This is bad. This could blow my entire cover.
I don’t know what to do. If I duck out now, Lin will be forced to interact with Saylor when she pays for her food. He could bring up the fact that he knows me—that he’s been living in our house for the last two months. And I can’t let anyone discover that piece of information. I already had a close call with Margaret and Saylor, but if the fact that they’re staying with us gets back to Margaret, I can lose my dad, my friends, and my life all over again.
Lin finds me frozen in the candy aisle. “Aren’t you getting anything?”
Her arms are loaded with snacks. I grab the first thing I see—chocolate-covered pretzels. “Um. Yeah, this.”
Lin raises an eyebrow, but she doesn’t say anything as she walks toward the register. I follow her, looking anywhere but at Saylor.
She sets her loot on the counter.
Saylor begins ringing her up. “This looks a lot better than a dance.”
Lin glances up, then continues to pull out bills from her wallet. “Yeah. We think so.”
Okay, this is fine. We clearly look like high schoolers who are not at the homecoming dance. It’s a completely normal comment.
Saylor looks at me. “I wasn’t much of a dance guy, either. Drove my mom nuts. She practically had to force me to go to the prom.”
I let out an unintelligible, choked noise just as Lin drops a handful of change on the ground. “Aw, crap.”
I’m sweating. Profusely. I have to get out of here, so I start pulling out bills from my back pocket. “Here.”
“I got it,” she says from the ground.
Saylor scans her chips. “Oh man! Sweet Jalapeño flavor? I should bring some of these home.” He looks at me. “You think your dad would eat them?”
All the blood in my body freezes. Time stops.
Lin stands back up, pushing the handful of her fallen change toward him. “Why would her—?”
“My dad! Yes! He would!” My words are too clipped. Too loud. “You should tell him the next time he comes in!”
Saylor throws me a peculiar look.
“You know what?” I set my chocolate-covered pretzels aside. “I’m not in a chocolate mood. Uh—” I pat my stomach. “Too much pizza earlier.”
Now it’s Lin’s turn to throw me a confused stare. “Are you sure?”
“Yes!” I’m itching to get out of here. One more close call and my carefully concealed lie could unravel. “Totally.”
Saylor hands Lin her receipt. He won’t look at me. Maybe he’s hurt that I’m pretending not to know him, but whether I want to let him in my personal life is my business. I already had a close call with Margaret. I’m not about to let that happen again.
I quickly head out the door.
Lin jogs to keep up with me. “Do you know that guy?”
“Um,” I say. “Kind of. My dad goes in there a lot.”
It’s part of the truth, anyway.
“Oh.” She looks back. “He seems kinda weird. Did you see all those leather bracelets on his wrists?”
“They’re intention bracelets,” I say without thinking.
Lin raises an eyebrow. “How do you know that?”
I freeze.God, Kira. Just shut up.
