Page 66 of Eighteen (18)

“Well, I did show up because that school is stupid. No one ever got me that message and I took the bus all the way over here. I didn’t even have enough money left over to eat that day!”

I scream that last part. I might be losing it. All the shit that’s happened over the past year is coming out right now and Mateo had better get the hell away from me, because he’s my target.

Mateo sighs. “Do you want to go to Hawaii with me for spring break?”

“What?” I snap.

He’s got a pathetic smile on his face. Something that might be sheepishness, confusion, or maybe just fear. I hope it’s fear. “I have to go to Hawaii over break to do this demonstration of the stuff I’m writing about in my dissertation, and I’d like you to come.”

“Why?”

“Because I’m sorry. I should’ve called you first. And I want you to come. See what I do. Plus, if you spend any more time with Danny Alexander, I will throttle him.”

“You will not. He’s picking me up right now and if you so much as look at him funny, I will never talk to you again.”

Mateo sighs, runs his fingers through his hair, and then walks away and goes back inside.

I told him.

I tap my foot as I smoke.

Yup. Told his ass right off.

I blow some rings.

He can take his Hawaii trip and shove it up his ass.

Ten minutes later my cigarette is long gone and I’m calming down when Danny pulls in to the parking lot. I get in the passenger side and hug my backpack to my chest.

“Bad night?”

I nod.

“Did you fight with him?”

“Yes, a little. But that’s not the half of it. I wanted to take a test today to try and make progress in this class, so he gave it to me, and goddammit, Danny, it was the longest fucking question ever.”

“So you gave up and walked out?”

“How’d you guess?”

“You’re riled up.”

“I’m calm now.”

“So you didn’t understand the question? Maybe Mateo needs to change his teaching methods?”

I can’t tell if that’s a dig or not, so I assume it’s not. “It’s not that. I understood the question, but I don’t think I know the x and y coordinates of the unit circle from memory. I remember glancing at that section and seeing all this square root shit, and I said, fuck that.”

Danny laughs. “I didn’t realize ‘fuck that’ was an option in school. Maybe I’ve been doing it wrong? Did you study it?”

“Study it? I don’t study, Danny.”

“Oh.” He laughs. “Excuse me, Miss Einstein. Most of us dimwits have to study to pass tests.”

“I didn’t mean it that way. I just mean, usually I can remember enough from homework to get by. But this question was ridiculous, you know?”

“Ah,” he says as he drives. He probably thinks I’m emotionally unstable and a snooty bitch on top of it. “You wanna go out to eat with me? I’m buying.”