Juliet Immortal

face and Gemma laughs. “For real. She’s such a kiss-ass. And all her little dancer friends are professionally lame.” She shakes her head and throws a fry back into its box. “People here suck. I can’t wait to graduate.”
    “But Ben seems cool,” I say, watching her reaction. “He helped me with the sets today. He said he was going to ask you to go out for coffee after—”
    “He did,” she says, suddenly very interested in the bottom of her cup. “We went to the Windmill, but it was closed early, so we just sat in my car and talked. It was … good. I think we understand each other.”
    “That’s great!” It’s also a huge relief. Maybe this mission won’t be as hard as I thought. “He’s so nice.”
    “He really is. It’s hard to believe he ever—” Gemma breaks off with a guilty look and takes another drink of her wine. “This is pretty good. Your mother’s taste is improving.”
    “Hard to believe he ever what?” I ask, waiting for a second before pushing harder. “I thought we were going to talk.”
    “Do we have to?” Gemma whines, stuffing more fries in her mouth. “Can’t we just sing about how the Sharks rock and how we’re going to pound Jet face at the school dance? That song is fun. Let’s sing.”
    “I’m still eating, and you’re not supposed to sing within thirty minutes of eating.”
    “That’s swimming, dork.”
    “No, it’s singing, doofus.”
    Gemma cocks her head. “Well, well, aren’t we sassy today.”
    I swallow and remind myself not to overdo it with theconfidence. I shrug and reach for my milk shake. “My best friend has been holding out on me. It makes me sassy.”
    “Understandable.” Gemma sighs as she mops ketchup off her fingers with a napkin. “It’s mostly my dad. He’s been making my life hell. Did you hear that he’s thinking of running for the Senate?”
    “No. I haven’t really—”
    “Of course you haven’t.” She rolls her eyes. “Who has? Who cares? I mean, the entire government is corrupt anyway. It’s beyond saving. We might as well burn Washington, blow up Fox News, and start over.”
    “But your dad doesn’t agree.”
    “Of course not. He wants to be a Super-Important Big-Shot Douche, and doesn’t care how miserable he has to make me to do it. He’s gone completely over the edge.”
    “What do you mean?”
    “I mean, getting on my Facebook to check for ‘content’ and stealing my cell phone every few days is no longer enough to entertain him,” she says, the bitterness in her voice making me feel for her. “I think he read my diary.”
    “What!” I can’t imagine anything more embarrassing than having someone else read your private thoughts. Especially a parent. “That’s repulsive.”
    “That’s Bob Sloop,” Gemma says. “Anyway, something he read made him think I was doing drugs. He started looking around and he found some pot, the stuff I got from Niles a few months ago?”
    “Niles …” The name doesn’t ring any bells. I don’t think Ariel met him.
    “You know? The priv-ass school loser I was dating before Christmas? The one with the breath that smelled like dogfood?” She waves her hand in the air before starting to stuff empty wrappers back into paper bags. “Whatever. It doesn’t matter. Niles gave me some BC Bud before we broke up, as some kind of Christmas present or something. I had it in one of my old makeup bags and forgot about it. Dad found it and went crazy. I told him I’d only smoked a couple times and it wasn’t a big deal, but he kept freaking out.”
    “What about your mom?” I ask. “She’s let you drink wine since you were sixteen. Didn’t she think—”
    “I know, right? You’d think she’d be cool, but she’s completely up Dad’s butt about this Senate thing.” Gemma crosses to the trash can and shoves the bags in with too much force. “She totally wants to move to Washington and socialize with a wider variety of snotty, ass-faced people. She didn’t say
anything
, even when Dad made me go to this rehab group for ‘troubled teens.’ They both know I don’t have a problem, they’re just … assholes.” She rolls her eyes again and flops back into her chair. “So yeah, that’s where I’ve been every Monday and Wednesday morning. And why I stopped picking you up. Sorry.”
    “Oh, Gemma. You should have told me.” I’m starting to feel for this girl. With a family like hers, it’s amazing she’s not more of a mess.
    “I know.”