Jack shook his head, relieved, and announced, “Now it’s time for the big test: You want to drive us home?”
I was nervous, but I nodded. We weren’t far away. I wouldn’t have to take any busy roads. I proceeded slowly, nearly stopping at the speed bumps, and when everyone joked that I was being too cautious, I cut loose and sped up to twenty-five miles an hour. I finally felt relaxed. But then I heard a scream:
“JENNA, WATCH OUT! CAT!”
I stomped on the brakes so hard the car shook and everybody lurched forward. Jack’s arm shot across my chest, and I felt the seatbelt knock the wind out of me. I was gripping the steering wheel sotight, there was no blood left in my knuckles. Of course, there wasn’t a damn cat in sight.
I heard cackling from the back seat. Mike. Jack turned and screamed, “What in the hell is wrong with you?!”
“I thought it would be funny,” he replied. “Anyway, drivers need to be ready for stuff like that. Alertness, that’s the most important thing when you’re behind the wheel.”
“You’re literally the stupidest person I’ve ever met,” Jack reproached him.
“Shut up, man,” Mike said. “I think I broke my nose.” Apparently, he had struck it against my headrest. It served him right.
“I don’t really want to do this anymore,” I told Jack, and he responded, “That’s probably for the best,” switching places with me and speeding off as Mike complained that he was bleeding on his T-shirt.
Jack added: “One more thing, Jen: don’t even think of apologizing to my brother. He deserves it. I hope it’s a permanent injury.”
This wasn’t the first episode of that kind. Mike had been acting weird ever since we’d been back. His arguments with Jack were getting more personal, and his jokes and pranks were more annoying than ever. And every time someone pointed out the obvious, that he was acting like a child, he’d pout and stew for hours.
He wasn’t the only one who had changed, though. Naya’s pregnancy was making her crazy. And that, in turn, was making Will crazy, because he had to spend all his time with her. Lana had fallen head-over-heels for some guy. Curtis had dropped out and gone home, where he was supposedly working in a coffee shop. And Sue…well, Sue was like a mushroom, you couldn’t expect her to change very much.
Mike stumbled into the apartment holding his nose, and Sue looked up gleefully, saying, “Please tell me someone finally punched you out.”
“It was an accident!” I clarified.
She sighed and looked back down into her book, unimpressed.
As Will joined Naya in the kitchen, where she was cooking up some monstrosity, Jack announced, “I’m proud to say that Jen was driving like a dream until my moron brother scared her.”
“Yeah, he’s actually letting me take the car out tonight on my own,” I told Sue, waiting to see how Jack would respond to the provocation.
Sue and Mike chuckled as he said reluctantly, “Yeah, sure, if that’s what you want.”
I smiled and threw my hands around his neck, kissing him on the cheek. But he turned so that our lips met, and what was meant to be an innocent peck turned into something a little racier.
“Good lord,” Sue groaned. “Like we didn’t have enough cheesiness around here with Will and Naya. Now we’ve got to put up with the two of you.”
“Seriously, guys,” Mike said.
Jack let me go a moment, grabbed a pillow, and tossed it at his brother. “Don’t be jealous, buddy. I’m sure you’ll meet a lovely girl someday. Not.”
Mike went to throw it back, but Sue caught it, smoothed it out, and set it down on her lap. On his way to join Will for a smoke, Jack caressed my face gently. I wasn’t sure where all this was coming from, but I wasn’t going to complain.
Naya emerged from the kitchen a few minutes later with a tray of what she called chocolate cookies. They were charcoal-black and shriveled, and the dough must have been too liquidy, because they’d run together into two giant perforated blobs. They barely looked edible, but with Naya acting like a madwoman lately, we knew it was better to feign enthusiasm.
“It’s my first try,” Naya said. “I’m working on some recipes for when the baby’s born. I want it to really love me.”
“Sugaristhe way to a kid’s heart,” Sue said. In the meantime, Mike had managed to peel away one of the cookies and was eyeing it up cautiously, trying and failing to find a spot that wasn’t burned to a crisp.
“Mike, just eat it!” Naya said.
“I’d better not,” he responded, setting it carefully back on the tray. Right away, he knew he’d made a mistake.
Tears instantly formed in Naya’s eyes. “I know! They’re horrible!”
“No!” Mike corrected himself, biting off a teeny corner, which he chewed up and swallowed reluctantly. “They’re not that bad.” He ran to the kitchen for a butter knife and started scraping off the charred part. “See? They’re still OK inside.”
