Tight

On Tuesday, the two boys meet up with Little Kevin after school, and Mike easily impresses the smaller boy with boasts about knowing some “swagged-out” high school kids who live nearby. They go to the pier, and Mike uses taunts and insults to bully Little Kevin into wading into the river. Kevin, scared almost to the point of crying, follows Mike into the dangerous water, but Bryan refuses to go, not wanting to seem obsequious like Kevin. For the next few days, Mike continues to boss Little Kevin around, and Bryan does not interfere because Mike does not mention train-surfing again: an activity that Bryan thinks would be very dangerous for the “weak,” nervous, and uncoordinated Kevin. Then, on Thursday, Mike whispers to them that he has planned the train-surfing for Saturday. Kevin is excited, but Bryan, feeling “torn,” falls silent. Under pressure from Mike, however, Bryan finds himself “hyping” the deadly sport to Little Kevin, even though he knows that this is the “opposite” of what he should be doing. Feeling as though he is “two people,” just like Mike, Bryan wants to “smack” himself.

Bryan returns home to find that his father has been released from jail. Pa surprises him with a hug, and Bryan has to hold back his tears. He asks his father what jail is like, and his father says that it is like school, but with even more arbitrary rules that you must follow night and day. He smiles when Bryan tells him that he hangs out with Mike every day, and so Bryan hesitates to tell him about his concerns. Pa says that Bryan needs good friends, not “backstabbers,” and Bryan wants to ask if this is a reference to Alex, who testified against him in court, but Pa indicates that he wants to be alone for now. Bryan wishes that his father felt comfortable just “chilling” with him, even without talking, as Bryan does with his mother.

On Saturday, as the three boys walk to the subway station, Bryan tries to change Little Kevin’s mind about train-surfing, since he fears for the smaller boy’s life. Mike dismisses Bryan’s arguments and mocks him for being “scared” and changing his opinion after hyping train-surfing just two days earlier. Feeling guilty and distraught, Bryan follows them to the station, mostly so that he can try to keep Little Kevin safe. Although Bryan told Mike earlier that he doesn’t want to hop the turnstile again, the latter insists on it. However, this time, when the three boys duck under the turnstile, the teller shouts an alert to the police, who are standing by. As Mike and Bryan jump onto the back of the train, they see Little Kevin apprehended by the police. Bryan is deeply shaken, but Mike looks “happy.” When the two boys get off the train in Manhattan, Mike shrugs off Bryan’s concerns, saying that if Kevin “snitches,” he will catch a “beatdown.” Bryan wants to go home right away, but Mike says they must hide until the afternoon, so if Kevin snitches, their parents will have time to “chill.” He laughs at Bryan’s feelings of guilt over Kevin, saying that he doesn’t care what happens to the smaller boy, because they never “told” him to follow them. Bryan can’t help wondering if Mike would react the same way if he were arrested. Feeling isolated and desperate, he hates the fact that he has no choice but to trust and follow Mike, who “knows everything.”

Returning home hours later, Bryan is confronted outside his apartment by Ava, who tells him that he is in big trouble. Going inside, Bryan learns that his parents have not learned about the train-surfing, but they do know about his absences from school. His parents have received a letter about them, and his father demands answers, threatening to “smack” him. His mother tries to hush Pa, who angrily accuses her of “babying” Bryan and leaves the room. Before he can stop himself, Bryan tells his crying mother that Mike put him up to it so that the two of them could cut class and “chill” up on the roof, reading comics. He lies and claims that they were up on their own roof, so as to avoid any blame for throwing stones, and he does not tell her about the turnstile-hopping or the train-surfing. His mother believes him and her only punishment is to ground him for a couple of days and tell him not to see Mike for a while. Bryan goes to bed relieved but still worried about Little Kevin, whose fate he still doesn’t know.

Next Monday, Bryan’s mother, who wants to talk to his teachers, walks him to school. This embarrasses him, but he manages to slip away and find Mike, who tells him that he “forgot” to warn him about letters from school. He says that he always intercepts such letters and tears them up before anyone else can see them. Bryan tells Mike everything that he told his mother, so they can get their story straight. Meanwhile, from Bryan’s homeroom teacher, Ma finds out about the forged notes. Grimly, she asks him how he learned to forge so well, and he takes all the blame, covering up Mike’s culpability. He feels terrible for hurting his mother, who is his best friend in the world, in order to protect someone like Mike, who does not care about him at all. At a loss, his mother threatens to let his father punish him, which frightens Bryan. After school, Bryan avoids Mike and looks around for Little Kevin, but there is still no sign of him. At her office, Ma sets him to work on his missed assignments and tells him that he cannot see Mike again until she says so.

In the hall at school, Mike accuses Bryan of avoiding him. Hearing his voice, Bryan wishes that he could “teleport” away, like the superhero Nightcrawler. He tells Mike that his mother makes him use all his free time to catch up on schoolwork. Urging Bryan to meet up with him after school, Mike says that Bryan’s mother is “corny,” which angers Bryan. He asks Mike about Little Kevin, and Mike says that Kevin did not tell on them and won’t be in serious legal trouble due to his age. Bryan is glad to hear this but refuses to meet Mike after school, saying, “I guess I’ll be a nerd” (140). All that week, Mike gives him threatening looks in the halls. Bryan’s father tells him that he has confronted Mike and told him how “disappointed” he is in him, which gratifies Bryan, who has always longed for his father’s support. In the afternoons, he happily “chills” with his mother in her office, reading the new comic books that she bought him when he finishes with his school assignments. Though he slightly misses the excitement of hanging with Mike, he feels much more like himself when he is with his mother.