On the car ride home, we listened to Plain Jane songs until finally Mr. Ramdal told us he couldn’t take it anymore and turned on the news.
Nareem took that opportunity to ask me the question I’d been waiting for.
“What did you want to talk to me about?”
My first plan was to play dumb. “Huh?”
“In study hall yesterday,” Nareem reminded me (as if I needed reminding). “You said you wanted to talk to me about something, but then I told you about the Plain Jane concert, and you never told me.”
“Oh, right.” I moved on to my second plan. “I just wanted to tell you that I was sorry I was kind of rude to you at lunch. Everyone was texting instead of talking, and I started to get annoyed.”
First lie.
“People text instead of talk all the time,” Nareem pointed out.
“I know, but I think it’s starting to get out of control.”
“You sound like Jane,” Nareem said, smiling. “Don’t control—connect!”
“Well, she’s right, don’t you think?”
Nareem shrugged. “Sure, if you say so.”
Right at that moment, of course, I got a text. I ignored it, which wasn’t easy. Anybody knows that ignoring an unread text, when it’s just sitting there on your phone, is one of the hardest things to do in the entire world.
“You got a text,” Ru announced, unnecessarily.
“You’re not going to read it?” Nareem asked.
“No.”
He started to laugh. “Come on. Get it. You know you want to.”
“I don’t! Seriously, I don’t.”
We rode in silence for a minute until finally I said, “Fine,” and pulled out my phone.
It was from Charlie Joe.
How was the concert with your not-ex-boyfriend?
I put my phone away.
“Who was it?” Nareem asked.
I shook my head. “My mom, just wanting to know when I’d be home.”
Second lie.
I’d never lied to Nareem before, and now I had told him two lies in two minutes.
Not a good sign.