By the time they were on their way back toward the neighborhood, most of the other students had already peeled off down side streets and porches, heading home in ones and twos until the sidewalk felt almost empty again.
The crowd always disappeared fast after the last bell. It was like the school spat everyone out and nobody wanted to risk being stuck near it a minute longer than necessary. A few voices still carried from farther up the block, but not many. Mostly there were just cars passing now and then, the scrape of somebody dragging a trash bin back in, and the sound of their own shoes against the pavement.
Lip walked with his hands shoved into his hoodie pockets. Mandy kept pace beside him, her backpack hanging off one shoulder, the strap hooked in two fingers whenever it started sliding too far down her arm.
For a while neither of them said much.
Once the day was over, there usually wasn't a reason to keep talking about school unless somebody had done something stupid enough to be worth repeating. Most days weren't that memorable.
Lip looked ahead. "Still nobody really wants to be here longer than they have to."
"That's because half of them act like they're being released from prison."
She let out a short laugh at that, then looked around at the houses they were passing. "You in a rush to get anywhere?"
He thought about it for a second. "Not really."
"Yeah," she said. "That tracks."
He looked over. "What's that supposed to mean?"
"You always look like you've got somewhere better to be, but then you end up in the same two places."
Lip smirked slightly. "That bar and my house?"
"Exactly."
"Routine's good for people."
"You don't even believe that."
"No," he admitted. "Not really."
They kept walking. A car rolled by too slowly, the driver staring harder than necessary, then turned at the next corner. Mandy adjusted her bag and kicked a little stone off the sidewalk.
"The Alibi really is your second home though," she said. "You're there all the time."
"It's close."
"That's not a reason."
"It is when Kev never stops dragging people into things."
That got a smile out of her. "So he uses you for free labor."
Lip shrugged. "Only when he catches me standing still."
"That sounds suspiciously like a job."
He glanced over at her. "You trying to insult me or help me?"
"Maybe both."
He laughed once under his breath.
The idea lingered anyway, because it wasn't a bad one. He was already there often enough. Kev trusted him enough not to make a big deal out of handing him things, asking for help, letting him stay in the back when something came in. If he asked, Kev would probably say yes without much thought.
Mandy must have noticed the shift in his expression, because she looked at him again and said, "You're thinking about it."
"Maybe."
She groaned softly. "You always say that when you mean yes."
He smirked but didn't bother arguing. She was annoying for saying it, mostly because she was right.
Their block started coming into view ahead of them.
Somebody had music playing from an upstairs window. A couple little kids were still out on the sidewalk with a ball, getting loud enough that someone would probably call them in soon. A dog barked from behind a fence and kept barking long after there was any reason for it.
At the corner, Mandy slowed a little.
"I should go home for a bit."
Lip looked at her. "You sound reluctant."
"They get weird if I don't show up."
"Your brothers?"
"Who else?"
He nodded. "Fair."
She adjusted the backpack strap and stepped backward once, already half turning down the street toward her house. "I'll come by later."
"Alright."
"You gonna be home?"
He gave her a look. "Where else am I going?"
She seemed satisfied with that and headed off toward the Milkovich house while he kept going toward the Gallaghers'.
The house was quieter than usual when he stepped inside.
Not peaceful. Just between things. Lip dropped his bag near the stairs and wandered into the kitchen, where Carl was standing on a chair digging through the cabinet above the fridge like he was searching for buried treasure. Debbie sat at the table with homework spread in front of her, chewing on the end of a pen and glaring at a page like that might fix it.
Lip opened the fridge and grabbed a drink.
Carl looked down from the chair. "Debbie said there was another cereal box up here."
"There isn't," Debbie said without lifting her head.
Carl kept reaching anyway and came down with a bag of marshmallows instead.
"Good enough."
Lip unscrewed the bottle. "That's not cereal."
Carl hopped off the chair. "It is if you believe in yourself."
Debbie finally looked up. "That doesn't even make sense."
Carl ripped the marshmallow bag open as he headed out. "Didn't ask."
Debbie rolled her eyes and went back to her homework like she regretted being in the same room as the rest of them. Lip leaned against the counter and took a sip.
A second later Ian came in and dropped his bag on the table.
"You heading out later?" he asked.
Lip lifted one shoulder. "Maybe."
Ian gave him a look. "Kev's got a delivery coming tonight."
"He came by complaining about it earlier."
Lip nodded. "That sounds like him."
Ian pulled open the fridge and stared into it for a second. "He said if you were around, you were helping."
"Good to know I'm appreciated."
"Not what he said."
Before Lip could answer, Fiona came in carrying a stack of mail and wearing the kind of expression that meant she was already irritated by at least half of it.
"You boys planning to be useful," she asked, "or just decorate the kitchen?"
Lip lifted the bottle slightly. "I can leave."
"That'd save me time," Fiona muttered, already flipping through envelopes.
Ian snorted. Lip pushed off the counter before Fiona could think of something specific for him to do and went upstairs.
His room still had that late-afternoon light in it when he walked in, pale and already fading at the edges. He sat down on the bed for a minute, then leaned back against the wall, drink resting against his knee while the house slowly built itself back up downstairs.
It always happened the same way. A little more noise every ten minutes. Somebody coming in. Somebody yelling for someone else. A cabinet door, footsteps on the stairs, Carl's voice getting too loud, Fiona telling him to cut it out. The Gallaghers never really had a clean shift from day to evening. It all just piled up.
By the time Mandy came over, it was dark outside.
He heard the front door first, then her voice downstairs, then the steps coming up. A second later she pushed his bedroom door open and came in without knocking.
"My brothers are convinced something's going on," she said.
Lip looked over at her from the wall. "With you?"
"With me being here." She shut the door behind her and dropped her bag near the chair. "Apparently I'm suspicious now."
He smiled a little. "You've always been suspicious."
"Not to them."
"That's because they're slow."
She snorted and dropped onto the bed beside him. "I was there fifteen minutes. Got asked where I was going twice."
"That's almost caring."
He laughed quietly. Mandy stretched out on the bed after a second and stared at the ceiling.
For a while they talked the same way they usually did at the end of the day. Nothing heavy. School stuff that was only funny once you were out of the building. People they knew. Mandy repeating some rumor she'd heard because the way she told it was better than the rumor itself. Lip only half cared about the actual people involved, but he liked listening to her talk when she was amused by something.
At one point she told him about some girl from school trying to lie her way out of getting caught with two different stories in the same afternoon. By the time Mandy got to the end of it, Lip was laughing.
"She really thought that was gonna work?" he asked.
"She thought she was smarter than everybody."
"That never goes well."
"No," Mandy said. "Especially when she isn't."
The room got quieter after that. Not silent. Just calmer. The house below them kept going in the background. A TV in another room. Pipes knocking once. Fiona saying something too muffled to catch. None of it felt important enough to interrupt anything.
Mandy rolled onto her side and looked at him.
"You gonna ask Kev?"
Lip knew what she meant without needing more than that. "Maybe."
She gave him a flat look. "That word again."
He smiled a little. "You're obsessed with it."
"I'm tired of it."
"It's a useful word."
He tipped the bottle once in his hand, thinking. "I might."
"There." She pointed at him once from the bed. "That's better."
"What, because it sounds less annoying?"
"Because it sounds like an actual answer."
He looked at her for a second. "You know you're bossy."
She settled back down. "You say that like it's news."
"Just making sure you know."
"I know."
The room stayed easy after that. A little talking, then none. Mandy got up once to switch on the lamp when it got too dark to keep pretending they could still see each other properly. Later she turned it off again without asking. Lip didn't care either way.
The next morning came too fast, the way school mornings always did.
Mandy woke him before he could settle back into sleep properly.
"Lip."
He made a low sound and kept one arm over his face.
She shoved his shoulder. "Get up."
He squinted at her. "You're enjoying this."
"A little."
"That's evil."
She was already sitting up, hair a mess, more awake than she had any right to be. "You're late if you keep lying there."
"I'm not even dressed."
"Then that seems like your first problem."
He groaned and sat up slowly, reaching for the hoodie hanging over the chair. Mandy watched him with the kind of smug satisfaction he would have found more annoying if he weren't still half asleep.
Downstairs the Gallagher house was awake again.
Debbie and Carl were at the table arguing over something stupid. Ian was standing in front of the fridge, staring into it like he expected the contents to improve out of guilt. Fiona was already moving between the stove and the sink with coffee somewhere within reach.
Lip grabbed a piece of toast on the way through.
Mandy was waiting by the door by the time he swallowed the first bite.
A few minutes later they were outside and walking toward school again.
The morning had a bite to it, enough that both of them kept their hands tucked away as they moved. A few other kids were already on the sidewalks ahead, heading the same direction. Cars rolled past with headlights still on. Somebody shouted from a porch for a kid to come back and take their lunch.
Lip took another bite of toast as they walked.
Mandy glanced over. "That all you're eating?"
"For now."
"That's terrible."
He swallowed. "You came to my house for toast."
She looked straight ahead. "That was different."
He laughed once. "How?"
"I was hungry."
"That makes no sense."
He shook his head, still smiling a little, and they kept walking.
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