Chapter 36: Rideshare

With yet another worry added to the pile, I itched to catch the next bus back to the apartment.

Instead, the three of us caught a whiff from the garage, exchanged glances, and piled back in for dinner.

Yvonne and Big Charlie had made tacos. Little wedges of heaven. Cheesy, a little greasy, only as spicy as Lena and I liked them. It almost brought tears to my eyes. We’d fucked up game night and our friends made mild tacos to cheer us up.

Of course, we couldn’t bail on them after a meal like that.

“I’ve talked to Cam and Lena,” Miguel said between licks of his fingers, “and they have good reason to be distracted tonight.”

We both averted our eyes.

“Oh?” Yvonne leaned forward. “Got an announcement, then?”

I glanced at Lena, but she looked as confused as I felt. “What?” I said. “No, we just –”

“Good,” Miguel repeated, “reason.”

Yvonne sighed and Big Charlie squeezed her shoulder. I felt like I’d missed a couple dozen conversations or a couple million social cues.

“As such,” Miguel said, “I can’t waste my genius on them any further. Would you mind terribly if we broke out the cards? And also if we borrowed your cards?”

Yvonne brightened. She got up and returned with five deck boxes.

Time to get our asses kicked. Yvonne played in Magic the Gathering’s junior pro tour enough years ago that she’d qualified for it; I didn’t know if she’d washed out of the grown-up version, or had just become too busy to pursue it, or if it was even still a thing.

I knew Lena and I would get slaughtered by her on our best day. Which this wasn’t.

So what?

One of the beautiful things about competitive games is that if you can’t concentrate, you’re not being rude to the other players. You’re just getting your ass kicked.

As Lena and I did through two blistering rounds of Magic with Yvonne’s loaner cards. Miguel hadn’t exactly helped us focus on the games by giving us yet another thing to worry about. In fairness, he seemed just as distracted.

The games should have been as relaxing as the meal. Weren’t.

I had to hold back a sigh of relief when Yvonne’s seemingly jank burn deck dispatched Big Charlie’s ramp and Lena’s white weenie in a single turn. Didn’t follow that? Then you’re about on my level at Magic. I’d managed to lose after just three turns.

Yvonne packed up her cards. “How about we stop there? Miguel’s got nine to five tomorrow.”

“Actually,” he said, “I plan to stay up all night.”

She rolled her eyes. “You’re worse than Lena.”

“Funny you should say so, when it’s she who will keep me up.”

Lena shoved her cards into their deck box and handed it to Yvonne. “Quit it.”

“Sorry.” Miguel did not look sorry. He’d been eliminated a turn after me, so he’d already boxed up and meandered to the door. “I’ll get the car warmed up. You two need a ride?”

I glanced at Lena, in case she preferred a bus ride to Miguel’s company. She shrugged and I said, “Sure, thanks.”

“Got a sec, Lena?” Yvonne asked.

While they chatted, I followed Miguel out to his aging Prius. I thought he made more than the rest of us combined, not that he made a lot. He circled the car, unlocking doors one at a time.

I opened up the back seat. Upholstery infused by a decade of tobacco assaulted my nose. Instead of getting in, I folded my arms over the roof. “Are you really worried about the amulet, or do you just want an excuse to schmooze Lena?”

Miguel turned the car on, then stood up and matched my pose. “Why?”

“Because I’ve known you for eight years and you’ve had ten girlfriends.”

“Eleven,” he said. “Shawnda and I met and separated over the summer you were out of town.”

“Miguel...”

“Why are you worried?”

“Because –!” I rapped the roof of his car. “She’s my best friend. I don’t want her to get hurt.”

“Ah.” Miguel took another cigarette out and lit it. He drew the smoke in and blew it out. Not at me, thankfully. I wondered if he’d lit up because he wanted the smoke, or to give himself an excuse to look away without seeming impolite. “I know you two won’t want me to smoke in the car, so I must take my chances where they appear.”

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I scowled. “Is that supposed to sound deep?”

“It’s true,” he said. “Yeah?”

I looked away. Cleaner air in every other direction. “Yeah.”

I thought he intended to wait for Lena in silence, but after another drag, he asked, “When did you break up?”

“That’s...” I slumped against the car. “There wasn’t, like, one moment. It just happened.”

“You are both,” he said, “my friends.”

It was good we had Miguel’s Prius between us. It kept me from sinking to my knees. It kept me from slugging him.

I hated that I understood him, both because it meant I’d put up with his bullshit long enough to parse it, and because of what he wanted me to know.

He didn’t want either of us to get hurt, either.

He thought I was the one hurting Lena.

He wasn’t right.

Right?

“It only makes sense,” Miguel said, “if the amulets are part of some larger scheme.”

“What?” I straightened up to face him and saw Lena emerging from the garage.

She waved back to Yvonne and Big Charlie, then ran over to the car with a bag clutched in her hand. She held it up. “Check it out! They made extra tacos for us to take home.”

“Did they spice any of them?” Miguel asked.

“Some of us haven’t ruined our taste buds with cigs,” Lena said.

“And some never had any.” He got in.

“What a dick.” Lena chuckled as she pressed the bag of tacos into my hands, then got in the passenger’s seat.

I took the back.

I’ve never been claustrophobic, but something about Miguel’s car brought it out in me. Maybe years of family road trips with a big brother elbowing me every time our parents looked away. Maybe the tobacco smell infusing every surface. Maybe the company – myself.

I rolled the window down, cold be damned.

Anyway, I couldn’t argue with the speed. Miguel cruised up Arapahoe to University and reached the light at Hampden by the time a northbound bus would’ve pulled into the stop nearest Yvonne and Big Charlie’s house.

While he idled in the turn lane, Lena leaned over the armrests. “Hey, Miguel?”

He glanced at her.

She touched his arm. “If you had somebody’s picture and their name, could you find them? Online, I mean.”

“I could,” he said.

“Great! Her name’s –”

“No.”

Lena drew back. “Why the hell not?”

“Because my job is to keep people’s data secure, not to help expose it. I know how because I know how to make it more difficult.” He glanced at the light, then at Lena. “Who do you want to find?”

She studied her phone. “It doesn’t matter.”

“True,” he said.

I didn’t need her to say the name, because I already knew

I hadn’t wanted to ask Lena if she’d seen the same expression I had on Albie’s face. If she hadn’t, why worry her? I was probably wrong, and even if Albie really had been scared, what could Lena or I do to help her?

Now, though, I knew Lena saw the same thing.

“What if,” I asked, “it was somebody who needed help?”

“It would be strange for someone in need not to ask for assistance.” Miguel sighed. “I forget who I’m talking to.”

“I’m not gonna do the ‘we’re not that bad’ thing again tonight,” I said. “The girl we met today. Albie. I think we’d both feel better if we knew she was okay.”

“This is the kid you wished to avoid the appearance of -napping?” Miguel turned onto Hampden with more force than strictly necessary. I banged my arm on the door and remembered seat belts were a thing. While I belted in, he shook his head and muttered, “You want me to help you dox a child.”

“We want you to help us help her,” Lena snapped.

“Why do you think she needs it?”

Lena glanced back at me.

I nodded. “When she left, Albie looked... worried.”

“Scared,” Lena said.

I winced. I’d tried to lowball Albie’s reaction, but clearly Lena got the same vibe I had.

“And how,” Miguel asked, “would you help this?”

“I don’t –” Lena shrunk into her seat. “I don’t know, okay?”

“It’s best you’re mistaken and this girl doesn’t need help,” Miguel said gently. “Next, that she gets help from someone qualified. Next, that you are able to put her out of your minds. Because either of you interfering in her life, without even her own invitation, is only going to make things worse.”

Lena hunched her shoulders. “So if we know a kid’s in trouble –”

“‘Know’ is a strong word,” Miguel said.

“Neither of us are exactly titans of social intelligence,” I said. “If something seemed off enough we both picked up on it, it had to be pretty damn off.”

“I’m not sure that tracks.” He spread his hands over the wheel. “Let’s accept it for now.”

“Yeah, so,” Lena said, “you think we should just do nothing?”

“A kid’s always in trouble,” Miguel said.

I frowned. Lena cocked her head.

We had to wait for an explanation, though. I pointed to the driver’s side window. “This is us.”

Miguel nodded and pulled into our apartment’s parking lot. He took an empty space near the street and got out of the car.

I disentangled myself, scooped up the bag of take-home tacos, and followed. “What did you mean?”

He paused beside his trunk and spread his arms. “Thousands of kids, millions, all around the world, are in trouble. If you want to help them you should donate when you’ve got some money, volunteer if you’ve got some time.”

I studied the pavement. “Ever hear of ‘think globally, act locally?’”

“Are you?” he asked.

“You already said you won’t help us, Miguel,” Lena said. “You don’t gotta lecture us, too.”

“Sharing my wisdom is itself a kind of help –”

She gave him the finger, snatched the taco bag from my hands, and stalked to the stairs.

Miguel grinned as he watched her pass. “It’s sweet that you want to help this kid. It speaks well of you. Honest.”

“But,” I said.

“But,” he said.

The only thing more infuriating than Miguel being right was how often he pulled it off.

Especially when we were about to find out if he was also right about Lena’s amulet.