Page 24

How the hell did I know that? The more I thought about it, the more it scared me. Maybe I was going crazy. I pulled my hands back and twisted in my seat, determined to act like a normal person. “You really can’t afford a battery?”

“Dealing looks a lot more glamourous on TV,” he said, and ran a hand over his head, feeling the short nap of his hair, and nodded at his hood. “And I have other things to save up for.”

“Like what?”

“Getting the hell away from here.” He made a swirling gesture in-between us that was clearly meant to include not only me, the Shax, the parking-lot, Redson, and the entire state of Kansas.

“Yeah. Of course.” I turned to look back out the window, as he put his car into reverse. Normalcy accomplished.

We drove in silence. The Corolla’s heater didn’t do much to dry me off, but it didn’t matter, I was just minutes away from a shower once Darius took me home and he didn’t need directions tonight. He stopped the car outside my trailer but didn’t cut the engine. “Can’t lose the charge,” he said.

“Thanks for the ride,” I said, getting out.

“Thanks for not dying,” he said. I made to slam the door shut but he leaned down to look at me before I could. “Hey—when are you on next?”

“Tuesday.”

“Are you going to keep needing rides? Now that Lacey’s fired?”

I couldn’t imagine working at the Shax without Lacey—but I couldn’t quit till I managed to find another job. “Maybe?”

“Cool. Let me know. You’re on the way and all.”

“Sure.” I nodded and shrugged at the same time, and closed the door.

It wasn’t until I was safe inside my house that I realized I still had his coat on.

Allie, still up like she was supposed to not be, noticed it immediately, just as I heard Darius drive off.

“Where’d you get that from?”

“Oh, this?” I said, trying to play it off. “No one,” I said, taking it off, but she saw through my lies like she always did.

“Is it a boy? Do you have a boyfriend?” she asked, and then started dancing wildly around me like she was worshiping a pagan god. “It’s a boooooooyyyyy, it’s a boooooooooyyyyy.”

“How much sugar have you had today?”

She jazzed handed out, scurrying to one side of the hallway like a crab, before scurrying back, and slowing down long enough to inspect me.

“Why’re you wet?”

“It was raining outside. And yes, a boy lent me this coat.” Which I now had to figure out how to get back to him at school tomorrow without letting anyone else know or see. I went into my bedroom to hang it up in my closet and Allie followed me,bouncing slightly less. My sister was tired, whether she liked it or not.

“How was Lacey?”

I inhaled and exhaled. I didn’t know. I wanted to know. But I said, “She’s just sick is all. Appendicitis.” Might as well stick with the same lie.

“Is she better now?”

“I don’t know. Mom still has my phone and I’ll probably never be ungrounded.” I could walk over in the rain—but tomorrow was a Monday, and if I somehow got caught out again—my mom’d put my phone in the microwave.

“I didn’t want to tell her! She made me!” she lied.

“It’s OK. I would’ve told her, too.” I rubbed my hands across my face. “It’s a school night, Allie. Time for bed. For both of us. I’m just gonna take a shower first is all.”

“K. G’night, Jessie.”

“G’night.”