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shortcut through the tables to the exit. Suddenly I felt surrounded bypeople I knew. People who knew
me
. I noticed Adriane Salah from my biology class talking with a bunch of girls by the Eatsa Pizza. A guy who looked kind of familiar was shoving down a burrito. A girl with big silver earrings was staring right at me.
    I had to get out of there.
    I didn’t run, but I wanted to.

Chapter Fourteen
    I got into the first cab I could find.
    â€œWhere to?” the driver said.
    I wanted to say, “Just get me out of here,” but that would look bad. He’d think something was up.
    My mind went blank. I couldn’t think of anywhere to go.
    I went, “Ah...” The driver tapped on the steering wheel for a while. Then he flicked on the meter.
    I had to be cool.
    I said, “Know any nice hotels near the airport?” That sounded good to me. Sort of natural. The type of thing a businessman would say. The driver would just think I was someone passing through. He wouldn’t take much notice of me. That’s the way I wanted it.
    â€œYeah, sure,” he said. “Sit back and relax. I’ll have you there in a jiffy.” He pulled out of the parking lot like he was driving a getaway car.
    The highway gave me time to think. That thing in the food court was too close for comfort. How many people had seen me? How many people knew who I was? Maybe I was fooling myself. Maybe everyone could tell that blond guy was just Chris Bent in a suit and glasses.
    I thought about Oxner. He had a weird look on his face. What was he thinking? Did he know it was me?
    My heart went crazy for a while, and then it hit me. Oxner never missed a chance to get me in trouble. He’d probablyspent that whole day plotting what he’d do when he finally got his hands on me. If he’d recognized me, he would have said something. I was sure of it.
    But why the look on his face then?
    Maybe Oxner just didn’t like having some stranger’s hand all over his coffee cup. It would sure gross me out—even if the guy was wearing a nice suit.
    Then I remembered that skuzzy mug Oxner kept on his desk. If he could drink out of that, he could drink out of anything. There was no way he would have cared about my hand on his coffee cup.
    I pictured him again in the food court, looking up at me. He didn’t look disgusted. His lip wasn’t curled up or anything. He seemed more embarrassed, like he didn’t want to have to talk to anyone, like he just wanted to go back to being by himself.
    That was it.
    Oxner was embarrassed! I knew why too. He was embarrassed by his sad little life. He got caught all alone, eating some plate of greasy sweet-and-sour pork insome pathetic food court. He gets to act like some big shot at school all day, but the truth is he’s nothing. You can tell just by those stupid polo shirts he wears. The guy probably lives in some stinking little basement apartment. He’s got no wife, no friends, no life. He goes to the mall to get away from it all. Then some young guy in an expensive suit bangs into his table and reminds him what a failure he is.
    It made sense. That’s why he looked so weird. He was humiliated. Suddenly, I couldn’t have been happier.
    I relaxed. I watched the trucks whiz by. I wasn’t so worried about those other people in the food court anymore either. Adriane Salah probably didn’t even see me. She was too busy laughing with her friends. The guy eating the burrito looked familiar but so what? Guys in their forties basically all look the same. The girl with the big earrings was staring at me all right, but I could explain that too. Girls look at guys. She was probably wondering who I was. I bet if I’d hung around a while longershe would have come up with some excuse to talk to me.
    The driver pulled up in front of the Aerolux Inn. “That will be twenty-six dollars and twenty-five cents, sir.”
    That kind of shocked me. I didn’t