“Nothing wrong with loyalty,” he said, giving me a smile.
NAOMI JUMPED IN FRONT OF ME and grabbed my shoulders as I left fourth-period biology. “Anyone?” she asked in a low monotone. “Anyone know what this is? Class?”
I pulled out of her grasp. “You’re not making any sense.”
She fell into step alongside me, her mouth hanging open. “Please tell me you’ve seen
“I might have.” It’s not like I took notes on every single movie I saw.
“Okay, we’re so watching that. There’s a teacher in it who’s just like the Bot.”
“The Bot?”
“Yeah—that’s what we call Mr. Harvey. He’s the only bio teacher I’ve had who can make dissecting a fetal pig seem like a real estate seminar.”
I hadn’t noticed anything unusual about Mr. Harvey other than the spit flying out of his mouth with every hard consonant. He also smelled like an old closet—no wonder I had a front table all to myself.
Naomi pushed open a set of doors and led me back to the fountain. Students poured out into the quad like ants zeroing in on a juice spill. “Is your lunch in there?” She nodded at my blue lunch box.
“It’s in my backpack.”
“Do you take that thing everywhere with you?”
My hand tightened around the handle. “Yes.” Like Mr. Fuzzy the blanket, my box was a piece of home. It comforted me.
“Got anything I can eat?” She elbowed her way through a group of jocks and slid onto the cement wall, spreading her arms wide and leaning on her palms.
I plopped next to her, yanking a crumpled brown bag out of my backpack. “I’ve got a jelly sandwich and an apple.”
Naomi wrinkled her nose. “Feeling extra fruity this morning?”
“The apple was Grandma’s idea. You can have it.”
She raised her eyebrows. “You got something against peanut butter?”
“Yeah, it’s gross.”
“But purple jelly between two pieces of… what the hell kind of bread is that?”
I shrugged. “Some twelve-grain stuff my grandma eats. I didn’t have time to buy food this weekend.”
She shook her head and sank her teeth into the green apple.
Drizzle sprinkled my cheeks, and the smell of wet pavement curled into my nostrils. I loved the scent of rain—if only it came in bottles. A couple of guys with messy hair and studded belts nodded at Naomi as they passed. She wiggled her fingers at them, and they nudged each other, smirking.
“Who are they?” I asked.
“Dumb and Dumber—the emo twins. I hooked up with the blond one last year. Shortest lunch break I ever had.” She grinned.
How was I supposed to respond to that? I swallowed a lump of jelly. “How come Kari doesn’t like you?”
Naomi rolled her eyes. “I messed around with her ex-boyfriend. Only—I didn’t know they were still together at the time. The dude in the red shirt.” She pointed to a guy with a shaved head and biceps as big as my thighs. He stood near the school entrance, laughing with a couple other boys.
“Oh.” I took another small bite of my sandwich. The seeds in the bread stuck to my teeth.
She nibbled on her thumbnail and gave me a sidelong glance. “It’s not like I’m a slut. I’ve only had actual sex with three guys.”
That sounded like an awful lot to me, but what did I know? The only people I talked to were net geeks online, and they never had dates either. “How old were you—the first time?”
She devoured the last speck of skin on the apple. “Fifteen. What about you?”
What made her assume I’d had sex? Maybe because she thought I had all these crazy-boy stories. “Um…” I tried to think of a good answer, but a hand squeezed my shoulder, making me jump.
“Hey.” Justin smiled at us. “Mind if I join you?”
Naomi glanced from me to him. “Fine by me.”
Justin sat next to me and unraveled a brown bag of his own, pulling out a couple pieces of vegetable pizza. The crust was super thin, like crackers. I wondered if it was his grandma’s recipe.
“You gonna answer the question or not?” Naomi nudged me.
I leaned closer to her ear and lowered my voice. “Not now.” Mom used to get on me about bringing up certain subjects around strangers, especially anything sex related. And talking about boys around a boy was just weird.
She leaned forward to look at Justin. “We were discussing our first time—when was yours?”
“Naomi!” I elbowed her. Maybe she needed a few social lessons herself.
Justin swallowed a massive bite of his pizza. “My first time… what?”
