“You on the street?” Vance asked Roam and my eyes swung to Vance. He was not blank anymore, he was watching Roam closely.

“Sometimes,” Roam said. “At King’s,” he went on.

“Stay at King’s,” Crowe returned and that was all he intended to say. I could tell because his eyes cut to me.

I could feel Roam’s disappointment, it filled the air.

“We need to talk,” Vance said to me.

“I’ll do what you say!” Roam continued and everyone looked at him because his voice had gotten louder, higher, more desperate. His body was tense, solid, and I felt my throat close. “Anything you say. I won’t mouth off. I’ll just do it. I won’t be a problem, I swear.”

“Roam?” Crowe asked and Roam nodded, confirming that was his name. “Get your diploma, get smart, once you do that, I’ll think about it.”

Roam shook his head, not letting it go. “Has to be now.”

“Roam, we’ll talk about this in the car,” I said to him.

Roam’s body swung to me. “It has to be now!” he shouted and my body jerked.

I’d never heard him shout.

His face was distorted with something, an internal battle the physical manifestation of which could be seen in his expression.

“Be dead in three years,” Roam continued and my heart stopped.

“Roam, don’t say that,” Sniff put in quietly.

“I’m gonna get ‘em. All of ‘em and I gotta know how to do it. If I don’t, they’ll kill me.”

I started to walk along the front row of the crowd to get to Roam and was just passing Vance when Roam started to back up. Vance stopped me with an arm around my waist and he pulled my back to his front. I didn’t fight Vance and didn’t try to get to the retreating Roam.

Roam backed up until he was against the wall.

“Roam, we’ll get back to King’s. We’ll talk,” I said softly.

“No. You’re after them. You’re doin’ it. I’m gonna do it too. They killed Park. They

didn’t shoot ‘im but they might as well have. Park was…” he stopped, his voice went hoarse. “Park wanted…” he tried to go on but stopped again.

I leaned away from Vance to detach his arm from me so I could get to Roam but Vance’s arm tightened and he pulled me deeper into his body.

“Best way to get them, Roam, is not to become one of them,” Nightingale cut in, his eyes sharp on Roam and I could tell he’d taken in everything.

“You don’t know,” Roam spat at Lee, taking (I thought) his life in his hands. I didn’t expect many people talked to Lee Nightingale like that, certainly not fifteen year old boys. “You have no f**kin’ clue.”

“My best friend is Darius Tucker,” Lee told him.

Roam’s body went still and his eyes grew wide. Mine did too.

“I do know,” Lee said with finality.

This hit Roam, I could tell, but he didn’t give up. His eyes went to me and Vance.

“I wanna be you,” he said to Vance quietly.

“You can’t be me. You gotta be you. And right now, you’re a kid. Be a kid,” Vance advised from behind me.

“I’m not a kid,” Roam protested.

“That ain’t a bad thing, Sugar,” Daisy put in.

“I’m not a kid!” Roam yelled at her.

All right. Enough was enough.

“Roam, don’t speak that way to people. It’s rude,” I put in and shoved forward, detaching from Vance and going to Roam. “We’ll get some hamburgers and we’ll go somewhere and talk. The three of us.”

“Done talkin’,” Roam said.

“Roam, let’s talk with Law. Come on,” Sniff approached him too.

Roam looked down on me. “You saw him lyin’ there, in a f**kin’ alley, f**kin’ shit and trash all around him. Trash, Law. Trash. You and me and Sniff, we all saw Park lyin’ in the f**kin’ trash,” he said to me and I knew the vision of Park’s dead body was burned on his brain too.

I swallowed then said, “Yeah, Roam, I saw him.”

“We was gonna go to California, learn how to surf. We was gonna go to Alaska and wrestle polar bears,” Roam told me, for the first time confiding the teenage boy dreams he shared with Park.

“Polar bears are mean motherfuckers. I saw that on some nature channel,” Sniff informed Roam, trying to be helpful.

“Stop saying motherfuckers,” I said to Sniff then turned again to Roam. “Let’s get a burger. Come on.”

“Park’d do it for me,” Roam said, still not letting it go.

I wanted to touch him, hold him, put my arms around him but I knew he wouldn’t want it. He was a teenage boy and he was a street tough standing in front of a posse of the biggest badasses in Denver. He’d freak if I tried to mother him. Not to mention, he’d never had a mother who’d touched him, held him and put her arms around him in a loving way. He wouldn’t know what to do.

So instead I smiled at him. “Yeah, Park would do it for you and I’d be just as pissed at him, nagging him and getting in his face because it just isn’t smart.” Roam took a deep breath, maybe to say something, but I didn’t let him. “And then he’d listen to me and let me help him get his life sorted out.”

Roam stared at me.

“You know he would, Roam. Think about it. You know it,” I told him.

“He would. He thought Law was the shit, even before she actually was The Law,” Sniff added.

Roam kept staring at me.

“For God’s sakes, are you boys hungry or what?” I asked, throwing my arms out and pretending to sound exasperated.

“I’m hungry,” Sniff said.

“You’re always hungry,” I told him.

Sniff grinned. “I’m a growin’ boy.”

“I hope so. You need to fill out. The inspectors come to the Shelter and look at you, they’ll think we’re starving you all to death,” I said.

“’Specially if they look at May. I swear, she eats most of the pudding cups,” Sniff returned.

“That’s not nice,” I admonished.

“It’s true,” Sniff retorted, his grin growing into a smile.

“Okay, maybe it’s true,” I relented, giving him a subtle wink.

“Would you two shut up? I want a double beef burger with cheese, giganto-sized,” Roam cut in.