Wayward Son - Rainbow Rowell Page 0,17

like I’m in an ’80s band—but something less metal. Bucks Fizz or Wham!. (My mum was a fiend for Wham!.)

I find Snow and Bunce in a giant vinyl booth. Simon is hogging the breadbasket and paging through a menu so lengthy, it’s spiral-bound. Penny is sitting across from him; I’ve seen zombies with more spirit.

“This menu’s staggering,” Simon says. “There’s a whole page of taco salads. They’ve got macaroni and cheese, regular or fried. And every kind of chicken—look, orange chicken.”

I sit next to him. “What’s orange chicken?”

“Does what it says on the tin, I assume.”

When the waitress comes, I order a steak as raw as they’ll allow it. Snow orders the “American Burger.” Bunce says she’ll have “what they’re having.”

“The burger or the steak?” the waitress asks.

“Penny,” Simon says, “you don’t eat beef.”

“Oh,” she says. “Then I’ll have the … I’ll have whatever people have.”

“People like the Buffalo Blasts,” the waitress says.

“Isn’t buffalo still beef?” Simon asks me.

I shrug. I don’t know the first thing about buffalo.

“They’re chicken,” the waitress says. “With buffalo sauce.”

“Fine,” Penny agrees.

“I suppose she can skip the sauce.…” Simon mutters after the waitress has walked away.

I get that Bunce is in a catatonic state, but we really need to talk about our plan now. I need the old Bunce back. With the chalkboards and the diagrams. “So, about tonight,” I say, “I assume we don’t have a place to sleep.”

Snow and I wait for her to answer. She’s staring at a spot between the breadbasket and Simon’s shoulder.

“Right,” I say. “Hand over your mobile, Bunce, I’ll find us a hotel.… Bunce?… Penelope.” She looks up. “Your phone?”

“It died in the car,” she says. “And I couldn’t charge it.”

“Where’s your phone?” Simon asks me.

“It doesn’t work out of the country.”

“Why didn’t you switch it over?”

Because I’m on my parents’ plan, and I didn’t want them to know I was leaving the country, which I don’t want to tell Simon. “Did you switch yours?” I say instead.

“No. I figured you and Penny would.”

Bunce is staring at her lap now.

“Penelope?” Simon asks. “Are you okay?”

“Clearly not,” I whisper.

“Penelope?”

“I want to go home,” she says abruptly.

Simon sits back. “What?”

“This was a mistake.” She’s looking more like her usual bold self, but with a manic edge I don’t like. “I didn’t think this through. I’m sorry.”

“Can we do that?” I ask. “Our tickets—”

“There’s got to be a spell to change them,” she says.

“There isn’t a spell for everything,” Simon says unpleasantly.

She shrugs. “Then we’ll buy new tickets.”

I huff. “We already stole these!”

Bunce won’t be discouraged: “Then you can buy us new ones, Baz—you’re rich.”

It’s not like her to throw my money in my face. “I’m on an allowance,” I say, “and I can’t use my Visa. My parents don’t even know I’m here.”

“Well,” she says, “my parents don’t know I’m here.”

Simon looks hurt. “Why didn’t you guys tell your parents?”

“Because this was a terrible idea, Simon”—Penny’s voice is breaking—“and they would have said no!”

Simon drops his elbows on the table and his forehead on his hands. “Can we even pay for dinner?”

“I’ll pay for dinner,” I say. “But I can’t pay for airline tickets. And we can’t just keep stealing. A youthful indiscretion is one thing—the Coven might overlook that. This is turning into a crime spree.”

“It isn’t a crime spree!” Penny retorts. “We’re not robbing banks and murdering people.”

“Yet!” I say.

“I just—” Her chin is wobbling now. “I really thought this would work out. I thought—” She closes her eyes and opens her mouth, taking a deep breath, then sucks in her lips and exhales through her nose. It takes me a second to realize she’s trying not to cry. “I thought it would be different if I talked to him face-to-face. And it was. It was so different.”

“You mean Micah?” Snow asks.

“Of course she means Micah,” I say.

Simon keeps prodding at her. “Did he break up with you?”

“Uh, no.” Bunce’s voice is thready. “Apparently he’d already done that. And I just hadn’t got the message.”

“Damn,” Simon whispers. We’ve both leaned back in the booth, like we’re trying to back away from the horror of this news. Like Bunce is suddenly contagious.

And I know this makes me a shit, but my first thought is that Simon and I have been given a reprieve. Like the Grim Relationship Reaper came and accidentally took Penelope and Micah instead of us.

15

SIMON

Penelope and Micah are going to get married, and Penny’s going to move to America and leave me alone—I’ve been bracing for