Be Good Be Real Be Crazy Read Online Free

the porch just outside the open door. It took a minute for Homer’s foggy brain to process that the fire chief was dressed in the same stiff overalls and thick jacket he’d worn when he visited Homer’s middle school on career day, and that the splash of red behind him wasn’t a light or a flag on a passing boat: it was Mia’s tangled hair.
    Homer was so focused on shuffling quietly into the entryway that he only caught fragments of what D.B. was telling Chief Harvey.
    â€œA miscommunication . . . no charges against Miss Márquez . . . safety class . . . after . . . baby . . . dance lessons . . .”
    The conversation kept going, but for Homer the world went mute when Chief Harvey shifted his helmet to his left arm and gently guided Mia into the house with his right.
    Her eyes were laced with red and she had stripes of soot across her face and arms. The black garbage bag she nudged inside with her feet didn’t look like it contained very much at all.
    Christian put an arm around Mia’s shoulders and drew her farther inside, while D.B. nodded and smiled and said good-bye for a painfully long time before finally shutting the door.
    â€œI’m so sorry. That was so, so, so, so stupid.” Mia wiped her eyes against her arm, and when she raised her face she kept blinking as though she were trying to see through smoke. “I thought I was helping. I didn’t know how else to get rid of aboat. And I was going to clean up after the fire.” Mia’s breath came out in gasps, and light reflected off the tears gathered in a pool above her lower lashes. She closed her eyes, bowed her head, and clenched her fists so tightly her knuckles turned white. “I’m sorry. Instead of making less trouble, I made more.”
    â€œOh, you poor kid.” Christian wrapped both arms around Mia, drawing her face as close to his chest as her stomach would allow. “Shhhh. It doesn’t matter. It will be all right. It will be better than okay. It will be amazing.”
    Mia kept her palms pressed to her face and Christian started swaying side to side. Just like he used to do when I had nightmares . The thought made Homer wistful. It’d be nice to be a kid again . Everything was simpler.
    Homer’s eyes met D.B.’s. And even though he wasn’t, when D.B. silently asked, “Are you okay?” Homer nodded yes. Then they both waited until Mia’s sobs turned into hiccups and then stilled completely.
    â€œOkay?” Christian asked, holding her at arm’s length and studying her face.
    Mia sniffled. “Uh-huh.” She sniffled again and wiped her nose across her bare arm.
    â€œYou must be exhausted,” D.B. said, grabbing Mia’s garbage bag and moving down the hallway. “We’ll set you up in the office. The pullout is ancient, but it should do for a night.”
    â€œMia can have my room.” Homer didn’t mean to shout. The last thing he wanted was to wake up Einstein and have his littlebrother come down and ask Mia a million questions. When he spoke again, it was in a whisper. “The bathroom’s easier to get to and the bed’s bigger and stuff.”
    After a moment of silent consideration, Christian nodded, and D.B. handed Homer Mia’s bag. When Mia looked at him, tears still glistening in her eyes, Homer knew that he would have spent the night in a puddle if it meant he could fall asleep and dream about the exact smile she had just given him.
    By the time Homer found the extra toothbrushes in the bathroom that connected his room with Einstein’s, Mia was already curled up in the center of his bed. Her eyes were shut and her bright hair fanned across her face and the navy sheets. He could see her breath rise and fall in her shoulder blades and make out the fragile curve of her spine through the T-shirt he’d given her to sleep in. Even with her baby bump, the shirt still came to Mia’s knees.
    Homer set the