and took off.
The city planners of Proper City had zoned out areas for residencies, businesses, and entertainment, and I liked to think that an aerial view of our town was a little like a series of crop circles on our western and eastern sides connected by a long straight line. Creative planners that they were, they’d actually named the street that ran end to end “Line Road.” Since then, more roads that connected the various end-to-end businesses had been put in, so, as a nod to the original planners, the name of the main road became that: Main Line Road.