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reserve as quickly as possible. "I don't understand."
    He opened his hands and then curled them into fists and pressed them together. "It's just . . . we've been together a year, you know?"
    "It's our anniversary," Carrie replied.
    "Well, that's the thing," he said. "There's this party over at Doug's--al the guys are there watching basketball right now. I mean, it's the finals. And I have to do this anniversary thing--"
    "Have to?" Carrie blurted, her heart palpitating out of control. "I thought you-wanted to be with me, not that you had to."
    "I do ... I mean ... I just . . . This is all coming out wrong," Jason said, looking at her with a pleading expression.
    Carrie stared back at him. What did he want her to do, make it easier for him to break up with her? Well, that wasn't going to happen. For a few moments the only sounds were the splatters of raindrops as they battered the car.
    "Look," Jason said, searching for the right words. "I just want to be able to hang out with my friends. It's not that I don't like you, it's just--"
    "You don't like me enough," Carrie said as she felt tears wel up in her eyes again. She blinked them back angrily. She'd thought she was all cried out, but that was back when she had believed she was going out with her cute-as-hel boyfriend to have an incredible time and get her mind off The Day It Al Changed to Crap, Part I. But the reality was clear. She was experiencing her first breakup and her first horrible moment after the loss of her lucky T. If only Piper were here. She'd finally be able to convince her best friend of the simple truth: life with lucky T = good; life without lucky T = bad.
    "Carrie, I feel terrible about this," Jason said when he noticed the tears.
    The tender tone of his voice was pushing Carrie over the edge into an alternate universe her mom liked to call The Temper Zone. Ever since she was little, she had the tendency to fly off the handle when things weren't going her way, and Carrie had a feeling that was going to be happening a lot more often now. Even so, she tried really hard to be graceful under pressure.
    "Well, Jason, you certainly know how to show a girl a good time," Carrie said snidely. "Woo-hoo! Happy anniversary!"
    She fumbled her way out of the car and slammed the door behind her. She raced back up to the house, taking the many rain-slicked steps two at a time. She couldn't believe this was happening. Everyone always said they were the perfect couple. That's exactly how Carrie saw her and Jason too. She was secretly hoping that they had something that would last forever or at least until their first year of college. How could he dump her on their anniversary?
    Did Jason have an iceberg for a heart or what?
    "Carrie!" Jason shouted behind her, causing her heart to leap. Maybe he'd realized he made a mistake. Maybe he was coming after her. Carrie turned around under the awning and saw him leaning over the passenger side seat, peering out the opened window so he could face her.
    "Yeah?" she said loudly.
    "So, we're broken up, right?" he asked.
    "What?!" she yelled, not quite able to believe what she'd just heard.
    "I mean, I just want to be clear," he said. "We're not together anymore."
    She wanted to hurl something at him. Something big and very, very heavy. She was now entering . . . The Temper Zone.
    Carrie took long strides back toward Jason and his precious Jeep that always smelled of Barbecue Lays, which at one point she really liked, but now the thought of it made her sick. The rain was pummeling her, yet Carrie didn't care how soaked she got. She and Jason were going to have words, all right. She was about to tell him everything that was on her mind and it wasn't going to be pretty. She was going to tell him that after he worked out and he took off his sneakers, the odor was so nasty it had killed every plant in her room. She was going to recommend that he invest in Proactiv because chronic back acne is not exactly a bonus. She was seconds away from