Read Top Ten Uses for an Unworn Prom Dress for Free Online

out loud that he played favorites.
    But I'd gotten what I wanted, so I was willing to be nice.
    “Okay, Dad,” I managed. “Sure.” I peeked out ofthe rectangular window beside his door and saw Jared's car.
    “I—I've got to go.”
    “Call me. Tell me how this works out.” He squeezed my arm and looked into my eyes. For a second I thought he was going to tell me he loved me. Then he let me go. “And drive carefully.”
    I can't remember the walk from the house to the car, but suddenly there I was on the curb, reaching for the door handle. The door popped open as if on its own, Jared inside, stretching over the gearshift.
    I slid in, touched by his unexpected chivalry. I looked at him to say thanks, and something puppy-dog warm in his eyes gazed back at me. Implying … I don't know … that he cared about how it had all gone?
    And how did I reward this? I burst into tears.
    Omigod.
    I turned away. Only to feel his hand gently stroke my hair. I wanted to
lurch
away. I mean, this was Jared. The guy who wouldn't talk to me in front of anyone at school. Who made me
pay
him to drive me around.
    I was crying. In his car. And he was doing exactly what I was scared of. He was pitying me.
    For the rest of the school year, whether on the bleachers or in the halls, whether I was pretending to see him or not—I'd know he'd seen me like this.
    Ugh. Suddenly, losing the house and being forced to move didn't seem so bad.
    By the time I pulled myself together, we were merging into a sea of red brake lights. Serious freewaytraffic. But that was okay. I needed time to decompress before my face-to-face with Mom.
    “So what's the story with that?” Jared asked, pointing at my left hand.
    For a crazy moment I thought he was asking about my amethyst birthstone ring. It was a gift from my parents on my twelfth birthday—the last we all spent together—and I had this weird habit of twisting it when I was bored, angry, or nevous. Then I saw I was still holding Dad's check.
    I folded the check in half and tucked it into my pocket. “Oh—I need to deposit it. On Friday.” My thoughts scrambled. “But I can't get out of practice twice in one week, so I don't suppose you could run me to the bank during lunch?”
    He threw a look in his rearview mirror, then at me. “My lunch hour fee is double.”
    For real?
    “But,” he said, disrupting my disbelief, “I'll settle for a Whopper, fries, and a drink.”
    After the crying jag, calmness had crept through my body, making me oddly comfortable sitting there in the car. Relaxed, almost. A relieved laugh bubbled inside me, but for some reason I couldn't let it out. Or him off so easily.
    “Yeah, Jared, but everybody at school goes to Burger King. We could be seen. The Extra-Hot Senior,” I said, making little quotation marks with my bent fingers, “and his little sister's friend. Think of the gossip.”
    A confident smile blazed across his mouth, whichnot only touched his eyes, but strangely touched something in me, too. I didn't know what exactly—and I didn't know if I liked it, either. But the guy was not without style, whether I wanted to admit it or not.
    He threw me a look. “Among other things, I'm thinking it will piss Rascal off.”
    “Rascal?”
    “Yeah. After yesterday at your locker, he thinks we're getting together. And it's bugging him.”
    I felt my jaw drop. “He
told
you that?”
    “He didn't have to. It's all over his stupid face.”
    “So … you think he's jealous?” I held myself in check while the “Hallelujah Chorus” played in my head.
    “What did I just say?” He turned and glared at me. “Oh, come on, you don't actually still
like
him, do you?”
    (Did the joyful notes reflect in my eyes?) “No. No, of course not.”
    “I mean,” his voice noticeably raised, “not after what he did to you?”
    I gave my head a firm shake.
    “Good. Otherwise you could
walk
home.”
    I nodded, my thoughts all over the jealous thing. Maybe that was why Kylie had