Page 25 of Rules for Rule Breaking
“If we don't eat at exactly six, will you live, or are you going to have a Pavlovian fit and salivate to death?”
Bobby’s fist was clenched. “I’ll live. Unfortunately.”
He took to spreading his butter evenly over his top waffle, making sure each nook was equally filled with syrup before cutting off a perfectly square piece using the pockets as a grid. “Anyway,” he said, placing the square of squares into his mouth. “We never discussed the whole rule-breaking thing any further. Is that still something you wanted to do?”
Winter swallowed her pancakes down with a big gulp of iced coffee and blinked away a brain freeze. “I don’t think we should roundtable our rebellion.”
“I’m pretty sure every rebellion in history was roundtabled.”
“Touché, but I think we should try to be spontaneous about it if we’re going to do it at all.”
The corners of Bobby’s lips curled upward into a cocky smile. “Have you done anything bad since we talked about this the first time?”
Winter raised an eyebrow. There was no way Bobby was winning at having a rebellious phase. She didn’t know what that face was all about.
“I stole flowers this morning,” Winter blurted.
“Stole flowers?”Bobby repeated with a laugh.
“Yes. I dug them up from the community garden and replanted them on my grandmother’s patio.”
Bobby put down his knife and fork. “So you’re telling me you took flowers from the community property and moved them to another part of the community property?”
“Yeah, so what?” Winter flicked some of the condensation fromher coffee at him. “Whatever. We weren’t supposed to start without each other. What didyoudo?”
“I smoked with Kai yesterday.”
That explained the vape Kai had passed Bobby that morning. That was more in the direction she was thinking for their rebellion, but she didn’t want to give Bobby the point.
“That’s legal in some places, so it doesn’t count. Destruction of property and theft are illegal in every state, soboom,” she said, miming a bomb explosion with her hand.
They quieted when the waitress came to give them their check and some to-go containers for Winter’s extra fruit salad. Bobby was probably afraid the waitress was a nark.
“Do something now, then,” Bobby said once the waitress had gone, and pushed Winter the check. “Don’t pay for this meal.”
“You mean dine and dash? That’s a little immature, don’t you think?” she asked, pushing the check back.
Bobby put his finger on it and slid it back to Winter. “You just don’t want to do it. It’s up to you.”
And with that, Bobby Bae got up and walked toward the door, tipping his nonexistent hat at the hostess and waitress as he weaved through the tightly packed tables.
Winter looked down at the bill and panicked. It wasn’t that much money, and there were so many people in the diner. The waitress probably wouldn’t go into financial ruin if she missed the tip on this one check. But maybe she’d have to cover the check with her own money. Winter didn’t know if that was a myth or if restaurants actually did that. What if she got arrested? It was technically theft. Would Halmeoni be proud or upset? It would be breaking a rule. But were lemon blueberry pancakes the hill she wanted to die on?
Winter made a snap decision and ran outside to meet Bobby.
“Run!” Winter shouted as she power walked to the car.
“You actually did it?” Bobby asked, eyes wide.
“Get in the car. Let’s go.”
They both hopped into the SUV, slammed the doors, and secured their seat belts. Just then, the waitress came running out of the diner, waving at them. Her blue eye shadow caught the light, and she looked ten years older.
“You weren’t supposed to actually do it!” Bobby yelled, throwing his arm behind Winter’s headrest as he reversed. “What do I do?”
“I don’t know. Drive!”
“I’ll run her over!”
