Free Cruiser by Dee J. Stone

squash soup. I’d cook for you anytime.”
    Just as I’m about to tell him how cute he is when he’s excited, Cruiser strolls down t he hallway, stops by his locker a few feet away, and dumps his schoolbag and leather jacket inside. I bite my lower lip. This is the first time seeing him since our encounter two days ago. He looks…I don’t even know how to describe it. He’s actually alone right now, not flirting with a girl. It makes him look so…so…
    Lonely.
    Lonely and vulnerable. Why does it make my heart constrict, seeing him standing by his locker alone, staring at the space in front of him like he’s in deep thought? Like he’s sad. Sad that there is no girl flirting with him, or is it something else?
    “It was still at first,” Rey is in middle of saying. “My grandfather said the fish must have partied the whole night and were sleeping.” He laughs. “But then I caught a mackerel and...”
    I don’t mean to, but my attention keeps floating to Cruiser standing so alone at his locker. I’m so selfish and a horrible girlfriend, but I can’t help it.
    Suddenly, Cruiser turns around and stares at me. I jerk, but my gaze stays on him—I don’t know why. This is the first time we’re seeing each other face to face since our altercation at my house. I don’t know what to think, what to feel .
    He turns back around, back to being lonely. It reminds me of when we were kids and Cruiser was lonely, when he felt left out at home, or when he cried to me that he had no friends at school because everyone loved Rey more than him.
    “Lex?”
    I’m yanked back to the present, to the reality.
    “Can I come over tonight?” I ask Rey.
    “I need to practice the violin for my next recital,” he says.
    Another recital? I thought we’d have more time to spend together once his last recital was over. I want to support him, but he and I have been having better communication since his schedule emptied out. With another recital, I don’t know how much time we’ll have to spend together. Which means we might fall down that path again.
    “ But maybe you can sit with me while I practice?” Rey says. “My parents won’t be home ‘til midnight and Cruiser will probably be out ‘til much later.”
    I smile. “Okay .” I take one more glance at Cruiser. A girl is now at his locker, giggling and squeezing his bicep, marveling at it.
    “Cool,” Rey says. “See you in class.” He touches his fingers to his lips and presses them to mine. Then he disappears into political science, leaving me out here alone . I watch the way Cruiser grins at the girl. No more vulnerability. No more loneliness.
    I close my locker and head to class.

Chapter Fifteen
    Cruiser
     
    When Rey walks into my room a few hours after school, I’m wetter than a dog that jumped into a lake. I must have hit the weights a little too hard. He tosses me a towel.
    “Sup, man?” I wipe my face.
    “Dude, we checked out a jail today. Was pretty neat.”
    Rey’s part of the law club. They do shit like that.
    “Next week we’re visiting a courthouse!”
    Sometimes I wonder if we’re two unrelated people who happen to look alike.
    “Glad you had fun.” I toss the towel somewhere, then get into the shower. Spread out my arms. Feel the cool water beat against my skin. One thing that sucks about taking a shower is that I’m alone. It’s when the thoughts I battle every day cloud around and taunt me.
    I turn off the shower and wrap a towel around my waist. Rey’s lifting one of my dumbbells when I step out of the bathro om. Cheeks puffed, eyes bulging like his brain’s about to fire out his nose.
    I take it and place it on the floor. “Stay away from the weights, like I stay away from the books.”
    He laughs, plopping down on my bed. “Speaking of school, I heard about Sandra.”
    “Sandra?”
    Oh. That freshie girl who was all over me at lunch today.
    “Well, you gonna get with her? Dude, she’s hot. Real hot.”
    “Real young . She’s a