A Good Dude by Keith Thomas Walker Read Free Book Online Page B

You would have liked them.”
    Candace was taken aback. “You saw all that?”
    “It was just a daydream.”
    “If I break up with my boyfriend, I won’t have anywhere to live,” she explained. “I don’t have a job. No money.”
    “You can get a job,” he assured her. “Everybody’s hiring in Overbrook Meadows.”
    Candace smiled. “Hey,” she said. “Regardless of what happens, I want you to know you’re the coolest guy I’ve met since I’ve been in Texas.”
    She leaned over and kissed him on the cheek. Tino’s smile came back with full flair. He picked up the Rilla Time CD from the console and studied the Puerto Rican thug on the cover.
    “You like this kind of music?”
    “It’s all right,” Candace said.
    “This guy’s an idiot,” Tino said. “He’s from here. He had it all. Videos on TV, the money, the girls. But he ended up losing it. He’s back now. On the south side, I think. A local celebrity, if you can call him that.”
    Candace couldn’t help but laugh.
    “What?”
    “ That’s my boyfriend,” she said.
    Tino’s jaw dropped. “Nuh-uhn.”
    “Seriously. That’s Rilla. His real name is Raul Canales. That’s the guy I live with.”
    Tino’s eyes bugged and he studied the CD case again. “You’re going with Rilla?”
    “Unfortunately, yeah. I am.”
    “Oh, my God,” Tino said. “You kissed me. He’s not going to shoot me, is he?”
    Candace giggled, but she saw that he was serious. “No, he’s not going to shoot you.”
    “I never would have asked you out if I knew he was your boyfriend. I’m scared of rap guys. They got guns, knives, grenades !”
    “They do not have grenades.”
    He looked around nervously and tugged at his collar. “But you’re admitting they have guns and knives . . . . It’s hot in here. It’s not hot to you?”
    “No, it’s not hot. Stop looking around like that. Are you seriously scared?”
    “No. Not really. A little.”
    “I would never put you in harm’s way,” Candace promised.
    “I’m sorry,” he said. “I just never would have thought that. You don’t seem like that type at all.”
    “I know,” Candace said. “You’re right. I’m not that type of girl. A year ago I was living in New York. I’d just graduated and I got accepted to Cornell and Columbia. I went to one of Rilla’s concerts, and, I don’t know what happened. He invited me on stage and I felt so special. He asked me if I wanted to see him later, and I couldn’t believe it. He was this rich, famous guy. I was nobody. We hooked up later and he was a real gentleman. I was only seventeen. I fell in love with him and ran away to go on tour with him.”
    Tino stared in shock.
    “Yeah. It’s crazy,” Candace said. “Now I’m pregnant, taking classes at a community college, and he’s not trying to rap anymore. Every day I want to call my parents, but I don’t know what to say to them. I’ve made so many bad decisions, I don’t think I could ever explain myself.”
    She waited for a while after she spoke, but Tino didn’t respond. He just looked at her and breathed.
    “You’re going to have to say something ,” she prompted.
    He thought about it a while longer. “Candace, all I want to say is this: I think you’re a beautiful girl. A smart girl. You ran off with a rapper—yeah, that was bad, but what seventeen-year-old wouldn’t want to tour with a rapper? Half of the girls at this school would drop everything if Eminem showed up and said he wanted to be with them.
    “I think you should call your parents. I think they’ll understand. But more than that, I still think you’re pretty awesome. You’re thousands of miles away from anyone telling you what to do, but you’re still coming to school. Most girls would have left that dude after he got fired, but you stuck with him. And even though you’re pregnant, you still didn’t run home. You’re trying to do everything on your own. I don’t know if you can do it, but you’re