“Shouldn’t I be bragging about nailing you?”
“Nah.” She waved him off. “I’m easy. But you’re not.” She leaned her head against his shoulder. “I used to feel bad about it—being so . . . slutty. But then I found out that Shannon was not only doing JD when she was going with Weekly, she was also doing Salinez because she found out that Chelsea was doing Weekly. And then, of course, Ro did JD while she was going with you.” She shrugged. “I mean, if everyone is a skank, why be embarrassed?”
“Your logic is impeccable.” Ben regarded her face. He lifted her chin and kissed her minty mouth. They started making out. The order of events was backward, but it felt nice, so what the hell.
Lisa purred. “She also said you were a good kisser.”
“Just good?”
“Well, maybe she said great.” Her hands drifted to his crotch. “You want to do it? I mean really do it?”
“No, no. This is fine.”
“Your words don’t match other parts of you.”
“That is true enough.” Ben pulled her hand away and kissed it very gallantly. “No, Lisa, although you are gorgeous and I am still horny, I will be a gentleman and pass. So remember this moment. There are nice guys in this world.”
“You’re a dying breed.”
“That is probably true but I’m not dead yet.”
“Some other time, then, but don’t wait too long.” She sat up. “In a month I’m gone. My dad can’t wait for me to come and my mom can’t wait for me to go.”
“Where’s your dad? Houston?”
“Dallas. But I’ll be dorming at school. You should think about UT, Vicks. It’s not that far from New Mexico and Austin’s a great city.”
“Yeah, it is a great city.”
“Why are you hanging around here? You should be at MIT or Harvard.”
Ben just laughed.
“What’s so funny?”
“Nothing at all.” He took her hand and pulled her up. “Wanna go back to the gym before we both get expelled?”
“Nah, let’s just get out of here for good. I’m hungry.”
“Sure. Where do you want to go?”
“Kiki’s. I want to run into Ro and let her know we were up to something.”
“You girls are very catty.”
“Vicks, that’s what prom is all about. Looking hot so the boys leer at you and the girls give you dirty looks. In that regard, I consider my senior prom a big, big success.” She kissed his nose. “And it’s all because of you.”
“I am happy to have fulfilled your revenge fantasy.”
“It wasn’t a fantasy, dude. I really did blow you.”
Now, how do you respond to that? Ben laughed again. Hand in hand, they walked out of the school and toward the parking lot, which was filled to capacity. It took him a while to remember where he parked. When he found his wheels—the car had been blocked by a limo—he pulled out his keys. But as he got closer, Ben stopped dead and yanked Lisa back. Blood rushed to his brain. His heart was going haywire. “My tires are flat.”
Lisa dropped his hand. “Wow.”
Ben walked around the car. “All four of them.”
“Someone pranked you—let the air out.”
He knelt down and looked at the squashed rubber. “This isn’t a prank. They’re cut.”
“What?” There was fear in Lisa’s voice. “You mean like someone slashed them?”
“Yep. All four of them.” It kicked something into his brain. He felt his head go light. “Oh my God!”
He took off toward the gym, did a U-turn, grabbed Lisa’s hand, and dragged her with him.
“What’s wrong, Ben?”
He didn’t answer. Couldn’t get the words out. When they arrived back inside, Ben scanned the room, but he couldn’t find Ro anywhere. He did see JD talking to Weekly and Salinez and ran up to them. “Where’s Ro?”
“Hey, Vicks.” He was smirking. “How’d it go?”
Apparently, his dread wasn’t apparent in the dim light. Ben grabbed JD’s shoulders tightly and enunciated very clearly. “Where? Is? Ro?”
“In the bathroom or something. What the hell is wrong with you?”
Ben raced to the girls’ bathroom and flung open the door. There were a few gasps and a few screams, but he saw her in a corner, talking to Shannon while putting on lipstick. Before he could get a word out, she was glaring at him. “Where’ve you been?”
Ben hugged her tightly. Lisa followed him inside. He was about to offer an explanation, but horror seized his insides. He began to shake as he took out his cell and called home. Thank God for speed dial. He was sure that he couldn’t have come up with his own phone number right then. Haley answered and relief washed over him.
“Where are you?” he shouted into his cell.
“Uh, you called me,” she answered.
“Are Mom and Dad home?” Someone asked him to leave the girls’ bathroom. Ben took the conversation outside. To Haley, he said, “Mom and Dad are home, right?”
“Yeah.”
“Lock the doors and don’t open them, no matter what.” He heard a voice in the background. “Who’s there with you? Griff?”
“For your information, it happens to be Lilly. We’re looking at dresses in the fashion mags for morp.”
“Lilly’s there? Even better. She’s sleeping over, right?”
“Yeah, of course.” A pause. “Ben, what’s going on?”
“I’ll call you later.” He hung up.
Ro emerged from the bathroom. “What is wrong with you?”
Lisa said, “Someone slashed all the tires on his car.”
Ro gasped and brought her hand to her mouth. The color drained from her face. “Slashed? Like with a knife?”
“Yeah, like with a knife.”
Lisa said, “Ben, you need to call the police.”
Ro said, “Ben, call Shanks.”
Call Shanks.
His thoughts exactly.
Chapter 7
There seemed to be as many people around the car as there were inside the gym. A gaggle of girls had gathered in a circle, worried looks on their faces, rubbing each other’s arms to keep warm and yakking away with one another. The guys chose to say nothing. Instead they walked around the car, examining the situation, nodding as if they were having profound thoughts. Ben distanced himself and made phone calls. Within a half hour, he had a genuine powwow: Mom and Dad, Haley and Lilly, two squad cars from the River Remez Police, the girls’ and boys’ VPs, and the school’s illustrious, fuming principal, Mr. Beltran.
“Whoever did this is not going to get away with it!” He too was orbiting the car, eyeing the damage. “Not on my watch.” He looked at Ben. “You have no idea who did this?”
Of course he had an idea. But he wasn’t going to share it. “It was probably random, sir.” Liar, liar, pants on fire. “I’m never in school anymore. Who’d even care about me enough to piss me off?”
“Well, we’ll see about that.”
As soon as Ben saw Sam’s car pull up, he knew he was in for it. Shanks stormed through the yellow crime-scene ribbon and surveyed the compromised car. After a thorough look at four flat pieces of rubber, he said, “What do you know about this?”
Ben threw up his hands.
“Don’t give me that bullshit.”
“Talk about blaming the victim.”