Page 33 of Sending Love Letters to Animals

“Okay,” I said. “It was pretty funny.”

Davud laughed. I started the car, wondering how I had sat so long with the car off and hadn’t felt the cold before. I had to have been really deep in thought to have not noticed it. When I started the car, I turned the heat on full blast as we sat there, waiting for the inside to warm up.

“So,” Davud said, holding his hands up to the vents on the dashboard, “why were you lurking in the parking lot anyway? Waiting to pick up sailors?”

“I wish.” I chuckled. “Nah. I was just thinking.”

“What about?”

“Just…stuff.”

“Oh my God, dude.” Davud groaned. “Do I need to pry it out of you? What were you thinking about?”

“It’s nothing, I mean, it’s just,” I said with a sigh, “I was thinking about what Ms. Tabatabai said in English today. And…”

Davud stared at me.

“Chris,” I said with a shrug.

“Your project partner?”

“Yeah.”

“What about him?”

“You know,” I mumbled. “He’s making the project difficult.”

Davud nodded, flexing his fingers as the vents began to blow slightly warmer air.

“He seemed unpleasant the other day.”

“Yeah.”

“Did you guys get off on the wrong foot or something?” He asked. “Because that’s gotta be a record, right? Less than twenty-four hours after meeting him, you alienated the new kid.”

I snorted.

“It wasn’t twenty-four hours.”

“Fine, whatever. Be pedantic. Eighteen hours or whatever.”

“I didn’t meet Chris on his first day here,” I said with a resigned sigh. “I knew him before high school. Uh, we were friends in junior high.”

Davud cocked his head to the side and frowned.

“I went to junior high with you, too,” he said. “I don’t remember him.”

“Well,” I said, “you probably just don’t remember him. It was four years ago, after all. And you were too busy being big man on campus then.”

Davud grinned ruefully.

“Yeah. I guess I was kind of a douchebag then, huh? Nothing like losing the use of your legs to teach a guy humility.”

“Dude.”

“Sorry.”

“I didn’t mean it that way, anyway,” I said. “Just, you know, you didn’t really hang out with the same people as me. That’s all.”