Chapter 31

I keep concentrating on cutting my lettuce into tiny pieces and dipping each one into the dressing.

Derek plops down with a tray full of french fries and says, “Yo! Did you guys hear about how Mr. Dunlevy got a DUI over the weekend?”

“Yeah, I heard,” Rennie says. “Coach Christy was pissed. I mean, he gets paid extra to teach us driver’s ed.”

I take another bite of salad. Chew. Chew. Chew.

“Sophia, weren’t you and Leonid in driver’s ed with him last year?” Alex asks. “Did he ever smell like booze?”

I shrug. Leonid shrugs too. Neither of us says anything.

“Huh,” Alex says, and there’s this slight edge in his voice. He’s looking at me, and then he jerks his thumb in Leonid direction. “You were so chummy-chummy at your party on Friday. And now you can barely stand to look at each other. What gives?”

I almost choke on the piece of hard-boiled egg in my mouth. It tastes like dust.

Lazily, Leonid says, “Sophia and I remembered that we don’t actually like each other,” and Rennie smiles a cat