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“She says she needs her space.” Heath rolled his eyes. “Usually that means she met some guy, and he doesn’t want to hang around kids. So they take off for a while.”
“I’m sorry.”
“Don’t be,” he said. “I don’t need your pity.”
Damn, this kid had a lot of emotional baggage for his age. “Does your sister always come when your mom leaves?”
Heath shook his head. “We don’t usually call her, because if we do, she shows up. But we had no money for food. We don’t want to be a pain in her ass.”
I didn’t know what to say, so I just nodded, and we both finished our pizza in silence. Heath wiped his mouth. “Can we go now?”
“Sure.”
We hopped on the subway, and fifteen minutes later we were outside of our apartment building. I thought I’d probably regret it, but this kid really needed someone. So when we got into the elevator, I didn’t immediately press the button for the fourth floor.
“Listen, if you ever want to go for pizza, come down to my apartment. We can talk, or we can just eat in silence. I don’t care.”
Heath shrugged yet again. “Thanks.”
I figured I should have a conversation about everything that had transpired with his sister, so I went up to the apartment with him. He didn’t have his key, so he knocked.
Devyn opened the door, and her brows drew together. “Owen? Why are you with Heath?”
“Didn’t Hannah tell you?”
“Tell me what?”
Crap. Now I got to be the bearer of bad news. Meanwhile, Heath tried to walk into the apartment and escape the conversation. I grabbed him by the back of the shirt as he crossed the threshold.
“Not so fast, kiddo.”
Devyn squinted. “What’s going on? Did something happen on your date, Heath?”
“Date?” I said.
Devyn thumbed over her shoulder. “Hannah said Heath went on a date.”
“Unless the date was with Officer Wells, I think she was feeding you a load of crap.”
“The police? What happened, Heath?”
“We borrowed the old lady on the third floor’s cat and made it look cooler. She got bent out of shape.”
Devyn looked to me. “Can you possibly interpret that for me?”
I nodded. “They took Mrs. Unger’s Persian cat and dyed its fur black and orange. Then Heath snuck into her apartment so he could video her reaction when they brought the cat back. She called the police, and they found Heath up on the roof and brought him in for attempted burglary and vandalism.”
Devyn’s eyes bulged. She looked to her brother. “Are you out of your mind?”
“It was just a joke.”
“So you were, what, arrested this whole time and not really on a date?”
“They let me go after Mrs. Unger said she didn’t want to press charges.”
Devyn shifted her glare to me. “And what do you have to do with all of this?”
“I spoke to Mrs. Unger and went down to the police station to get him.”
