I nodded. I would definitely be careful from now on. I felt a little sick.
We fell quiet as we walked side by side toward my house. I was tall for my age, but still nowhere near Marco’s height. He was athletically built, with strong forearms showcased by his rolled-up shirtsleeves. His size made me feel strangely protected and, for the first time ever, dainty.
Intrigued by my brooding would-be rescuer, I found that my curiosity overcame the self-consciousness I usually felt around people I didn’t know. I tucked my short blond hair behind my ears and looked up at him again.
“Where are you from? America or Canada?”
Marco looked down at me, bemusement in his expression. “Most folks just assume I’m American.”
There was a question in his tone, so I answered, “I read a lot and, well, you know, a lot of Scottish people immigrated to Canada, so it would make cultural sense that you might be a Scottish-Canadian.”
He studied me, a small smile playing in the corners of his mouth. “How old are you?”
“Fourteen.”
“You’re pretty smart.”
I grinned at him. “That’s what they tell me.”
This made Marco laugh. Triumph swelled in my chest. I’d never seen him laugh and felt sure he didn’t do it often, since there was something kind of sad in the back of his eyes. “You look older than fourteen.” His gaze flicked over me quickly. “You’re not in any of my classes, so I knew you had to be younger. I didn’t think that much younger, though.”
I liked that he thought I looked older. I didn’t like the fact that he thought fourteen was young. Technically, I was fourteen and a half. I wanted to say that to him but was afraid it might come off as childish. I pondered how to casually slip it into conversation but came up blank.
Realizing we hadn’t spoken for at least thirty seconds, I said, “So… are you Canadian?”
“Nah. American. Depending on the area, a Canadian accent is different from an American accent. And then there are different accents in different places in the U.S. You just have to listen carefully. I’m from Chicago.”
Soaking up this new information, I replied, “That’s really cool.”
He shrugged, shoving his hands into his trouser pockets.
“Why did you move here?”
Marco was quiet so long I didn’t think he was going to answer. I was feeling an irrational amount of disappointment over that when he suddenly said, “My grandparents sent me to live with my uncle and his wife.”
That one sentence told me a lot without really telling me anything. I guessed that meant his parents weren’t in the picture, and that made me wonder why. The sad possibilities made me feel bad for him. I also wondered why he’d been sent away. Sensing that the first question might upset him more than the second, I went with the latter.
“Did you get into a lot of trouble there?”
He raised an eyebrow at me. “Are you writing my biography?”
Having been surrounded by sarcastic adults my whole life, I was immune to any kind of teasing. I stared him straight in the eye. “So what if I am?”
Marco smirked at my response. “Yeah. I was getting in trouble. They thought it might be better for me here.”
“And is it?”
He shrugged again, a small frown furrowing his brow.
Realizing he didn’t want to talk about it, I changed the subject. “Your name is Marco, right?”
“D’Alessandro. I see my reputation precedes me,” he replied, a wry little smile on his perfect lips.
It occurred to me that Marco didn’t talk like the kind of boys he hung around with at school. And it wasn’t about his accent. I’d overheard them enough to know that they took pride in being rough in speech, sometimes overplaying Scottish slang and swearing so much their mothers’ ears would have bled if they’d ever overheard them. They avoided sounding intelligent, whether deliberately or as a consequence of a collective lack of brain cells.
“Not to sound like a bitch or anything, but I don’t think I’ve heard anyone in the crowd you hang with use a word like ‘precede.’”
He grunted. “One of us needs to know how to read and write. You never know when crime might involve those basic tools of communication.”
Although he was joking, I could hear the edge in his tone and felt stupid. “Sorry. That sounded really judgmental.”
“Maybe. But I guess you’re not wrong.” He slid me a look and it was as if he saw right through me. “Some of us aren’t great at school. I’m not great at school.”
Another question popped into my head; I couldn’t help myself. I’d never been so curious about anyone before. Then again, I’d never gotten butterflies from just being in someone’s presence before. “What are you great at?”
A cloud passed over his features. “I don’t know.”
“You must be good at something,” I insisted. I couldn’t imagine that Marco didn’t have some kind of talent. There was just something so special about him. I didn’t even know what it was, but I knew it. I just knew it.