Page 36 of Wicked Hungry

“Sorry,” I say. “I don’t clean up much.”

“Well, it is your birthday,” Jonathan says. “You don’t have to clean up your room when it’s your birthday.”

Enrique nods at this like Jonathan has just expressed some real wisdom. Jonathan is always saying wise things. Come to thing of it, he is kind of crafty like a fox.

“Are we going to eat anytime soon?” Jonathan asks. “Because I’m starving. I eat like five times a day.”

Enrique nods. “Me, too.”

“Me three,” I say. “Good thing we’re teenagers, or I don’t know what people would think.”

“My mother wants me to eat a lot,” Jonathan says. “But she still gets freaked out about how much I can put away.”

“My mom doesn’t want me to eat meat,” I say. “But I can have as much of the vegetables as I want.”

“And that fills you up?” Jonathan says, his eyebrow raised.

“You’ve seen me snacking.”

“Why don’t you just tell your mom?” Enrique asks. “She might understand.”

I shake my head and Jonathan guffaws.

“What?” Enrique asks. “What’s so funny?”

“You think he should tell his mother?” Jonathan asks. “Dude, did you see how she was looking at us and sniffing? She would go ballistic.”

“It was just an idea,” Enrique says.

“It was an awful idea,” Jonathan says.

“Let’s just drop it,” I say.

From downstairs, I hear the bell ringing.

I run down the stairs, jumping two at a time. And then I’m afraid to open the door.

“Stanley?”

My trembling hand grabs the handle, turns it, and pulls open the door.

Karen is wearing a hoodie and shades, even though it’s already been full dark for at least fifteen minutes. Night comes quickly and early in New England.

“Hi,” she says. “Are you going to invite me in?”

I just stare at her for a moment.

“I...I thought—”

“Thought I wasn’t coming? I’m not happy with you, Stanley. I’m worried. But I haven’t meant to ignore you.”

She stares at me waiting.

“We missed you,” I say.

“Yeah, long time no see,” Enrique says from behind me.

Karen smiles a thin smile. In her arms is a baking sheet covered with aluminum foil. Cookies, if my nose does not deceive me, although I smell something else that is even more enticing. Maybe she’s just been to a restaurant, but I smell something meaty on her.