“Maybe they feel ripped off. Maybe they think fifteen dollars a test isn’t good enough. Maybe they threaten to crack the system unless you lower your price.”
Connor’s smile curved at the corner of his mouth. “You don’t get it, Toby. These kids aren’t that smart. They’re desperate. This is their first taste of power and control. Why would they ruin it? And if they did, they’d be outcast, blackballed. No one would talk to them. It’s foolproof.”
“Whatever, man.”
It was a pretty sneaky, well-executed operation, and one of the coolest things someone had ever pulled off at our school. And it had kept him busy all semester.
Now it was just me and the guys grabbing some food, and after listening to lectures all day, I was ready for some much-needed peace and quiet in my day.
“Whoa, whoa, look at that!” Max said as we pulled into the parking lot. He pointed to my neck.
No such luck.
“Damn, Jack,” Toby said.
“What?” I said, my hand instinctively going to my throat.
“Is that a hickey?”
“Oh shit, that’s huge,” Toby said, stomping out his cigarette and looking closely. I flinched and moved away from him, my face growing warm.
“Come on Jack, don’t be shy. Let us see!” Max said.
“Who’s that from?” Toby asked.
“Did Jess give that to you?”
“Shut up,” I said, walking ahead of them. “You guys are such perverts.”
“We’re the perverts? She was pretty upset the other night,” said Max.
“Yeah, what did you do to her, man?” Toby asked. “If I had Jess, I’d treat her real nice. Real nice, you feel me?” I heard Max laugh.
“I said shut the fuck up,” I said. They went silent, as if stunned by my tone and the way I’d said it. I didn’t care; I just wanted them to leave me alone.
We got our food and drove back to campus, Max and Toby ignoring me the whole way back. I felt restless, and all I wanted to do was get the fuck away from them, away from everyone.
So when the bell rang, I snuck outside and grabbed my bike, making sure security wasn’t on the lookout for assholes like me. I biked up the street, down into my neighborhood, past my house where Mom was probably inside watching trash TV, down past the strip mall where Dad was working the day shift at the local bar, and then onto San Juan Boulevard, where the creeps and addicts were out.
I parked and locked my bike next to Bazingo, which was strange to see in broad daylight, with no shining marquee lights or long line at the front. Inside, with its depressing black floors and black walls, I found Toby’s uncle who owned the club. He sold me something that I snorted in the bathroom stall. It helped ease the anxiety gnawing away at my insides and quieted the thoughts racing each other in my head.
Once I was high enough, I stepped outside into the cool night and sat against the side of the nightclub. I’d finally gotten the courage to dial Jess’s number. She’d been ignoring all my texts and calls, all my repetitions of “hey” and “I’m sorry about the other night.” She’d been ghosting me, and I knew she was ghosting me, because I could see whenever she was online.
The phone rang and rang, and I kept on redialing until she finally answered.
“What do you want?”
I rubbed at my eyes. I could feel a splitting headache coming on. “Hey Jess. Listen, I know you’re mad, and I’m really, really sorry. About the party. About what I did. And—”
“What exactly did you do?” she asked sharply.
“I…well, you know. I kind of, accidentally came onto you, and—”
“And? And what, Jack? Listen, I don’t want to talk to you right now. I don’t want to see you. I mean, I can’t risk having you accidentally slide your hands up my skirt again.”
A car swerved by and splashed dirty water on me. I deserved that.
“What was that about, anyway?” she asked. “Do you like me or something? Because that’s a really fucked up way to show it.”
“I…”
“All those years we were friends,” she went on, and I could hear, the way she was holding back tears. Shit. “All those times you came over, hung out with me in my bed. Were you just waiting to make a move on me?”
“No! Jess, I don’t like you like that,” I said. “I just—”
She laughed like it was the dumbest thing I’d ever said to her. “Oh, so you’re not even attracted to me? You just wanted someone easy to hook up with that night? Is that it? That is so impossibly pathetic.”
“Listen, please. Toby was goading me all night, he wouldn’t shut up, and I was really drunk and—”
She scoffed. “Oh, so now it’s Toby’s fault? Are you fucking serious, Jack? You know, he actually came to comfort me afterwards. I was a crying, drunken mess in Skye Russo’s basement bathroom, and unlike you, he came to see if I was alright.”
I’ll bet he did, I wanted to say.
“Jess, please just let me—”
“I really can’t deal with you right now,” she said, cutting me off. “Don’t call me. Don’t text me. Just leave it, Jack. I need some time.”
Now it was me that felt like crying.
“Okay,” was all I could say before she hung up, the dial tone painful in my ear.
25.
The doorbell rang, and we could see him through the window.
“You didn’t tell me your friend was Mexican,” Dad said.
Jesus Christ.
“Or handsome, at that,” said Mom.
“You’re both disgusting,” I said.
I opened the door to Connor, all bright-eyed in a fitted navy blue tank top, thin gray cardigan, and his signature board shorts. His hair was slicked back in a way that looked purposeful yet effortless. “Hey,” he said to me. I studied the way his lips formed the word.
Dad shook hands with him, squeezing a little too hard around the knuckles. “Nice to meet you.”
Mom continued the weirdness, extending her hand like some twentieth-century debutante. “Pleased to make
