Page 16 of Room to Breathe

“Yes,” she said. “I thought you’d insist on it.”

“I’m taking this opportunity to eat with both hands, then,” Caroline said, and they were out of the pod and gone, leaving me with Ali the vampire.

“Can you eat with those things in?” I asked, nodding to her teeth, the empty pod stretched out on either side of me like wings.

“No, I take them out to eat. I need to go find Harper. Make sure she knows about Cudy.”

I should’ve slipped my arms out of the pod, but I didn’t. It wasn’t uncomfortable. It was made of felt, soft and flexible. If I left it on the ground, I had no doubt other people would put it on, probably ruin it.

I walked around the patio in search of Beau. Before I couldfind him, I came face to face with the tall, lanky, skateboard-riding guy from school who’d flipped Beau off a few weeks back.

“Oh! Cudy,” I said.

“Cody,” he corrected.

“Well, with vampire teeth, you’re Cudy.”

“What?” Cody wasn’t wearing a costume. Unless he was going as a skater boy—baggy pants, graphic tee, shaggy brown hair. But that was his everyday look, so I didn’t think he was.

“You had to be there,” I said.

“What are you? Like a stick bug or something? A praying mantis?” He nodded to the pod.

“I’m a pea. My other two peas left me.”

“A pea?” he asked, giving me a once-over. I hadn’t felt exposed in my tight green body suit all night until then.

“You flipped my friend off a few weeks ago,” I said, trying to fold my arms but failing. The motion did close the pod around the sides of my body, though.

“Probably,” he said, like that was a standard occurrence for him.

“You almost knocked me over on your skateboard.”

“My bad,” he said with a sly smile.

Why was I smiling back? “Mr. Lopez yelled at you not to skate on campus.” I wasn’t sure why I was recounting, beat for beat, the events of our first interaction, just that I didn’t know what else to say and he wasn’t contributing to the conversation.

“Sounds about right.”

“You need to leave.” Beau’s voice interrupted our conversation. “You weren’t invited.”

Cody turned toward Beau. “The wide-open side gate andCome Insign say otherwise.”

I mean, he wasn’t wrong. I tried not to laugh.

Beau looked at me; I wondered if my face had given away my struggle. My face often did that for him.

“Still, you need to leave,” he said to Cody.

“I might. After I get some pizza.” As Cody was heading for the food table, he turned and walked backward a few steps. To me he said, while pointing at Beau, “Is that the friend I flipped off?”

I nodded.

He shrugged as if to sayYeah, he deserved it, then turned and walked away.

“What was that about?” Beau asked.

“I was just reminding him of his offenses.”