Roo? I thought. My Roo? But he wasn’t mine.
“Everyone,” Hannah replied, her pretty, angular face reddening a bit. “And Roo.”
Bailey, sitting with Colin on his bed close enough that their legs were touching, pulled out her phone. After glancing at the screen, she said, “They should be here soon. I think work ran late.”
“Then I have time to change,” Hannah said, getting to her feet. “Rachel, you coming?”
They both got up and started for the door. “Back in five,” Hannah said. “Don’t let anything fun happen without us.”
This didn’t seem likely, especially considering that the moment they left, Colin and Bailey turned to each other and began talking in low voices. Their conversation was obviously private even before he reached out, smoothing her hair back with his hand, and she closed her eyes. Meanwhile, I was left with Blake and the baseball game, which had cut to a commercial.
“So,” he said, jabbing the remote at the TV as he flipped channels. “So you said you go to the U?”
I shook my head. “No. Just live in Lakeview. I haveone more year of high school.”
“High school,” he said. “Wow. That brings back memories.”
“You’re a freshman, right?”
“Going into sophomore year,” he corrected me. “Bigdifference from high school.”
“I bet,” I said, although privately, I wondered. “What’s your major?”
He sat up a bit. “Business. Although I don’t know if I’ll actually stay long enough to get my degree. I’m going to do this startup, sooner rather than later.”
“Like a company thing?”
“Yep,” he said, taking another sip of his beer. “Me and two of my friends, we’ve got this great idea for an app. We’ve got backing and everything.”
“Like an app for your phone?” I asked.
“You got it.” He sat up suddenly: it was clear this subject energized him. “Want to hear the idea? You can’t steal it to develop yourself. We’ve already applied for patenting.”
This would never have occurred to me, but I said, “Sure.”
He muted the TV, then held up both hands. “Okay. So you drive, right?”
Already, I wasn’t thrilled with the turn this conversation had taken. “Um, yeah.”
“And what’s the one thing everyone told you a million times when you got your license?”
I thought for a moment. “Wear a seat belt.”
“No,” he said. “The other thing.”
“Don’t drink and drive,” I said.
“No.” He sighed. “Theotherother thing.”
I was still clueless, which must have been obvious, because he pulled out his phone, holding it up.
“Don’t text and drive?” I said.
“Exactly!” he replied. “It’s, like, the most dangerous thing for any driver, but especially new ones. So imagine if there was a way to turn off that function anytime you were in a car. Not onlyshouldyou not text: youcouldn’teven if you wanted to. That’s the power of I’M DRIVING. Not only can your messages wait until you get from point A to point B: they will.”
He sat back, clearly pleased with himself. I said, “Wow.”
“Right? It’s great. I mean, just imagine the market for parents, what they’d pay for that peace of mind. You can’t even put a number on it, really.”
