Page 121 of Jake Forever
"Then I don't care," Bishop said.
Suddenly, I felt all warm and fuzzy. In spite of everything, I had to smile.
As for Bianca, she was definitely not smiling. "I'm a friend of Jake's," she told him. "Doesn't that count?"
"No," he said.
"Why not?" she demanded.
"Because you're lying."
She gave a huff. "I most certainly am not."
"Yeah. You are," he said. "If you were his friend, you'd be nicer to his girl."
Bianca's eyes narrowed. "In case you didn't know,Iused to be his girl, and nobody was nice to me."
Bishop shrugged. "Might be a reason for that."
I felt myself nod in agreement. "And besides," I told her, "you were never his girlfriend. You went out a couple of times. That's it."
She gave me an annoyed look. "You don't know anything."
"I know you're a fibber," I said. "Does that count?"
"No, itdoesn’tcount. And I'mnota fibber, whatever that is."
Ignoring our exchange, Bishop turned back to me and said, "About Joel, how long ago did he leave?"
Next to him, Bianca gave another stomp of her foot. "Oh, for God's sake, I'm here about Joel, not that either of you seem to care."
That made us pause. Together, Bishop and I turned to look. It was Bishop who said, "What?"
"Yes," Bianca snapped. "As I've been trying to tell you, there's a reason I'm here."
Bishop said, "Which is…?"
Bianca straightened. After a long dramatic pause, she said, "About an hour ago, Vince met with Joel and told him that the deal was off. And, as you can imagine, Joel didn't take it so well."
From what I'd seen, that was a massive understatement. I looked to Bishop and said, "I can vouch for that. When he stopped by, he wasreallymad."
Bianca gave us a smug smile. "See? So here I am, trying to warn Jake, not that anyone seems to appreciate it."
Bishop asked, "Warn him of what?"
"Apparently," Bianca said, "Joel thinks that Jake had had something to do with it."
Before I could stop myself, I asked, "Did he?"
"Of course he did," Bianca said, "not that Joel was supposed to find out."
Bishop studied Bianca's face. In a carefully measured tone, he said, "So howdidhe find out?"
"How should I know?" Bianca said.
I spoke up. "I know how. Vince told him." I looked to Bianca and said, "I'm right, aren't I?"
"No," she said. "You're not." She glanced away. "Not exactly."
