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I reached toward the waiting power of his engine, and felt it idling there, so close and far both at once. “Honestly that…was the first time I enjoyed it. Like maybe I was in charge of it, instead of it being in charge of me.”

He smiled broadly. “Good. See you tomorrow?”

I smiled back at him, briefly unable to help myself. “Yeah,” I said, and hopped out.

I walked up my driveway with an unfamiliar twist in my stomach. Hanging out with Darius had actually been…okay. I wouldn’t go so far as to say like, ‘nice’ or ‘awesome’, but…it hadn’t been half-bad.

It was more like confusing.

And again, I really, really, really wished I could talk to Lacey. I unlocked my front door, expecting to find my little sister on the couch watching TV.

Instead, my mother was waiting for me. She reared up from the couch and rounded on me—her mascara had made raccoon eyes around her own and she looked drawn and pale.

I raced up to her. “What happened? Did someone—is Allie okay?” Where was my sister?

“Where were you!” she shouted at me.

“What?”

“The Shax!” She pointed at the off TV. “We saw it at the bar on the news—there was a fire there, and I couldn’t get ahold of you—it’s been hours, Jessica!”

“I’m—I’m fine! I’m right here!”

“Yeah, I see that. But where were you?”

“Darius—my coworker—we didn’t get any dinner, so when things happened, he took me out to eat!” I knew I had to lie, she’d never believe the truth.

“I called you a hundred times!”

“My phone didn’t have any charge!” I fumbled in my backpack for it and prayed that this was true, or that I’d zap it just like I had Sarah’s. “See?” I said, holding it up, thumbing the power button frantically.

Her glower dimmed a little and she surveyed me. “He took you out?”

“Yeah.”

“Where?”

“The diner,” I lied, willing her not to call and crosscheck me.

“And who paid?”

My mom was fanatical about our income—and now that I was out of a job, oh man. “He did.”

She made a defeated sound. “You’re so empty headed, Jessica. You should have called me?—”

“I was safe. There wasn’t anything to worry about. I didn’t know it was going to make the news—I was just hungry.”

She looked me up and down again, like I’d grown an inch in front of her or something. “Yeah, well, just try and think harder next time, okay?” And then she brought me in for a smothering hug.

I hugged her back, completely surprised and mystified.

“I doubt the Shax is going to go up in flames a second time,” I said. She kept looking at me like the aliens had abducted me and replaced me with a slightly-off replica.

“I thought you’d died!” she complained. “And instead you were just off on a date.”

My eyes widened. That was not what’d happened, but it was easier to let her think that? So I gave her a nervous smile.

“Next time, ask me. And I want to meet the boy,” she decreed, and then flopped back down on the couch and turned on the TV.