My Kind of Crazy - Robin Reul Page 0,28
give him the finger. Karma takes over because Nick takes a bite of his taco and the whole thing falls apart all over his frickin’ lap.
He jumps up, cussing in Italian. Peyton and I stifle our laughter while Nick dabs at his crotch, but the score is definitely Taco Stains 1, Nick 0. His face is beet red with embarrassment.
“Your jeans are black and your shirt will cover it up, man. No one can even see it. Don’t worry about it,” I reassure him.
He’s stressing though, looking around like people will notice, will laugh. Or maybe he’s upset he did that in front of the girl he’s trying to impress. I’ve never seen him like this. Usually stuff rolls right off him. Well, except for the taco.
Peyton must sense his distress too because she does the damnedest thing. She reaches over, grabs her chocolate milk, and knocks it accidentally on purpose into her lap. She watches as the brown stain spreads on her jeans and says, “Seriously? I’m such a klutz. Hank, can I borrow your napkin?”
Nick glances up as I hand her my napkin and tell her, “You don’t even have to give it back.”
“This table is jinxed,” he says.
“That seals the deal. I’m sticking to vanilla pudding for lunch.” I push aside the remainder of the contents on my tray, peel back the foil on the top of the container, and dunk my spoon.
“I’m gonna grab some more napkins. You need some?” Nick asks Peyton and she nods. As soon as he walks away, an awkward silence sets in.
“Listen, Peyton, about the other day—”
She cuts me off. “So are you gonna do it?”
“Do what?”
“Fill out the questionnaire. On Amanda’s website. I mean, you’ll know all the answers, right? Nothing to hide anymore.” She looks at me but she isn’t smiling.
“You heard about that too, huh? It’s pretty insane.”
“You’d have to live in a cave not to know about it. This has all worked out perfectly for you. You tell your story, you take the girl to prom, and everybody lives happily ever after. That’s what you wanted, right? To go out with her?”
“Well…sort of. All these guys are trying to take the blame for the fire, so ironically I have no proof it was me.” I pop another spoonful of pudding in my mouth.
“You’ve got empty sparkler boxes.”
“Yeah, but anyone could order those off the Internet. That’s how I got them.”
“How come you got two puddings?” She balls up her wet napkin, throws it on the table, and steals the extra dessert off my tray.
“I think the lunch lady is into me.”
“That must be it.” She starts in on the pudding and says, “As I see it, you’ve got something the others don’t.”
“Two puddings?”
“A witness.”
I freeze. “You’d do that for me?”
“If that’s what you wanted.”
“I mean, I think it is. I haven’t figured out what I’m going to do. The whole thing is weird, right?”
She nods. “Let me know. Happy to help.”
“Thanks.” I look over at Nick, who’s across the cafeteria pulling wads of napkins out of the dispenser. “That was pretty cool, spilling your milk so that Nick wouldn’t feel like an asshole.”
“No big deal. I felt bad for him.”
“I did too, but I didn’t take a lunch in the lap for the guy.”
She turns her head and looks me straight in the eyes. “Perhaps that’s the difference between us. Maybe we have different versions of what it means to be a friend.”
I deserve that jab after what I said to Amanda.
“Peyton, I just need to say—” I start but she cuts me off again.
“You want to get out of here?”
I sweep a glance around the cafeteria and then back at her. “Yeah, sure. We can go to the library until the end of the period.”
“No, I mean outta here. Like leave school.”
“As in ditch class?”
She raises her eyebrows and smirks. “Do you seriously expect me to believe you’ve never ditched?”
I say casually, “Of course. I do it all the time.” Which is total bullshit. I’m not up for the fallout if Dad found out, and quite honestly, there’s never been anywhere I wanted to go.
Nick comes back with a wad of napkins and shoves half of them in Peyton’s face. She sets them down on the table, seemingly unconcerned with her stained clothes at this point.
“What’d I miss?” Nick asks, looking at each of us.
“We’re thinking about bailing. Getting out of here for the rest of the day,” she tells him.
“I’m in,” he says.
“We’ve got English