Page 57 of Lost
His tone was clipped, dismissive. Zack sighed and set his beer down.
“Have you ever known anybody who killed themselves?”
Lysander looked up, mild surprise marring his features, but didn’t answer.
“It’s true when they say that it’s unexpected,” Zack said. “I’ve had friends who were as happy as anything one night and then dead the next morning, because a mood can change faster than you can run. So when I said this morning that I’d rest easier if I knew you weren’t alone, I was just worried that your mood might shift to the point that you couldn’t help it. It happens to the best of people. I didn’t want it to happen to you.”
“It won’t.”
“You’ve been through a lot, kid.”
“But I’mokay,” Lysander cut in before Zack could say anymore. “I have my friends, and I have family watching out for me. I know that even when I’m alone. And it keeps me sane.”
Zack considered him. He knew, without a doubt, that he still wouldn’t be leaving Lysander alone for a long while. But these words were enough to put him a little more at ease, to restore his faith in the boy to a degree that should an emergency crop up, Lysander would be fine on his own for a time.
“I can’t promise not to be paranoid,” he told the boy, “but I’ll do my best.”
Lysander shrugged. It was good enough for him.
“Come on,” the boy said, standing as he pushed his books further away from himself. He still wasn’t happy, but he at least sounded friendlier. “I know you’d rather be in there than out here. So maybe you can teach me a thing or two about what you guys do in the studio.”
Zack knew it was an olive branch. He grasped it with both hands.
CHAPTER TWENTY-TWO
Brendan’s father’s house was spectacular with its marbled floors and its gold-trimmed staircase. Lysander couldn’t stop staring as Zack and Georgia led him through it. It held crystal chandeliers, a kitchen fit for a two-page spread in the most exclusive of magazines, and a wide, open entertaining area that put Lysander’s old living room in Wisconsin to shame.
But most importantly, the house contained friends.
Just through the back door, Lysander could see Zack’s group: the band, their significant others, and a few other faces that he had glimpsed on various occasions. But as much as Lysander had come to enjoy the company of these people, he had known from the start that he didn’t want to be the only kid hanging around among a group of adults. He’d told his father as much when Zack had informed him he was being dragged along. And that was why he was glad she was here.
“Lysander!”
Marina had engulfed him before he had even seen her coming. All the colours of her rainbow hair ended up in his face while her perfume washed over him, filling him with the scent that had become familiar even from their single meeting all those weeks ago. She smiled brightly when she pulled back to look at him, clearly as glad to see him as he was her.
“Hey, Marina. It’s been a while.”
They hadn’t seen each other in weeks, but they’d kept in touch via text after their last meeting. It was funny, Lysander thought, that even though she’d been grounded she had still been granted access to her cell phone and her laptop — the former because her father wouldn’t have her without it in case of emergency, the latter because the Internet was basically mandatory for people who wanted to get any schoolwork done these days. The only thing her grounding had really limited had been how often she could see her friends.
Now that she was no longer under house arrest, she was constantly making plans that enabled her to get out of the house. Today’s itinerary consisted of her own band members, a couple of other friends she went to college with, and the beach. Lysander had readily agreed when she’d asked if he wanted to tag along. He was all for making new friends his own age.
“Make sure you stay out of trouble,” was Zack’s choice of farewell as he gave Lysander a quick one-armed hug. “I’ll see you tonight, kid.”
“See ya. Have fun.”
Zack and Georgia headed outside to join the rest of their crowd, while Lysander followed Marina into the stylish kitchen of her home. She carried a backpack with her, and it wasn’t long before Lysander deduced what the thing was for: he watched her shove in bags of crisps and packets of candy, as many as she could fit before adding a couple of water bottles to the stash. She caught his eye as she tugged the zipper closed.
“You ready to go?”
“Ready as I’ll ever be,” he said. He took the bag and slung it over his own shoulder before she could protest. “Lead the way, Harmon.”
The journey to the beach was quick and easy, and Marina spent the majority of the walk trying to get Lysander up to speed on the people that he was about to meet. When he had first arrived in California he had been at a slight advantage — Zack and his band were all over the Internet and in music magazines, so he had already known their names, known their faces, and in a way felt that he’d known them. But there was no such luck with Marina’s friends. They weren’t known to the public. He was being thrown into the deep end, and for the first time he really felt it. He attempted to brace himself.
But there was no need. It was like walking into a classroom for the first time, being faced with nothing more than a group of kids he wasn’t familiar with — and one, surprisingly, that he was certain he was. A couple of them resembled Marina in the sense that they had bizarrely coloured hair, but other than that they just looked like regular, California natives out for a day on the beach. He could deal with this.
“They don’t bite,” Marina assured him as they approached. “...well. Actually, they do. But I promise they won’t biteyou.”
It was just like being back in Columbus, except that these were Marina’s friends and not his. They greeted her brightly, save for a dark-haired boy who only nodded her way, and listened intently as she introduced Lysander to them. Not asZack’s son, but asLysander Maverick. Better yet, they already knew who his father was, and none of them seemed to care. Here he was among people where he could just be himself, and it felt better than he had expected.
