Chapter 16

“Stay away from that one, Animal,” Roy warned, as Tucker and Chad exited the chorus room one day. “Don’t want the queer to catch.”

Tucker didn’t say anything as Chad walked away.

“Hitch a ride, Clyde. Come home with Savvy and me. You’re always out to the bus so quick.” He put him in a head lock. “You avoiding me?”

They ended up in Savannah’s room again. Tucker wondered where she kept the naked picture of him she had drawn.

They talked about Tucker’s mom that day.

“I still, like, miss her so much every day, man,” Tucker admitted.

“Dig it. I miss our mom, too,” Roy said.

Tucker had been to the McKenna’s five or six times by then, and had never met Mrs. McKenna. “Where’d she go?” he asked.

“Roy…” Savannah’s tone was somewhere between a warning and sympathetic.

“Nowhere,” Roy answered. “Except into the bottle, dig.”

“Roy.” The sympathy was gone. Savannah was angry.

“Why can’t he know, man?”

“Because. It’s none of his business.”