Raegan rolls her eyes. “Not you.”
He shrugs like he gave it his best shot.
It’s been so long since we’ve all had a sleepover. We would spend most of the time scrolling through Netflix looking for a show to binge on but we’d end up not watching anything, choosing to gossip and lurk on classmates’ Twitter accounts instead. That sounds like exactly what I need right now.
“I’m in,” I say.
“Ugh, I have pre-calc next,” Whitney moans, staring at her schedule. “Do you think it’s too late to switch into Algebra II?”
“The office is a nightmare,” Jay says with a mouthful of baked potato. “Kira and I were stuck there for thirty minutes this morning.”
Whitney’s eyes slowly travel to mine, then back to Jay. This is the first time he’s acknowledged me. Well, indirectly acknowledged me. I wonder if lunch is as weird for him as it is for me. Not too long ago, it was me sitting in Whitney’s seat. I try and suppress those thoughts, but I can’t help feeling a sting of jealousy underneath the surface.
“You guys were in the office together?” Whitney says, her words careful. I can tell Jay didn’t share this information with her before lunch.
Jay doesn’t seem to notice her tone. He shovels another forkful of baked potato into his mouth, so I’m forced to speak for the both of us. “The system went down last night. It messed up our schedules and we had to wait to fix them.”
Whitney nods, but she doesn’t say anything else about it. Instead she rests her hand on Jay’s arm. This gets his attention. I have to look away.
“We still on for after school?” she asks him.
They’ve already made plans. Just the two of them. This shouldn’t send throbbing pangs through my chest, but it does.
Jay chugs the rest of his Gatorade, then says, “Can’t. We have practice.”
Whitney frowns. I know it’s horrible of me, but I feel oddly satisfied.
“We have our Wavettes meeting anyway,” Raegan says, then throws an apologetic look my way. “Don’t worry. You’ll be on the team in no time.”
Lin smacks her head. “Crap. I just remembered the first decathlon meeting is after school.” She glares at Breck. “See? Your basketball schedule is already interfering with decathlon, and you aren’t even on the team.”
Breck gives her his most charming grin. “I could work it out. Trust me, Linny.”
“Don’t call me that.” She looks at me. “Sorry, Kira. Will you be able to catch a ride home?”
“Sure,” I say confidently, but my throat’s gone tight. I don’t know why I feel like crying. Maybe it’s because everyone else has lives after school and I don’t. Or because no one has brought up our post–first day of school tradition of getting Slurpees from 7-Eleven and binge-watching bad sitcoms while we procrastinate doing homework.
Raegan takes a huge bite of her cow brain salad.
I cringe. “Why are you eating that?”
“It’s not as bad as it looks.” She stabs some lettuce with her fork. “Besides, I’m trying to cut out greasy food. It makes me break out.”
I glance down at the rest of my pizza. Was that a hint? Has she noticed zit city on my forehead? I should have cut my stupid bangs this morning.
No, I’m overanalyzing things. But still. We never cared about stuff like that before. It makes me wonder what else I’ve missed.
SEVEN
I END UP BUMMING Aride home from Colton of all people. His truck is littered with toothpicks from his disgusting teeth-picking habit, and he has a bloodied zombie air freshener dangling from his rearview mirror. I’m tempted to ask what scents zombies come in, but ultimately decide I don’t want to know.
I’m still wallowing in self-pity, so I don’t mind when Colton cranks up his screamo music instead of making conversation. He shakes his head to the whines of the guitars as he drives, his long hair flying into his eyes. I clutch my armrest in case I need to brace for impact.
“Left on Rosebrush?” he asks when the song ends.
“Actually, can you drop me off at the 7-Eleven?”
Colton nods and makes a right. I don’t want anyone near my house. Not when Peach, Nonnie, and Saylor are around. I can’t chance anything getting back to Margaret, especially since she has the final say in sending me back to Portland with Aunt June.
