Normally Jessie would keep her eyes on him until he was completely out of sight-staring at that tight little butt of his could easily become a full-time occupation-but something else caught her attention, and it had nothing to do with Matt.
Her gaze shot back to the Suburban parked at the curb.
The guy behind the wheel looked familiar.
It was hard to tell from this distance, but she could swear he had a ponytail.
Was it the guy from this morning? The cute one driving the Jeep?
“Hey, Jess! Laura!”
Jessie turned. Karen and Kathy Northam approached from the top of the steps, both out of breath.
“Better hurry or we’ll miss our ride,” Karen said. She pointed toward the street, and true enough, their bus had already pulled up to the curb.
Tossing all thoughts of Mr. Ponytail from her mind, Jessie ran with her friends to catch it.
'How much longer you stuck with your dad?” Laura asked.
They sat near the back of the bus, close to the engine. Jessie had always liked the sound it made, a low rumble she found soothing and somehow reassuring.
“I’m not stuck,” she said.
“Doesn’t sound like it, the way you’ve been talking.”
Jessie shrugged. “We’re a work in progress.”
“Uh-huh, sure. Just be prepared for the big letdown.” Laura’s own father had been gone for years. “When do your folks get back from the Caymans?”
“Couple of weeks.”
“I don’t see why they didn’t just take you along.”
Jessie made a face. “It’s some kind of second honeymoon thing.”
“Yuck.”
“Tell me about it.”
The mental image of her mom and Roger doing it in their beachside hotel room was not a pretty one. Jessie couldn’t count the number of times she’d heard them moaning and groaning through her bedroom wall at home.
Double yuck.
Not that she had anything against Roger. He was an okay guy. He gave her space and didn’t hassle her too much about homework and grades and junk like that. He and Mom had been together since she was eleven, so she was used to having him around. He was by far the least offensive of the jerks her mother dated during the year following the divorce.
Jessie had spent that year wondering why Mom preferred these idiots to her father. To her it wasn’t even a close call. Then Roger Nolan came along and he always had a smile and something nice to say. The next thing Jessie knew, he and Mom got married and four years passed, most of it stuck in Nebraska, where Roger worked.
As the bus rumbled beneath her, Jessie thought of those four years, of the isolation she’d felt-a city girl trapped in a place so flat and wide and open that it had the opposite effect on her than you might expect.
She’d felt trapped. Trapped in a town she hated, a school she despised, surrounded by kids who treated her like a freak of nature. She’d wanted so much for her father to come and rescue her, but he was missing in action at the time. A voice on the telephone. A signature on some cookie-cutter birthday card.
But who knows, maybe it was all her fault. Right after the divorce she had grown cold and distant toward him, blaming him for her mother’s tears, for his inability to make her happy. When he tried to contact her, Jessie had closed him out, refusing to see or even speak to him.
After a while, he stopped trying-which, of course, angered Jessie even more, because he’d given up too easily. The bastard.
Why did life have to be so freaking complicated all the time? Why couldn’t it be like TV, where everything was wrapped up nice and neat in a single half hour?
It just wasn’t fair.
“One good thing came from moving in with your dad,” Laura said.
“Yeah?”
“We finally get to ride the bus together.”
Jessie grinned and squeezed her hand. She and Laura had been close before the move to Nebraska and picked up right where they had left off the moment Jessie came back.
They grew silent now, Laura opening her journal as Jessie watched the afternoon traffic buzz by. The bus chugged toward its next stop, the low roar of the engine vibrating against her seat.
Bus rides always lulled her to sleep, and today was no exception. She closed her eyes, feeling the vibration play against her back and thighs, letting herself be carried into the world of the half-awake, where dreamlike images flitted through her mind.
Matt Weber was there, walking with her hand in hand toward Bellanova. They talked and laughed and the next thing Jessie knew she was pressed against a wall as Matt kissed her, his hot tongue scraping against her teeth. She kissed him back, feeling a tingle between her legs, wanting him to put his hand there. Then he pulled away and smiled at her.
Only it wasn’t Matt.
It was the guy from the Jeep. Mr. Ponytail.
Jessie jolted awake in her seat. Where the heck had that come from?
Then, a sudden, odd chill ran through her and all at once she felt as if she was being watched.
No, it was more than that.
Something more… invasive.
She turned, glancing out her window toward the left rear of the bus, surprised to find the maroon Suburban rolling alongside it.
Mr. Ponytail was behind the wheel.
Looking straight at her.
Smiling.
Jessie snapped her head back around and faced front, her whole body rigid with fear. Her stomach lurched.
What the hell? What was he doing here?
Karen and Kathy sat behind her, completely oblivious to her sudden alarm. Karen leaned forward in her seat. “You guys hear about Steve Hugard?”
Laura, who had been writing in her journal, swiveled her head in their direction. “No, what?”
“He grabbed Mrs. Lehman’s boobs in Health today.”
Laura’s eyes widened. “He what?”
“Right in front of the whole class.”
“Oh, my God, what a perv.”
“Yeah. They’re trying to keep it a big secret, but Skinner kicked his butt right outta school. Told him he has to get therapy before they’ll let him back.”
“I never could stand that jerk,” Laura said. “Guys like him give me the creeps.”
I know the feeling, Jessie thought.
Through her window she heard the muffled whine of an engine accelerating. Glancing sideways, she saw the Suburban pull up parallel to her. She didn’t dare chance a longer look, but she was sure Mr. Ponytail was still smiling at her.
Go away, she wanted to scream.
Leave me alone.
She thought back to this morning, to that funky old Jeep he was driving. Had he been following her to school? Was today the first time, or was he stalking her?
“Jess? You okay?” It was Laura. “Your face is all white.”
Jessie didn’t answer. She’d barely heard the question. This morning she’d thought this guy looked familiar,
