EIGHTEEN 

 

The rest of the week was calm and kind of boring. Maya didn’t talk to me or Chaz much. I remembered what he said about her being bitter, and I thought he must have turned her down. I bet she didn’t like that he kept flirting with me.

Sometimes it seemed like everyone had stuff they wanted me to help with. Other times I was totally just surfing the Web for a couple of hours. I tried to read the kind of political news that the blog was about, but I’d get tired of it.

The next week on Wednesday, Maya said casually, “Just wanted to let you know that Friday is my last day here.”

“What? How come?” I asked, really surprised.

“Oh, I just got another job that’s a better fit,” she said, turning back to her computer.

I looked at her back for a minute and then shrugged. Oh, well.

On Friday at lunch Chaz brought in a cake to say good-bye to Maya. He mostly talked to me at her “party.”

I was standing at the bus stop, waiting to go home, when Maya came out of the building. She walked over to me.

“There’s something I think you should know,” she said quickly. I pulled out my earbud. “You’re right about the video.”

I nodded. I didn’t know what Chaz had told her about it so I wasn’t spilling the beans.

“And Chaz has always known it was a fake.”

“Okaaaaay …” I said, looking over her shoulder for the bus.

“Chaz doesn’t like Holt,” she continued, looking at me hard.

“Wait, what?” I said, confused.

“And he has a girlfriend. Sorry.” Maya turned around and walked away fast.

“What you talking about?” I yelled, trying to decide if I should run after her. Just then the bus pulled up. “Uggghhh!” I exclaimed, giving Maya the finger.

An old lady getting off the bus shook her head at me.