'I want you to count my inheritance money for me.' He was proud of himself for using the word "inheritance". Much more subtle.
'Money?' she asked, her eyes widening in surprise.
He nodded.
'Howard left you money?' Her eyes continued to widen in bafflement.
'Yes,' he answered plainly.
'It must be a fortune if you can't count it yourself, right?'
'That's why I'm asking you to do it…If you are willing to do it.'
'Wow! I cannot believe you trust me this much but yes…yes, of course I will,' she nodded her head quickly as if this was a once in a lifetime opportunity.
'I never said I trust you,' Brendan said coolly, but inwardly he was relieved that she had said yes. 'I have my own reasons. So, I'll drop it by your house tomorrow?'
'Yes, yes, tomorrow's perfect.' She stood up and left wearing a smile that stretched from ear to ear as if she had won the lottery.
'I can't believe you're engaging in conversations with her,' Simon commented when they both left the cafeteria for class. Owen had vanished without a trace.
Brendan said, 'I thought we discussed this before. You may not be ready to forgive her but I might.'
'Well, then I guess that's the difference between you and me; you offer forgiveness to someone who doesn't deserve it.'
'What exactly are you trying to say, Simon?' Brendan asked him eyeing him suspiciously.
'What I'm trying to say, Brendan, is; this witch has been on our backs and necks since forever, she comes back one day to say sorry just because you brought up her brother and all of a sudden you decide to bury the hatchet?'
'Because there's no reason to harbor all that hatred. Simon, if we don't learn to move on from this one day then we'll just stay bitter for the rest of our lives.'
'And I'm willing to be,' Simon persisted, his fists clenched and throwing a few jabs at the air in front of him, 'life and feelings aren't mechanical where one can just change either with just a flick of the switch. The punishment should fit the crime which is why she's going to go through years of suffering the way we did.'
'But her brother's back, so what hold do you have on her now?'
'We…' Simon immediately stopped, his eyes searching the floor. He growled furiously before muttering, 'I'll think of something.'
Brendan laughed disbelievingly at Simon. He knew that in a way, Simon's anger was justified. Samantha had called him the worst things anyone could call a lowest stratum black kid with a mother addicted to drugs. The horrible things she had deliberately blurted out in front of assembled students exposing the closets in their home filled with the dirtiest skeletons. He had every right to be angry, that Brendan was sure of. But he had seen what the seeds of anger and bitterness were sure to grow. Ironically, Samantha was the perfect example. The disappearance of her brother had led her down a bottomless pit of anger, rage and resentment making her turn all that pain towards Brendan and Simon. Both boys going through a similar experience as her. But Brendan was slowly beginning to understand that all that anger she directed at him and Simon was nothing compared to how much she hated herself. And so Brendan was not going to let his friend go down the same rabbit hole.
'If you decide to focus your efforts on hating her,' Brendan said, 'you might just end up hating yourself. Hate is a cycle…'
'Enough with the proverbs, Brendan!' Simon snapped, shaking his head as well. 'Nothing you can say will convince me otherwise. You don't know what it's like to have a mother on drugs and…'
'No I don't. I only know what it's like to have your mom and dad dying on the same living room floor.' Brendan didn't say it to belittle or disqualify Simon's problem but just to stress his point. He could tell by Simon's apologetic expression that he understood.
Simon shrugged and sighed. He said, his voice now calmer and measured, 'I know you're ready to move on from all those years of insults and mockery, Brendan, but I'm not. I can't just let all of it go like she just stepped on my foot and walked off. She put a spotlight on my life and now everywhere I turn I can feel them say, "There he goes…the one with the broken home and broken mom." So…' he shook his head once more, '…no, never. I can never.'