Everyone except Rocco and me trudged out of the common room with Carly and Spider. I was
officially back to my first day in high school when I had mistakenly sat at the seniors’ table
in the cafeteria.
Rocco whistled. “That was fast. You sure know how to clear out a room. Do you have rabies or
some other kind of contagious disease that I don’t know about?”
I shrugged and chewed on the corner of my lip while he started stacking dirty plates.
“I wouldn’t worry about it too much,” he said, his head bent over his task. “They’re a
tough crowd to break. It took them a while to get used to me too.”
I clasped a few of the dirty cups and glasses between my fingers and followed him into the
kitchen. “How long have you been here?”
“I got here over a year ago, I think. I’m not really sure. Time seems to stand still around
here.”
“Where are your parents?” I wondered.
His eyes shot up. “My parents? I don’t know. They’re somewhere out in the world, I guess. Who
cares?”
“Isn’t this your parents’ house?”
“That’s funny,” he said, shaking his head. He grabbed a frying pan from the stove filled with
what looked like canned beans fried in ketchup. “Are you gonna want any of this?”
I shook my head.
“Suit yourself.” He scraped the remnants into the garbage and flung the pan into the
dishwasher without rinsing it first.
“Help yourself to some food if you’re hungry. That’s the way it works around here. You grab
what you want,” he said. “But just don’t expect to be served. I may have to clean up after
these guys, but I don’t serve anyone.”
For whatever reason, he was trying to make a point.
I grabbed a bowl from the opened cupboard and poured cereal from the box that was lingering on
the counter. I got the milk jug from the table and poured it over my Captain Crunch.
“Where’s Cameron?” I tried to keep my voice indifferent.
“I don’t know.” Rocco’s hand quieted over the dishwasher. “Why?”
“He’s your brother, isn’t he?”
“Doesn’t mean I keep a leash on him,” he said, taking his frustrations out on the plates that
refused to fit into the fully loaded dishwasher.
In the meantime, I was pulling at invisible straws. “You left your parents and came here—on …
purpose?”
“I left my mom; never knew my dad. There wasn’t much to leave behind. My mom got a new
boyfriend,” he said, like this explained it all.
“So … you came to live with your brother?”
“No,” he corrected indignantly, “I came to work for my brother.”
We were getting somewhere. “What kind of work do you do for your brother?”
“Right now, I look after the administration of the house,” he said as he looked over at me,
like he guessed what I was going to ask next. “Meaning I do whatever Spider tells me to do,
like cleaning the stupid kitchen.”
“And putting all the groceries away,” I added.
“And driving Miss Daisy.”
I remembered the argument between him and Carly the night before. “This isn’t the work that
you want to do?”
“Do you know anyone who wants to spend his time cleaning up after a bunch of jerks? It’s not
work a man should be doing … No offense.”
“None taken.” I closed the dishwasher door and searched for the start button, letting him
vent.
“I mean, this was supposed to be temporary so that I could prove myself,” he continued without
my encouragement. “I’ve proven myself and should be working for Cam now.”
He pushed me aside and started the dishwasher.
“What kind of work does Cameron do?” I asked him, but the one called Spider had come to the
kitchen to interrupt us.
“Kid, if you’re done in here, go air out the boss’s car. It smells like death in there,”
Spider ordered.
Rocco winked at me, and with a salute and an “aye-aye, sir” to Spider, marched out of the
kitchen.
Spider ignored the fly in the kitchen and walked out too.
When I’d finished my second bowl of cereal, I rinsed out the bowl and tucked my dishes away in
the second dishwasher. I’d forgotten how great it was to have a dishwasher instead of a sink
full of dishes. I then went outside to the warm May sun, looking for more answers.
Cameron’s car was parked at the top of the circular driveway. All four doors of the Audi were
opened and Rocco was crouched over the passenger side seat with a spray bottle.