Chapter 54

“Ethan’s coming,” he announced as he plonked the cups unceremoniously on the counter. “Then I’ll take my break and you are gonna get grilled, Jayden. You like pineapple on your gammon, ‘cause we’re gonna make you into ham.”

“I’m sorry,” Darren said, staring Jayden straight in the face. “He tries to be hard and—what is it, Paul? ‘Gangsta’ in the ghetto?”

“Shut up, man, Crossley’s not a ghetto. It’s full of old people.”

“Sure it is. Old ghetto.”

“I am the only non-white kid in the place.”

“So your little sister lives where, exactly? Your Dad ship her back to Antigua?”

“Trinidad, you racist nerd.”

“If I were racist, I would have said Africa,” Darren pointed out almost delicately, and jerked his head at a corner table. “C’mon, Jayden. We’ve got ten before Ethan can remember where he is, never mind get here.”

“He’s not bad,” Jayden murmured as Darren dragged him away to a corner table.

“He’s not bad on his own,” Darren corrected. “It’s the unholy combination that’s bad.”