silence.
“I’ll make you a deal,” Dani said, cocking one eyebrow. “Promise you won’t come to dinner tomorrow night and I’ll tell you about Petrie.”
“You don’t want me to come to dinner?” That one surprised Kylie.
“You want to come?” Dani sounded equally as surprised.
“If your mom wants to meet me, I don’t have a problem with that. I’d be curious, too, if some lady were hanging around with my girls.”
Dani snorted and the other girls laughed. Kylie glanced from one of them to the other, sure she’d just missed something.
“What did my uncle tell you?” Dani leaned back in her chair but then snapped to attention when she got an instant message. “We told Mom about you, and my uncle got all bent out of shape. That’s all Mom needs to think she can play matchmaker. It will be a totally humiliating evening with her making a big deal over you sitting by Uncle Perry and then scooting everyone out of the room so you are left alone with him. You don’t want that, do you?”
Dani didn’t want to share her uncle. Kylie believed Dani liked her. Actually, she had no doubts. But there was a line Dani didn’t want crossed. Her uncle wasn’t available.
“I don’t want to upset your mom by declining.”
“Just be busy or something. She’ll understand.” Dani typed a message and hit “enter,” sending the message up into the chat box. “Uncle Perry will be relieved if you back out,” she added, giving Kylie a knowing look. “He hates it every time Mom tries hooking him up with ladies. It’s not like he doesn’t have ladies all over the place anyway.”
Kylie pressed her lips together to keep herself from asking how Dani might know about her uncle’s social life. Did he bring women around his nieces? And if so, Kylie hated the rather possessive sensation suddenly rushing over her when she ached to learn more about all of these women.
She realized Mandy had disappeared and Nancy stood with her arms crossed, watching the interaction between Dani and Kylie with a distracted air of boredom. She looked as though she was trying to decide whether she should remain with them or join the kids in the other room.
Taking an indifferent air would be Kylie’s best move. The whole point of agreeing to meet Dani and her friends today was to learn where Peter was striking and to nab him before he captured another girl. If Kylie could do that here more so than at Dani’s home, then so be it.
“I’ll see if I can think of an excuse to convince your uncle and get out of it,” she said, and nodded toward the computer. “Tell me about who you’re chatting with.”
Dani accepted the arrangement and then began talking about everyone she chatted with. As if they guessed they were being discussed, many started talking to Dani online until she easily chatted with five different people, the computer screen full of chat boxes. Kylie straightened when Petrie instant-messaged Dani.
Mandy had returned and she and Nancy pulled chairs around Dani, instantly alert when Petrie sent the message. Kylie glanced at the three girls, realizing the other two knew a fair bit about Petrie. As well, Dani’s expression changed and she quickly typed:
“Tell him you’ll help him study,” Nancy encouraged.
Dani ignored Nancy, her gaze riveted to the screen, and typed:
Dani appeared to forget she had an audience as she lost herself in her conversation with a boy who obviously she knew pretty well, in spite of never meeting him.
Mandy leaned around the back of Dani and whispered to Kylie, “Petrie is Dani’s boyfriend.”
“Shut the fuck up,” Dani hissed as she continued to type.
“Write about her.” Nancy poked Dani in the arm but grinned at Kylie. “Put in your paper that some teenagers are whacked and commit to boys they’ve never met.”
“I’m going to meet him,” Dani said, but then leaned back, pausing from her online conversation, and gave Kylie a furtive look. “We’ve got a deal that nothing we share with you will be repeated to
“Your mom wouldn’t like Petrie?” Kylie decided to play ignorant and hear Dani say exactly what it was she didn’t want anyone knowing about.
Dani rolled her eyes and then returned to her conversation. Kylie turned her attention to the chat box as well.
Dani posed her fingers over the keyboards, not saying anything for a moment, and both of her girlfriends watched her with bated breath. Kylie held her breath, it hitting her that Dani and Petrie had discussed meeting in person prior to the chat.
Dani blew out a breath and typed:
She X’d out the box and quickly closed her chat program. Then pushing her chair back, she grabbed her coffee and stood, walking away from the three of them without saying anything.
Kylie watched her disappear into the other room, noticing she pulled her cell phone out of her backpack when she stood by the front door to the coffee shop.
Nancy moved into Dani’s seat and took over the computer. “She doesn’t want us to see her talking to Petrie,” she pouted.
“Have they been chatting on the computer for long?” Kylie asked, still watching Dani.
“Forever.” Mandy rolled her eyes and leaned forward, lowering her voice. “She’s scared to meet him but won’t admit it.”
“Do you all meet guys off the computer a lot?” Kylie asked.
“Oh, sure. All the time.” Mandy waved her hand in the air as though it didn’t matter. “But Dani’s uncle fills her head with crap about stalkers and rapists and bullshit like that who prey off poor little innocent girls like us.”
Nancy made a very unladylike snorting sound as she continued typing on the computer. Kylie watched her open the Facebook Web site but kept glancing past the girls to Dani.
“It’s not completely bullshit,” Kylie said, not focusing on either one of them. “Even I wouldn’t meet someone online without knowing a lot about them first. Or at least talking on the phone.”
“She talks to Petrie on the phone all of the time,” Nancy told Kylie.
Dani pulled open the door to the Java Cup and disappeared outside.
“Still sounds like she should be careful,” Kylie said, fighting the urge not to break into a serious lecture. All she would do was chase them away if she did that. “Where’s the bathroom?”
The girls pointed to the door leading to the other room. Kylie had spotted the restrooms when she first entered, but it was a good excuse to check on Dani without the others knowing. Neither girl offered to go with her, and Kylie left them hovering in front of the computer, not paying any attention to whether she went into the bathroom or not.
She slipped outside, hoping she hadn’t lost Dani. Kylie squinted against the late-afternoon sun at the teenager, who’d managed to make it across the street and leaned against the back of Kylie’s car in the parking lot. Watching Kylie approach, Dani repeatedly glanced at her phone in her hand while she text-messaged someone. Her frustrated expression didn’t fade when Kylie approached.
“Are all men assholes?” Dani demanded to know, and pressed her lips together as if she’d just swallowed something bitter.
“I don’t know all of them.” Kylie lifted one shoulder and shrugged lazily, then leaned against her car next to Dani. “Is it Petrie?” she asked quietly.
Dani nodded once. Her cell phone played a happy-sounding jingle and Dani held it in both of her hands, pushing the buttons with her thumbs, when she answered the text message.
