Kennedy plopped her tray down next to mine and took a bite of her apple.
My eyes were glued to the Untouchables’ empty table. They had been late to school. And now late to lunch too. I bit the inside of my lip. What the hell was going on?
“What’s up with you?” Kennedy asked. “I thought you’d be all excited for lunch so you could stalk Matthew.”
“I’m not stalking him.” Part of me wanted to tell her about what I’d seen this morning. But it wasn’t my business.
“So you aren’t going to march up to their table and sit with them? It’s the perfect time. You can just sit there and they’ll have to join you when they come.”
I laughed. “No.”Definitely not.
“Suit yourself,” she said with a shrug. “I’m actually a little relieved. I thought you were going to ditch me.”
“Nunca.”
Kennedy laughed and took another bite of her apple. “Nunca.”
I tried to focus on Kennedy instead of the empty table. “How was photography?”
“Great, I got to develop some prints.” She pulled out a picture from her backpack and handed it to me. It was one she took of us Friday night, smiling in my room. It was strange seeing myself so happy when I felt so completely not. I tried to hand it back to her.
“It’s yours,” she said.
“I can keep it?”
“Yeah. I thought you needed some pictures of me in your room.”
I laughed. “Thanks, Kennedy.” I was determined to be that happy girl in the picture. Having evidence that I could be was going to be a great reminder.
“Did you break your mile time yet?” she asked.
“No, not yet.” I glanced at the Untouchables empty table again. No sign of any of them. “Do you know Felix?”
Kennedy dropped her apple on her plate. “Yes. Why? Doyouknow him?”
“He’s in my gym class. He talked to me today.”
She raised both her eyebrows. “To like…sell you something?”
“Um…no? He was just being nice.”
Kennedy leaned forward. “He’s a drug dealer, Brooklyn. Drug dealers aren’t just nice for the sake of being nice. He’s trying to get you to buy from him.”
A drug dealer? I laughed.No way.“I think you have the wrong Felix. I didn’t get his last name, but it’s not the guy you’re thinking of. He didn’t try to sell me anything.”
“That’s the whole point. He befriends you and makes you think he’s all sweet and then asks you to buy stuff. It’s his play.” Shelifted her apple back up and took a bite that I could only describe as violent. “Trust me. Felix is bad news.”
“Bad news?” Felix asked as he sat down next to Kennedy. “I’m hurt. I thought we were friends.”
“In your dreams,” Kennedy said.
He flashed her that same cocky smile he’d flashed me earlier.
“Brooklyn is not a customer, so take your antics somewhere else.”
“Ouch.” Felix touched his chest. “That hurts. I’m just being cordial. Can’t a guy come say hello?”
“Not when he’s you.”