FOURTEEN | LUCAN

IVY SET THE DOG food cans down on the kitchen counter next to an empty water bowl with the price tag still on it. She skirted past me and filled the bowl with tap water. “She’s really thirsty,” Ivy explained, placing the bowl in front of the dishwasher. “I don’t know how long she was out there.”

The dog scooted towards the water and plunged her tongue in. “What kind of dog is she?” I asked. Like it mattered. I was an accessory to kidnapping. Maybe Ivy’s ex deserved it for bumping uglies with her best friend, but what about the rest of his family?

“She’s a bichon frise,” Ivy told me. “Her name is Nanook. I can come by in the morning and at night to walk her. I promise you won’t have to do much.”

“I can walk her,” I said. “Don’t worry about it.” I didn’t mind about the walking, feeding, or picking up crap with a plastic bag. She seemed like an okay dog, but mostly I just wanted to see her back with her owners.

“You must think I’m unbalanced,” Ivy said. She had on those sunglasses from the other day, and she looked gorgeous in this long brown skirt and sleeveless top, but, yeah, obviously the experience with her ex had unhinged her a little. “It’s not just the breakup and the cheating, there’s more to it than that, but anyway, I know this is crazy.”

And me along with it. I could’ve told her I’d changed my mind and that she should take the dog back, but with everything that had happened lately I wasn’t anti enough to oppose Ivy’s plan. It seemed important to her. What could her ex have done that was worse than cheating? I wasn’t going to touch that with a ten-foot pole, but I was curious as hell.

“Where’s Sheri?” Ivy asked. “What are we going to tell her?”

“I’ll just say I’m watching her for a friend. I don’t think it will be a big deal.” We stood around in the kitchen, with the dog slurping, and made conversation. It seemed harder than the last time she was over. Neither of us had much to say. “You, um, want some food or something?” I added after our third long pause.

“No, thanks. Are you sure you’re okay with this?” The dog plodded towards her and sat down at her feet. “It’s okay, Nanook,” she said, kneeling down to scratch its ears. “You’ll be fine here with Lucan for a bit. You’ll be fine.” The bottom of Ivy’s skirt crumpled under her knees. She looked sad. “I wonder if they know she’s missing yet.”

She stood up and slid her hand against mine, almost like she was shaking it, only it felt more personal than that. “Thanks. I’ll call you later to check on her.”

After she left it was just me and this tiny stolen dog roaming around the apartment and slurping more water. Despite what I’d told Ivy, I didn’t actually know how Mom would feel about the dog. That was probably part of the plan’s appeal. Why shouldn’t I give her a headache or two after what she and the goon had been putting me through?

They strolled in together holding hands around midnight, and the first thing the dog did was skid to the door and bark at them. Especially Julian. Obviously Nanook had some taste.

“Lucan, what’s going on?” Mom demanded. “Who does this dog belong to?”

“It’s a friend’s,” I said vaguely. I admit it; I was trying to get her riled by holding out on her.

“Well, what’s it doing here?” Mom stepped past Nanook, who by then was fully focused on yapping at Julian. I was really starting to like that dog. “Can you make it stop barking?”

“She’s not going to bite him.” I laughed as I shot a look at Julian. I was lying down on the couch, and I snapped my fingers and said her name: “Nanook, come here, girl.” It took a couple more tries to get her to listen, but I couldn’t blame her. She’d only known me for six hours.

Nanook plopped down beside the couch and let me pet her as Mom said, “Who does she belong to? You should’ve asked me first, Lucan. What makes you just assume you can bring an animal home?”

Wasn’t that house rules? I thought we were both allowed to bring home animals.

Julian’s eyes bulged like he could read my mind, but he said nothing.

“Annalea’s family had to leave town at the last minute,” I lied. “One of her grandparents got sick. They had no one to take care of the dog.” I trusted that Mom remembered Annalea. She seemed to have made an impression. “What was I supposed to do?”

Julian stepped up to Mom and laid his hand on her back. She made a clucking noise before grumbling, “I suppose it can stay for the moment, but I’m not cleaning up after it.” She pointed with two of her fingers, as though that would somehow strengthen her message. “This is entirely your responsibility.”

“I know, Mom, okay? I’m just about to take her for a walk.”

Julian strutted around the couch, crouched down, and whistled to Nanook, but the joke was on him because she didn’t leave my side. “That’s weird,” I commented. “Annalea said she usually likes everybody.”

Julian smiled snidely as he stood up. I snapped the leash Ivy had brought over onto Nanook’s collar. If I had a dog it would probably be a bigger breed, like an Irish setter or a border collie, something that wouldn’t look too cute in a bandana, but Nanook really was okay. She went outside with me and crapped on a patch of weeds just beyond the condo complex. I’d forgotten to bring a plastic bag with me, so I pretended not to notice. While we were out wandering around Ivy called, and I told her everything was cool. She thanked me again and said that it was probably good that she was going to Ottawa soon because the Nanook episode showed that she really needed to start over. I told her that she was lucky because while my brother, Michael, was touring around Europe in love with some Scarlett Johansson type, I wasn’t going anyplace anytime soon.

We both piled on the complaints so high that after a while we began to see the humor in it and starting kidding around. Then I realized Nanook and I’d been walking for, like, thirty minutes so I told Ivy I should go. I kept Nanook in my room when I went to bed, so Mom wouldn’t complain too much, but the way she kept getting up to roam around made it tough to sleep. I guess it was separation anxiety.

I wondered where Nanook slept when she was at home and what that Jeremy guy Ivy was always talking about was really like. I know she said she hated him, but sometimes it sounded like she still thought he could walk on water.

Mom and Julian didn’t wake me up that night, and I didn’t see him the next morning, either. In the afternoon I shot hoops with Des and a couple other guys, but I felt crappy about leaving Nanook at my unfamiliar apartment. Des drove me back in the evening so I could feed her and bring her back to his place. I’d told him the dog was Ivy’s and that her folks wanted it out of the way while they were getting the house renovated. The fake explanation made more sense than the truth.

“How come I never heard anything about your second cousin before this summer and now you’re talking about her all the time?” he asked, eyeing Nanook in the backseat. “He won’t get carsick, will he? My dad would freak if I gave him the car back smelling like puke.”

“It’s a she,” I told him, “and she’s not going to puke.”

Nanook didn’t bark at Des, and I wondered if it was a sign. Maybe Des wasn’t a danger to anyone. Maybe somehow things had just gotten out of hand with McKenna. If I hadn’t heard that slap for myself I might have been tempted to leave things alone, but whenever I was in contact with Des I couldn’t keep it out my head. I thought about saying something right then, to finally get it over with, but Jack was going to meet us at Des’s place later and I didn’t want to turn the atmosphere dicey.

Des’s parents were having dinner with friends, leaving the three of us the house to ourselves. We played video games and tried to watch a serial killer movie, but the harrowing screams made Nanook bark until we finally gave up and tuned in to a Robot Chicken marathon.

Jack fell asleep on the floor and snored like a three-hundred-pound man. We couldn’t hear the TV, but at least Nanook was calm. I went into the kitchen to rummage around in Des’s cupboards for something safe to snack on and took a fruit cup.

“We have some of those cheese and crackers things you can eat too,” Des said, following me in and reopening the cupboard to hand me a pack. He knew what I could eat almost as well as I did. It made me feel worse about what I had to say.

“Thanks.” I ripped open the package and smoothed some cheese on one of the crackers while Des went to work on a bag of potato chips. Nanook heard the sound of food being consumed and rushed in after us. She stared at Des’s potato chips, licked her lips, and sat obediently in front of him, making him chuckle.

“If only all girls were so easy to please,” he said, tossing her a potato chip. “You know, I should’ve just tried harder with her.” He obviously wasn’t talking about Nanook anymore. “She was really a bitch sometimes, but I was an even bigger asshole. Fuck, it’s like” — he crouched down and let Nanook eat a pile of potato chips off his outstretched hand — “I couldn’t be happy with her and I can’t be happy without her.”

Pressure beat at the inside of my ribs, caveman style. He’d just offered me an opening; I couldn’t back down now. I chomped on a cracker and said, “Des, I need to know if …”

The sentence hung there like an accusation. Or maybe that’s just the way it sounded to me. He couldn’t have known I was about to blame him for something.

“What?” His eyes flashed up at mine as Nanook licked the salt from his fingers.

“Okay, I really just need you to tell me the truth.” Now I sounded like a cop. I might even have squared my shoulders as I said it. “Were you … hitting McKenna?”

You wouldn’t believe how hard that was to say. My skin burned as I looked at him.

“Did she tell you that?” Des sprang to his full height. His face turned gray, and his skin looked like it had been stretched tight over a chicken wire skull. “She’s lying. I can’t believe she’d fucking say that.”

“It wasn’t her,” I lied. “I can’t tell you who it was, but I haven’t spoken to McKenna since you two broke up.” She didn’t want him to know that she’d told me, but she must’ve wanted me to say something, otherwise she would’ve kept quiet.

“You’re accusing me of beating her up, but you won’t tell me where the information’s coming from. Do you know how that sounds?” His anger made Nanook hop back and bark at him. “I can’t believe I’m hearing this shit from someone who calls himself my friend.”

“Are you saying it never happened?” I tried to keep my voice level so I wouldn’t freak Nanook out more. “Because it’s not an accusation, man. I just want to know because if it’s true there are people who can help you. Talk about it with you. Work it out. I have phone numbers at h—”

“You did research! I can’t believe this.”

“So you’re saying it’s not true.”

“Of course it’s not true,” he snapped. “Whoever told you that is a lying bitch.”

“How do you know it was a girl?” I shifted my weight between my feet and sloped my head down. I didn’t believe him, not so much because of the way he was acting but because deep down I’d known it was true since the day McKenna told me. I’d been in semi-denial, but not anymore. He was the one who was lying, and I didn’t know what I was supposed to do about it. I couldn’t prove a thing. In some ways bringing it up seemed useless, but a small part of me felt better anyway. The rest of me felt like I’d been buried in shit up to my neck.

“Is this what everyone is saying about me now?” Des asked. “Everyone thinks I’m some asshole who beats up his girlfriend?”

“I don’t know.” Nanook was silently watching the two of us, like she was on high alert.

“You’re not giving me much to go on here, Lucan.” He shook his head bitterly. “How am I supposed to defend myself when you won’t even tell me where you heard this shit?”

“I can’t tell you that, man. I’m sorry.”

“It has to go back to McKenna,” he deduced. “Whoever told you that — it must’ve started with her. Who else would want to fuck me over like this?”

I didn’t answer. There was no point.

“Is that what Jack and Paolo think too? Everyone?”

“I haven’t talked to anyone about it,” I said. “I don’t know what they think.”

“Right, except this mysterious source person who isn’t necessarily a girl.” He threw the open bag of potato chips onto the floor. Nanook went straight for it, burying her head in the bag and crunching wildly.

“Sorry if I make your cousin’s dog sick but, you know, that’s what I do to females,” Des said, his face blank. “Maybe you should get out of here before I pull my machete out of the closet and start hacking on you too.”

“We’re going.” I wrestled the bag away from Nanook. Then I picked her up and left. I hadn’t thought to bring her leash, so I had to carry her. With my luck lately that Jeremy guy would drive by, recognize his dog, and have me arrested.

Nanook took it easy on me and didn’t squirm much. It was late, but it was Saturday night, which meant every so often a car with thumping music would cruise by. At one point a sports car full of women in heavy makeup and club clothes pulled up next to me, and two of them mooned me. Some other time it might have been funny, but right then the wiggling, tanned asses only pissed me off. I was still hungry, I was transporting stolen property, and my best friend had bigger problems than I knew what to do with. I flipped the women the bird and told them to get their asses out of my face.

“Asshole!” they shouted vehemently before burning rubber.

Look who’s talking.

“Fuck this,” I muttered to myself. “Fuck this whole fucked-up situation.” I held the dog in one arm, dug my cell out of my pocket, and called the one person this would all make sense to. I called Ivy.