Free Under the Bridge by Michael Harmon

to tell me.”
    I stopped, facing her. “You want to know why I beat that guy up and took his money?”
    She shook her head. “No. I want to know why you don’t think I’d understand the reason you did it.”
    She had a few faint freckles on her nose. I shrugged. “You really want to know?”
    “Yes.”
    “Okay, fine. Because you’re a rich-girl superstar who does everything the world tells her to do without thinking about it. Bad is bad and good is good, and good means following all the rules no matter what. You don’t understand anything else.”
    Her face cracked, and she looked to her feet. “You don’t even know me.”
    “The only thing I need to know is how you looked at me yesterday.” I hesitated, feeling a tiny bit guilty, but not that guilty. “So don’t stand there and act like you’re all high-and-mighty, because you don’t know jack about why I do what I do.”
    She took a breath. “Okay, then. Tell me why there would ever be a good reason to beat up a guy and take his money.”
    I looked at the clock at the end of the hall. Two minutes until class. “He broke a little kid’s board because he thinks his shit doesn’t stink, so I made him pay for a new one. I even gave him his change. There. Happy?” Then I walked into class.

CHAPTER TWELVE
    Sid and Piper sat on the concrete wall Under the Bridge smoking cigarettes after school, their boards on the ground beneath their feet. I hopped up next to Piper. “Seen Indy?”
    Sid spit. “Are you ever not looking for Indy?”
    “Bad stuff, guys. Indy’s out of the house.”
    Piper nodded. “We know.”
    I looked across the park. “Three days suspended. Dad broke Indy’s board and whacked him.”
    Sid grunted. “I might be the world’s most pessimistic person, but I never figured your old man would do that.”
    I shrugged. “Things are messed up.”
    Piper frowned. “So, what do we do about it? Last two times I saw him, he was smashed.”
    “When did you see him?”
    Sid hopped from the ledge. “Five minutes ago. He split. Said he didn’t want to see you.”
    Piper hitched his thumb back to the skate park. “He’s talking to Angie and her friend.”
    “Will?”
    He nodded. “Uh-huh. Guy freaks me out. Never talks.”
    I shrugged. “Probably a raver like Angie.”
    Piper grunted. “She gives bad girls a good name, man. Nothing but trouble.”
    Sid shook his head. “She’s got to be an alien.”
    Piper rolled his eyes. “Of course. That explains it.”
    Sid, his voice deadpan and serious, shrugged. “One of the genetically deficient alien species.”
    Piper laughed. “I forgot Earth was colonized by aliens.”
    Sid spit. “Whatever, man. I know, though.”
    Piper flicked his cigarette into the street, watching the butt smoke on the pavement. A car passed and crushed it. He glanced at me. “Indy told me he’s not going back after the suspension.”
    I nodded. “Yeah.”
    Sid grunted. “Dude, did you see him carve the halls? That was so cool.”
    Piper took a swig of Gatorade, ignoring Sid. He knew Sid pushed my buttons sometimes. “Your dad really kicked him out, huh?”
    I nodded. “Yeah, but he can come back now. My mom busted his nuts about it.”
    Sid smirked. “I would like to see the day
anybody
busts your dad’s nuts.”
    “My mom is tough when she’s pissed.”
    Piper shook his head. “Remember that time in fifth grade when he got mad at us for ruining your mom’s roses? I pissed my bed every night for three months afterward.”
    I laughed, remembering. We’d pretended the roses were baseballs and whacked them with bats. “Yeah, but he was also the one who made us the mini-pipe three years ago. Spent, like, four days on the thing.”
    Sid almost smiled. “I learned more cusswords from him while he was building that than anybody else in the whole world. I owe him.”
    Piper nodded. “Once you get used to the scarier-than-shit thing, he’s pretty cool.”
    I looked over my shoulder at the skate park,