And then he spied Natalie, standing at the other end of the street, holding on to the handles of one of the show bicycles out front of Bikes on Wheels. She was watching her brother closely, with narrowed eyes.
It was her fault, in some way. Or at least she thought it was. She’d caught him looking at Internet porn and laughed at him, humiliating him, telling him he should get out and find a girl whose last name wasn’t “Jpeg.”
He saw that her hands were clenched into fists and realized that his were, too.
It was her fault in some way, because she’d seen the kind of person he was hanging out with and she hadn’t done a thing about it.
He moved into the crowd and waded through it, up the street on the opposite side from his neighbors. He closed in on Natalie and ended up right in front of her before she noticed he was there.
“Oh!” she said, and blushed hard. She’d been growing out her hair for a couple months and it was long enough to clip a couple of barrettes to. With the hair, she looked less skinny, a little older, a little less vulnerable. She tugged at a hank of it absently. “Hi.”
“We going to do anything about that?” he said, jerking his head toward the steps. Krishna had his hand down the little girl’s top now, cupping her breast, then laughing when she slapped it away.
She shrugged, bit her lip. She shook her head angrily. “None of my business. None of your business.”
She looked at her feet. “Look, there’s a thing I’ve been meaning to tell you. I don’t think I can keep on volunteering at the shop, okay? I’ve got stuff to do, assignments, and I’m taking some extra shifts at the store—”
He held up a hand. “I’m grateful for all the work you’ve done, Natalie. You don’t need to apologize.”