Abandon - Meg Cabot [56]
“Whoa,” Kayla interrupted, trying to keep the peace. “What is this? I thought we were just here to get ice cream.”
“Thank you,” I said to her gratefully. I’d never seen Alex so mad.
“Don’t thank me yet,” Kayla said. “Who orders a Coke float instead of a Gut Buster? That is just crazy.”
“Oh.” Mom had told me to be careful about inadvertently insulting the locals. I tried to think what Jade would do in my situation. “At least I didn’t ask for a Diet Coke,” I pointed out.
Kayla looked at me and shook her head slowly. “Are you sure she didn’t kill that teacher?” This was directed towards Alex.
“It’s not a joke,” he said. But he wasn’t looking at Kayla. He was looking at me. And he wasn’t talking about what I’d ordered, either. “Some of us actually live here, you know.”
It was what he’d said about the tourists on the way to school that morning.
And it hurt — exactly as he’d intended it to — because I knew it meant that’s how he thought of me…and Mom, too, probably. Like we were just passing through and didn’t care about the locals and their problems.
And it wasn’t even like we didn’t deserve it. Where had we been the whole time he’d been growing up without a mom or a dad, just crazy Grandma?
Of course we seemed like tourists to him. Even Richard Smith, the cemetery sexton, had pointed it out. Mom had never come back to Isla Huesos after I’d been born and Uncle Chris got arrested. I’d never met my grandfather. Not until his funeral. Where I’d met John.
Who, like Alex, just wanted me to leave him alone.
“I’m sorry,” I said to Alex, meaning it. “I know they only invited us because they want to play Check Out the New Girl. But who cares? They’ve got seats in the shade, and we won’t have to wait in this line anymore —”
“Maybe you want to go sit in the shade with them,” Alex said, practically seething with rage. “But the whole world doesn’t revolve around you, Pierce. Some of us might have issues with them. Real issues. Did you ever think of that?”
“What issues?” I asked. Now we were finally making progress. I’d been wondering this all afternoon. “What did Seth Rector ever do to you, Alex?”
“Just stay out of it, Pierce,” he said, scowling. “You don’t know what you’re getting yourself into, believe me.”
“Hey, you guys!” Farah, holding a tray loaded down with tall cups, waved to us from up near the front of the line. “You coming?”
“Uh,” I said, waving back. “Yeah! Hold on.”
I turned back towards Alex. “I don’t know what I’m getting myself into?” I asked him. “Are you kidding me? Do I have to remind you that I died? So whatever’s going on with you and Seth Rector, I highly doubt it’s worse than that.”
Kayla’s eyes got very large. “She died? Alex, you never told me that.”
Alex continued to glare down at me for a heartbeat or two. For a second, I thought he might actually tell me the truth. I could see his Adam’s apple moving up and down. Sweat was glistening all over his forehead and temples. He seemed to want to tell me…which would be convenient, since once I knew, I could begin to work on solving the problem. Some people might not want my help…
But disappointingly all he ended up saying was, “Screw it. You want to hang out with your new A-Wing friends, Pierce? Have fun. Have a blast. I’m out of here.”
Then he turned around without another word and headed across the parking lot towards his car.
“Crap,” Kayla said, watching him go. She turned to look at me. “All my stuff is still in his car. My books and everything.”
“It’s okay,” I said to her. “Go after him.”
Kayla hesitated as she looked past me, towards the table of stunningly attractive A-Wingers, all grabbing at the Gut Busters Farah and Seth had brought to them on trays.
“I don’t get it,” she said.
I raised my eyebrows. “Get what?”
“Why you’d ditch your own cousin to sit with them. They’re kind of mean to people who aren’t…like them.”
“I’m trying to make a new start,” I explained. “And part of it includes not letting bad things happen to people I love.”
“Oh,” Kayla said. She didn’t look as if she understood. But that was okay. No one did,