Nowhere to Turn (4 page)

I nodded.

“So how can a girl with such smart parents be dumb enough to waste time on a loser like Nick? They're going to put him away this time. They got him on breaking and entering, theft, assault . . .”

“Assault?” Beej hadn't mentioned that.

“First, he steals from a sick old man,” Glen said. “Then, once he's been released, he forces his way back into the old man's house. When the daughter-in-law tries to stop him, Nick assaults her.” He shook his head. “He's breaking his aunt's heart. He never learned how to control himself. I keep telling her, I've seen dozens of kids like him, and sooner or later, they all self-destruct.”

“Can I talk to him?” I said.

Glen studied me for a moment. “What the heck,” he said. “If Bev were here, she'd let you. I think she was hoping you could change him.” He snorted.

Glen opened the door and let us in. “Five minutes, no more. He's in the basement. We figured if he has to hang around here, he might as well clean up the place, make himself useful. It's through that door.”

Morgan and I unbuttoned our coats and headed for the basement.

“What a jerk,” Morgan muttered in my ear.

The main part of the basement was an entertainment room with a bar, a sofa, and a big-screen TV. But Nick was in the unfinished area, which contained a washer, a dryer, and a wall of shelves. He was kneeling on the concrete floor, sorting through a box of clothes. I stopped in the doorway between the rec room and where Nick was, unable to make myself go any farther. I gripped the doorframe to steady myself.

When Nick saw me, he sprang to his feet. “What are you doing here?”

Some foolish part of me had been hoping that he would be happy to see me, but he obviously wasn't. He looked taller than I remembered, maybe because he'd lost so much weight since he'd been gone. I remembered what Beej had said. He'd been sleeping rough. He probably hadn't been eating properly either.

My mouth was dry. I felt like I was choking.

“Beej said—” I began.

He shook his head in disgust.

“I knew it was a mistake to talk to her stupid camera,” he said.

He looked down at the ring I was wearing. Ben had given it to me. Ever since I'd found out that Nick was back in town, I had been wondering how much he knew. The look he gave me answered that question. But how did he feel? Peering at him, I couldn't tell. Maybe he'd decided before he left town that he wasn't interested in me anymore. Maybe that was why he had left.

“It sounds like you're in trouble,” I said. “Again,” I added—because of the cold way he was looking at me, because I was angry with him for abandoning me, because I wanted to hurt him as much as he had hurt me.

“I didn't ask you to come over here,” he said. “So why don't you leave?”

I stayed put.

“I mean it, Robyn.”

Our eyes locked. I saw nothing but fury in his. He raised a fist and hammered it against the metal shelving. Empty jars rattled. Morgan yelped in surprise.

“Hey!” Glen roared from upstairs. “What's going on down there?”

I looked at Nick. Maybe Glen was right. Maybe he was out of control. Maybe he had lashed out in rage when Elliot fired him. Maybe he was self-destructing.

I drew in a deep breath. Even though I was angry with him, I didn't want anything bad to happen to him.

“It's nothing,” I yelled back to Glen. “I just tripped, that's all.” I turned back to Nick. “I don't understand what's going on. Things were going so well for you! You had your own place. You had a job. You were in school. What happened?”

He glanced at my ring again. His eyes drilled into me.

“When did you start seeing that guy?” he said.

“What?”

“You heard me. When?”

“You weren't here, Nick. You left, remember?”

“I would have waited for you, Robyn.”

“Then why did you—” Morgan began. She stopped when Nick and I both spun around to look at her. “You begged me to come, Robyn,” she pointed out. I gave her another look. “Fine,” she said. She retreated to the other room, dropped down onto the sofa, and made a big show of zipping her lips.

I turned back to Nick. Just seeing him brought back all the pain I had felt.

“I would never have left you the way you left me,” I said. “Not for anything.”

He stared angrily at me. Unless one of us calmed down, this was going to end up in a fight.

“We both did what we did,” I continued. “I didn't come to talk about the past. I came because Beej said you were in trouble and because we used to be friends.”

“Friends?” he said. “Is that what we were?” He shook his head. “I don't need your help.”

“Come on, Nick. If you didn't do what they say you did—”

“If?”

“Five minutes are up!” Glen bellowed from upstairs.

I didn't move. “You know what I mean. If there's anything I can do—”

Nick stared at me for what seemed like a full minute. “You want to be a
friend
?” He spat out the word. “You want to do something? Okay. You can tell Mr. Schuster it wasn't me. And you can make sure that Orion is okay.” I caught a flicker of anguish in his eyes. “Elliot had the phone in his hand, Robyn. He was going to call Animal Control. He was ready to have Orion taken away. But it wasn't his fault. She should have known better.”

I took a step toward him. Suddenly all I wanted was to wrap my arms around him and tell him everything was going to be okay. But he ducked back out of my reach and his face grew hard again.

“You think you can do that for me, friend?” he said.

I heard footsteps on the basement stairs. Morgan touched my arm.

“We should go,” she said.

I nodded. Tears stung my eyes, but I fought them back as I turned away from him.

“Hey, Robyn?” Nick said.

I turned back.

“Things would never have worked out with us anyway. You and I live in different worlds. Beej is more my type.”

CHAPTER
FOUR

I

couldn't get those words out of my mind:
Beej is more my type
.

“You think he's seeing that Beej person?” Morgan said as we walked to the bus stop. “You think that's why she wants to help him so badly?”

“I don't know.”

“Do you think he was seeing her while he was still seeing you? I mean, he told her he was leaving town. And they hooked up when he got back.”

“I said I don't know, Morgan!” I snapped.

She was silent for a few moments. Then: “Well, it sounds like Billy was right—Nick saw Ben give you that ring.”

I felt Ben's ring burning into my skin as she spoke. On Valentine's Day, Ben had taken me to a nice restaurant, where we'd had a table by the window. While we were sitting there, Ben had presented me with a small box, lifted the ring out, and slipped it onto my finger. Later, I'd found out that Billy had spotted Nick standing across the street from that same restaurant. Billy said he was pretty sure that Nick had been staring at us.

“What are you going to do?” Morgan said.

“About what?”

“About Nick.”

“Who says I'm going to do anything?”

She sighed. “You can kid yourself if you want to, Robyn. But you can't kid me. Right this minute you're thinking about what you can do to help him. You're probably even thinking that if you
do
help him, maybe the two of you can get back together.”

“Don't be ridiculous,” I said. “You heard what he said. I'm not his type. Besides, I'm with Ben now.”

“So you're not going to help him? You're not going to do anything?”

“I'm going to be a friend,” I said. “I'm going to do what he asked. I'm going to talk to Mr. Schuster.”

“Uh-huh. Are you going to tell Ben?”

“There's nothing to tell.”

“You want me to go with you?” Morgan said after a few moments of silence.

I shook my head. “I have no idea how sick Mr. Schuster is or whether I'll even be able to see him. I'll meet you back at the library, okay?”

But that wasn't the real reason I wanted to go to Mr. Schuster's house alone. The truth was, I wanted to find out what was going on and—Morgan was right—I wanted to help Nick. I'd made up my mind after watching Beej's DVD. I wanted to help him despite what he thought about me, because it just didn't add up.

Nick had been in trouble before, almost always because he had difficulty controlling his temper. And sure, sometimes when his temper got the better of him, he did incredibly stupid things. But no matter how much I thought about it, there was no way I could believe that he would steal from Mr. Schuster.

But—and this was a big but—the police had caught Nick with part of Mr. Schuster's stolen coin collection. Something was going on, something that threatened to get Nick locked up.

Morgan was right about something else too. I told myself it would never happen. I told myself I didn't even want it to happen—that if Nick didn't want me, then I didn't want him, either. But a part of me—I told myself it was just a tiny, silly part—pictured Nick and me together again.

I made a stop on my way to Mr. Schuster's house. As I climbed the steps to his front porch, I was clutching a small paper bag from Kanine Kookies.

A girl about my age swung open the inner door. She seemed surprised to see me.

“Is Mr. Schuster home?” I said.

She peered out uncertainly.

“My name is Robyn,” I said. “I volunteered with Mr. Schuster at the animal shelter last summer.”

“Oh,” she said. “Grandpa told me about you.”

“He did?”

“Before he got sick, he used to e-mail me almost every day. That's how we stay in touch.”

From somewhere deep inside the house, I heard the rumbling roowf-roowf of a large dog. The girl looked apprehensively over her shoulder. When she turned back to me, her face was white. She looked as terrified as I must have the first time I laid eyes on Schuster's big black dog.

“Is that Orion?” I said, trying to keep my voice light. I have a long and deep-seated fear of dogs. It shouldn't have applied to Orion—after all, I knew him. But I had been alone with him exactly once, months ago.

The girl nodded. “He bit my mom, so my dad put him in the basement. But I don't think he likes it down there.”

The girl shook her head. “Grandpa e-mailed me all about Orion. He told me he was a big dog. But I never realized how big until we got here after Grandpa had his stroke. My mother said his last owner gave him to the shelter because he's vicious.”

“He had some behavior problems,” I admitted. “But he was in a special program at the shelter, and he graduated with flying colors. If he bit your mother, it was probably because he was scared or startled. But he's friendly once you get to know him.”

“You mean, you're not afraid of him?” the girl said.

I took my chance to do at least part of what Nick had asked—to check on Orion.

“No, I'm not,” I said. I tried to sound matter-of-fact about it.

The girl looked at me with new interest.

“My name is Isobel,” she said. “Could you wait here for a minute?” She left the inside door open and ran up the stairs. She was back a few moments later. “Grandpa really wants to see Orion. Do you think you could bring him upstairs?”

“Sure,” I said, as if it would be no problem at all. But my heart pounded in my chest. What if Orion didn't listen to me? What if being locked in the basement all this time had made him forget what Mr. Schuster and Nick had taught him?

Isobel stood back to let me inside. I pulled off my boots as Orion's throaty roowf filled the house.

“He barks a lot,” Isobel said. “My dad says it's driving him crazy.”

“Does anyone take him out for walks?”

Isobel shook her head. “We're all afraid to go near him.” She pointed at the door to the basement. “My dad put a barrier at the bottom of the stairs so that he can take food and water downstairs without Orion charging at him.” She looked at me again. “Are you sure you want to go down there?”

I was nowhere close to sure. But I had decided to do what Nick had asked, no matter what he thought of me. And if I got a chance to see Mr. Schuster, too, maybe I could even start to get an idea of exactly what had happened.

I opened the Kanine Kookies bag and pulled out a gourmet dog biscuit. Nick used to buy them for Orion when he could afford to. I looked at the basement door and tried to remember everything Nick had told me about dogs in general and about Orion in particular.

First, he had said, dogs get to know people by their scent. Once dogs get to know someone, they remember that person. So theoretically, Orion should remember me.

Second, Nick had said that Orion was really a big softy. If he didn't sense that you were afraid—fear put him on his guard—and if you talked softly but firmly to him, he would be fine. If you approached him with his favorite treat and let him smell that too, he would be your friend for life.