I wiggled my fingers at Hamlet. “Bye.”
He blinked. “Bye!” Then he bounded over to his spot on the corner.
Rose glanced at me. “Looks like someone has a crush.”
I almost dropped the pitcher of water I was holding. “I don’t have a crush!”
She shook her head. “Who says I’m talking aboutyou?”
CHAPTER 11
Somehow Rose and I managed to get through our entire first day without a single fight. There was an incident where I hit her head by accident and she hit me back, but that was fine. I could tell it was just instinct.
Also, we were bothexhausted. Running that truck with just the two of us was no joke.
At the end of the day, we both lurched out of the truck, one of the commissary lights flickering on and off in the dark lot. Rose lifted her arms and stretched them above her head like a little ballerina cake topper.
I rubbed one of my Docs onto my bare leg, scratching a mosquito bite I’d somehow acquired while inside the truck for eighthours. “Maybe since we didn’t kill each other today, my dad will come back tomorrow.”
Rose pulled out her phone, not even looking at me, the light of the screen making her face glow eerily. “Yeah.”
All right, then. I gritted my teeth and was about to start my walk home but stopped when I saw a couple of guys walk by—shrouded in shadow, walking slowly, appraising us as they did so. I stared at them.I see you. And they kept walking. When one of them looked back at me, I kept my gaze steady. Creeps.
I sighed and turned around. “Do you have a ride home?”
She tried to look nonchalant, but I saw her glance down at her phone again, agitated. “Um, yeah, I mean my mom was supposed to be here.”
“So you’re gonna wait here alone?”
“Aren’t you going to walk home alone?” she immediately countered. Her bravado would have been more convincing if she hadn’t checked her phone again.
I pulled my sweatshirt tighter around myself. “Yeah, but this is my neighborhood, I know how to deal.” I paused. “Plus, my dad makes me carry pepper spray.”
Rose pulled something out of her shorts pocket and held it up. Mace.
I laughed. “LA kids.”
“We know all varieties of pervs,” she said with a wry smile. I smiled back, and then we looked away from each other.
I could hear her take rapid shallow breaths again. And thistime I wasn’t so sure if she was breathing like that to get control—it didn’t seem in her control at all.
“I’ll wait with you, then.” Before she could respond, I crouched low to the ground, my feet flat, my butt just an inch or so off the cement, pulling out my phone to avoid looking at her.
“How are you sitting like that?” Rose asked, bending over to look at my feet. “You’re using your ankles as a seat!” She tried to copy me, but when she reached a certain depth, she fell over, landing on her butt.
I tsked. “See, even though you can touch your head with your toes, only Koreans can do this squat. It’s called the kimchi squat for that reason.” Obviously, any human could do this squat, but I liked goading Rose.
She scoffed. “Give me a break. You’re making that up.”
“Try it again.”
Rose squatted down, but had to balance on the balls of her feet, so her butt was still a good foot off the ground rather than the near-hovering mine was doing. I could sense her concentration, her thighs strained in the awkward position.
“Ha! I’ve found the one thing Rose Carver can’t do.”
She stayed balanced. “We’ll see about that.” Looking down at her feet she said, “Also, it’s true, I really didn’t think you’d get suspended.”
I almost fell over. “Are youapologizing?”
