“Oh, I forgot you were moving this weekend,” Emily said. “I thought you already got
the apartment.”
“I do have the apartment, but they needed to update some appliances and the carpet
before I moved in,” William informed her.
“You think my car will be fine here overnight?” Emily asked.
“It should be,” William told her. “I’m sure Jason won’t let anything happen to it.”
“Jason?” Emily laughed. “I don’t think he would notice if the whole store was on
fire. He’s pretty stoned right now.”
“Is he?” William asked. He assumed Jason was just a mellow guy.
“You couldn’t smell the weed?” Emily’s expression changed to shock.
“I thought it was his shampoo. I didn’t want to tell him it stunk.”
Emily stopped in her tracks.
“You never noticed how Mr. Stanza is kind of short with us when he first comes in,
and then after he’s out of the office, he’s happy and speaking a mile a minute?”
“Isn’t he just happy with all the money this place is bringing in?” William asked.
“Well, I suppose,” Emily said with a giggle. “But he’s a cokehead.”
“Really?” William asked. He had never, to his knowledge, been around someone who
did coke. He assumed that was a Wall Street yuppie thing, not a small city gas
station owner thing.
“I’m getting the booze,” Emily told him and dashed to her car.
The car ride back to his house was filled with Emily telling him about the things
he didn’t notice about the people around them. William, still shocked by Mr. Stanza
being a cokehead, couldn’t keep up with everything Emily mentioned.
When they arrived at his home, William wondered if they should go in through the
front or the back. He didn’t want his father to see him with Emily and alcohol.