Page 71 of Push and Shove (The Ghost Bird 6)

He shrugged lazily. “Feel something. Excited. Nervous. Bummed.”

I fiddled with the hem of my dress. “I think I was nervous about the idea. Is that weird?”

“No.” He reached over and took my fiddling hand into his, palm to palm, intertwining our fingers. “It’s a big change. I’d be worried about you living alone with him.”

“Gabriel wants to, too.”

Luke shook his head. “He probably likes the idea, but it isn’t time to do that yet. I mean, could you imagine living with those two? With Gabriel all the time?”

“Would it be that bad?” I asked. “I mean Nathan practically lives at my house these days. And Gabriel’s been around more than ever lately.”

“Maybe it wouldn’t be bad,” Luke said. “It’d be a big adjustment, though. You’ve never lived with boys. We’re messy. And we stink. And we’re rough.”

“Danielle and Marie think I should move out. And Mr. Blackbourne did agree that I probably should, but there’s nowhere for me to go at this point.”

Luke lifted my hand up and then kissed the back before planting it back down on the console. “If there’s one thing I know about Mr. Blackbourne, it’s that when you give him a problem, he’ll do whatever it takes to fix it.”

“How?”

“I don’t know, but show him an impossible problem and he does his thing and the next you know, problem solved.”

I quieted, sitting back and gazing out the window at Rocky’s house. When I’d presented Mr. Blackbourne with the problem, we’d been distracted by Mr. Hendricks and Mr. Crowley. But then he told me we couldn’t move out. I couldn’t imagine another solution.

A red car pulled in slowly through the neighborhood. It pulled right up to Rocky’s drive way, parking just outside the detached garage. We both sat up. Luke released me and we put the binoculars to our faces.

Jade stepped out from the driver’s side. She fixed her hair, slammed the door, and walked toward the door of the apartment. She was wearing a really short skirt, a skimpy red top, and slim red heels. She opened the door without knocking, peeked her head in and then stepped inside.

“On a Monday night?” Luke asked with the binoculars still attached to his face.

“What?”

He dropped the binoculars into his lap and turned his head to me. “She didn’t get dressed up like that to stay home. She came over to go out with him.”

“So we’re going to have to follow them as they go out?” I paused, trying to think of why that wasn’t settling well with me. “He’s not dating her, is he? I mean, I’m confused. I thought she was interested in North.”

“North doesn’t like her,” he said.

I tapped my finger against the seat. “So she dates Rocky? I’d thought at the last party that they were dating because she was sitting near him and he had his arm around her. But then she started flirting with North, and then Rocky flirted with me... Now they’re going out?”

“Uh.” Luke pointed a finger at his lip as he thought. “I’m thinking this is a mutual arrangement they’ve got.”

“What?”

“They’re friends with benefits.”

I stared at him blankly. I’d heard the term, spaced on what he was talking about.

He huffed. “They have sex but it doesn’t mean anything.”

My mouth popped open in a big “o” shape.

He smirked and then reached out to tap my chin. “Please tell me you’ve heard of sex because I don’t know if you want me to be the one to show you. Unless you really want me to.”

I closed my mouth and widened my eyes instead at him. He laughed. I couldn’t believe he was teasing me about this right now, and wasn’t sure how to respond in a way that wasn’t an admission to knowing what he was talking about, because it was partially a lie. I mean I knew what sex was, technically. But when I thought about it, I hadn’t seen a guy naked, except as an encyclopedia reference, and I haven’t figured out how the parts fit together. I got a mild idea of it through books I’d read. My mother refused to sign the waver to allow me to sit in on sex-ed.

It wasn’t like I had anyone to talk to about it.

I looked away so he couldn’t see my expression. “So are we supposed to wait until they are... uh... done?”

He looked like he was going to answer, but there was motion at Rocky’s house and we picked our binoculars up at the same time.

Jade was nearly stomping in her heels toward her car. Rocky was following her, wearing only a pair of boxers. He had his hands held out like he was arguing with her. He was holding something in each hand though, because his hands were each fisted around something.

She snapped back at him, got into his car and then started up the engine. Rocky stood in the drive watching her pull out.

Except Jade didn’t go the way she’d come. She headed right toward us.

“Get down!” Luke said.

I did, slamming down against the console, dropping the binoculars and trying to become as small as possible.

Luke kept a hand on the back of my neck, and lowered himself as well. I heard the car pass by and still waited until I couldn’t hear it any more before I sat up.

Jade’s car went around the empty side of the street and followed it around, disappearing into another part of the neighborhood.

Luke sat up slowly. I turned around to check out Rocky. He was fiddling with whatever had been in his hands.

We slowly picked up the binoculars and watched. It appeared to be a cigarette, and he was trying to get it to light with a lighter.

“He doesn’t smoke,” I said.

“Uh, he does,” Luke said. “He’s doing it now.”

“But he doesn’t smell like smoke.”

“What?”

“I mean, I’ve been around him a few times,” I said. “He’s never smelled like menthol, or smoke, or anything like that. He smells clean. The smell would linger on him, wouldn’t it?” I dropped the binoculars to look at Luke. “Unless he washes himself very well before and after he smokes. But his clothes...”

Luke continued to stare at Rocky. “Maybe it isn’t a cigarette. There’s pipes that look like cigarettes.”

“Can you smoke this ... JH14?”

“Yeah.”

“But North took a pill before, didn’t he? At the party.”

Rocky walked back into his house and Luke lowered the binoculars. “I think your nose just solved the case.”

“Huh?”

; “He’s smoking something. And if it is JH14, that’s why he reacts differently than other people do. He was aggressive, but operable. When you swallow the stuff though, the results are different. So we were right before. Someone’s been putting the pill form into drinks or something to get people to swallow it.”

“Maybe Rocky?”

“Maybe,” he said. “He’s been angry at everyone, and he has access. We’d have to get a sample to confirm.”

“They fought,” I said. “Him and Jade. Will she be next?”

“Looked like he didn’t want to go out,” Luke said. He slumped again in his seat. “Can’t say I blame him. She’s worse than Danielle.”

I didn’t know how to respond. This seemed important somehow. I wished we could have listened in on Rocky and Jade’s conversation.

Luke sighed. “Oh well. Whatever it is, it doesn’t tell us if Rocky’s a dealer, or uses drugs or not.” Luke tugged at my elbow. “This was probably all there is to this show, but we should stay here and keep an eye on him for a bit. Let’s get more comfortable. Scoot over,” he said. He released me and shoved the middle console up. Stuff stored inside rattled around. A heavy object inside slid, crashing to the bottom. We both cringed at the noise.

“What was that?” I asked.

“Something North will yell at me about later, because I might have just broken it,” he said. He grabbed my wrist, guiding me over. “Come on.”

My heart had been pounding pretty hard after Jade almost saw us. I understood he was trying to get me to relax after the scare.

He eased back into the corner, giving me room to sit close. He pushed a button that moved the seat back, giving us more space away from the steering wheel.

I wedged myself next to him, and found a space for my head against the corner of his collarbone and neck. He pressed his cheek to my hair. He wove his arm around my neck. His other hand found mine, and he brushed his fingertips over my palm.

“See,” Luke said. “Now we just look like a couple of teenagers making out. If anyone else drives by, they aren’t going to care.”

I was glad our heads were so close, and he couldn’t see me blushing.

He brushed his cheek against the top of my head. “Sang?”