Justin stayed so long in the bathroom that Pete knocked on the door. "Everything okay in there, Juice?"

"No," said Justin. "Leave me alone."

"Yike," said Pete but he did not knock again.

Justin had cried himself out, he had no more tears. He'd thrown up twice more, eventually bringing up the peanut butter toast and fruit he had eaten for breakfast along with a quantity of a bitter green substance that he imagined tasted like a broken heart.

He stared at himself in the mirror over the small olive green sink. His complexion looked blotchy, the tissue around his eyes swollen. He wore his hair in a block cut just below his ears but at the moment it stood up in all directions. He made an effort to comb his hair using his fingers.

Distantly, he heard Vince and Pete talking.

"I got off grounding with my mom for the trip, however we do it. We got three choices," said Pete. "We take a bus to the mall and try to meet the girls after their movie."

"Fuck a bus," said Vince.

"Or we wait for my brother to get back, he took the van this morning, and maybe we can talk him into taking us somewhere."

"Fuck your brother," said Vince.

"Or we hang around here until Mom tosses us out cause she's tired of your filthy mouth."

"Fuck that," said Vince.

"You lucky you didn't say it, man," said Pete.

"Dude," said Vince. "I like your mom." He paused. "But not that much."

"Cabron," said Pete.

Vince just laughed. After a moment, so did Pete.

#

In the bathroom, Justin closed the toilet seat and sat on it to mope. They make jokes and insult each other then they just laugh. I've never been able to do that. I don't understand how it works. He dabbed at his face with a washcloth he had dampened, hoping he could get the swelling down so he could leave the bathroom without anyone seeing he'd been crying.

I thought I'd finally figured it out. I asked Zoe for a date and we went out and had a lot of fun. I called her a few times after that and she seemed happy to hear from me. He sighed. Then we had a second date cause she asked me and everything was wonderful. We even....

Someone tapped lightly on the door. Surely not Pete, thought Justin.

"Are you still in there, Justin?" Mrs. Marquez asked through the door.

"Yes," he answered.

"Are you all right?"

"Yes, I'm fine. Just got sick at my stomach. Again."

"Again?" Mrs. Marquez sounded concerned.

"I was kind of sick early this morning," Justin explained.

"Do you want to go home?" she asked.

Justin hesitated. But the last thing he wanted was to go to the mall and be the fifth wheel when his two friends met their girlfriends. "I guess so," he said.

"Let me do a few things and I can run you home," said Mrs. Marquez. "If you're feeling ill you don't want to do any walking in this heat."

"Okay," said Justin.

"Five minutes," she said and then she left him alone, again.

#

They all left in the car about ten minutes later. Mrs. Marquez had been persuaded to take Pete and Vince to the mall after dropping Justin off at his house. Vince claimed the front seat of the gray Volvo, next to Mrs. Marquez.

"You always looks so nice, Mrs. Marquez," said Vince. "Even in this heat, how do you do it?"

Mrs. Marquez laughed, she was on to Vince. "I keep young men around to flatter me and build up my ego, does wonders for the complexion," she teased.

Vince showed his dimples. "I'll have to suggest that to my mom."

In the back seat, Pete looked at Justin's pale blotchy face. "I know you're a white kid, Juice, but you look like you been out on a date with a vampire."

Justin shook his head. Zoe's not a vampire, he thought.

"You really sick?" asked Pete.

Justin nodded.

Pete made a cross with his fingers. "Don't give me what you got, man," he said.

Justin looked at Pete, opened his mouth and closed his eyes -- and faked a cough.

"Aggh!" said Pete. "Mama, the Juice is making me sick back here."

"Leave the poor boy alone, Pedro," said Mrs. Marquez.

Walking, it was less than eight blocks between Justin's house and the Marquez apartment. Driving, it was more like twenty because of one-way streets and no useful shortcuts through parking lots and alleys.

#

Mrs. Marquez said something to encourage him as she let him out in front of his house but Justin did not really hear it. He smiled and waved anyway and Pete and Vince called out to him as he turned away.

"See you Tuesday," said Vince.

"Unless you got to see a doctor," said Pete. "Maybe you should."

The Volvo drove away as Justin walked up to the front door of the pale green house where he and his father had lived since the accident. It was all on one level which made it easier for his dad's wheelchair. The old house had been built on a hillside on three levels and had four interior staircases and three on the outside. He had loved that house and had lived in it all his life until his mom and sister died.

The insurance had bought this house after his father got out of the hospital and Justin's aunt and cousins now lived in the bigger, older house. They were paying the mortgage after having refinanced at a lower rate.

When Justin and his cousin Leia both finished college or turned twenty-five, the family would decide what to do with the house, finally. Justin wanted it back, though he had never told anyone this. He wanted to get married and raise a family in the hillside home where he had been a little kid. Leia wanted to be a journalist and travel around the world shooting videos about villagers and crocodiles, so Justin thought it would eventually work out.

Inside the ranchstyle green house, Tom, the Great Pyrenees woofed. He heard and recognized Justin's steps on the walk outside. Justin smiled, feeling a bit better. He opened the door carefully to keep Tom from knocking him down with a patented Giant Poofy Dog welcome. Nothing could prevent a thorough slobbering, though, as Justin squeezed inside. Clouds of dislodged white fur billowed around Tom, the heat outside made the big dog shed enough to build several smaller dogs each week. Time to vacuum the dog again, thought Justin.

"Are you back already?" his father called from inside. "Thought you were going to be gone all day."

Tom bounced on his front paws and made tiny little woofs to express his delight in Justin being home. You couldn't help smiling at a big dog who acted just like a tiny Pomeranian.

"Yeah, I'm back," said Justin. "And you know what? I'm hungry now." He mostly intended to distract his father from asking what had happened, but it was true -- he was hungry, starving in fact. "Have we got any pineapple?" he asked.