She was dubious, but Rick was right.
Kurt fishes Rick’s spare set of keys from his pocket as he walks into the lobby. The doorman, typing on his cell phone behind a desk, doesn’t give him a second glance. Maybe he’s new and assumes Kurt lives here. Maybe he just doesn’t give a crap.
So much for security, he thinks, riding the elevator to the third floor.
“I know what you’re thinking,” Rick said the first time he showed Kurt around the place, almost two years ago now. “Believe me, I was hoping for something with a better view.”
“I don’t know how you can beat this,” Kurt said dryly, gazing at the brick wall across the way and Dumpster below. “Wasn’t there anything on a higher floor? There must be awesome skyline views up there.”
“Maybe, but the price is right for this place. I can afford it.”
Maybe not. Last time he saw Rick, he had his doubts that his stepfather was even holding down his latest job. He’d been pretty broken up after Mom died.
Yeah, well, who hasn’t been?
Heart pounding, Kurt walks toward apartment 3C, jangling the keys.
Maybe he should have waited until his brother got out of work to come here. Maybe he shouldn’t do this alone. Maybe . . .
No. It was Rick who taught him how to be a man—-a real man. “You don’t run away from the tough stuff. You face your responsibilities head--on and you do what needs to be done.”
He takes a deep breath.
He turns the lock, opens the door, takes a few steps over the threshold—-and screams himself hoarse.
From the Mundy’s Landing Tribune Archives
Sports Page
May 25, 2009
Local Team Wins Soccer Tournament The Mundy’s Landing River Rats defeated the Catskill Wildcats 7–1 in yesterday’s championship match at the Youth Soccer Tournament in Albany. Led in scoring by Julia Williams and Carmichael “Mick” Mundy, the team, a co--ed mix of ten--to--twelve-year--olds, went into the final game with a pair of round robin wins.
Coach Ronald Calhoun told the Tribune, “These kids played hard and I’m proud of each and every one of them.”
Chapter 15
After waiting around near Brianna’s locker again this morning, Mick was forced to give up when the first bell rang.
She must be really sick, he decides as he sits through English class, chin in hand, staring absently at the teacher.
He’s not feeling so great himself today, having remembered to take his medicine but forgotten, once again, to eat something with it.
He’d better grab a banana from the cafeteria when he goes to retrieve the gift box from behind the bags of prunes in the lunchroom. Operation Secret Santa will have to wait until Brianna’s back in school.
When the bell rings, he heads swiftly down the hall to make the detour to the cafeteria before his next class. Above the noise of chatter and slamming locker doors, Mrs. Dunlop, the principal’s secretary, is talking on the PA system.
“Will the following students please report to the main office immediately . . .”
As she begins naming names, all of them female, Mick recognizes that they’re close friends of Brianna’s.
Both his heart and his feet pick up their pace. The cafeteria is quiet and empty other than Denise, one of the workers, who’s putting milk cartons into the refrigerated case near the register.
“Hi, Mick,” she says, looking up. “What’s going on?”
“I just wanted to see if I could grab a healthy snack.”
“You know we’re not open till fourth period.”
“I know, but . . . I missed breakfast this morning. Please?” Mick offers her his most charming smile, when it’s the last thing he feels like doing.
Denise, who graduated from Mundy’s Landing High School back in the eighties with Mick’s dad, shakes her hairnetted head but smiles back. “Go ahead and grab something,” she says, “and I’ll bill it to your account when I open the register.”
“Thanks.”