THIRTEEN

 

“Whoa,” I said as Chaz led me to his Audi.

“Where you want to go for lunch?” he asked as he started driving.

I shrugged. “I don’t know what’s around here. I live in another part of the city.”

“I know a great place on the way,” he said, turning on the stereo.

He picked some good music so I leaned back in the leather seat to listen and try to relax.

Just as I thought, the restaurant did not have anything under two bucks. It was no corner store with chicken boxes. Nicer than TGI ­Friday’s too. Damn, now I was going to have to say I wasn’t hungry and like be one of those weird girls who don’t eat. Or maybe I should say I forgot my cash and could I pay him back?

But what if I couldn’t get Mom to give me any cash? I didn’t want to wait until I got paid to pay him back. I wished I could ask when I’d get paid.

Too bad I couldn’t offer to pay him back for lunch with certain … favors. Hell, I’d have paid to get with him! I grinned at my menu, trying not to laugh.

“What are you smiling about?” Chaz asked.

I chuckled and slapped my menu shut. I’d decided to just take cash from Mom’s purse or ask Denise. This fancy place at least made chicken fingers and sauce, and I was so hungry.

“Nothing, but I forgot my cash today. Could you loan me some? I’ll pay you back tomorrow,” I said.

Chaz looked surprised. “No, no, I got it. Sorry, I should have said that before. Don’t worry about it.”

I smiled at him—we were on a date! Maybe there would be some action later in the car!

After the waitress left with our order, I pulled out my list.

“I’ve got some questions,” I said.

“You’re organized,” said Chaz.

I pretended to give him a dirty look.

“Don’t make fun of me for doing my job,” I pouted. “I watched that video and some more Johnson made, and I got questions.”

“Okay, shoot,” he said, sipping his beer.

“So who was JJ, I mean, Johnson, pretending to be when he talked to Billy and where did he have the camera? Have you seen it?”

“Okay, slow down,” said Chaz. “Jeff’s pretending to be just a regular guy helping with the mayor’s reelection campaign. We might even see him at the press conference today. But we can’t act all BFF,” (he used a girly voice) “with him or people will wonder why.”

I made a face at him. “Nobody at my school says ‘BFF’ anymore,” I told him. “But is he? Your BFF?”

“Jeff? No, I don’t really know him. Just met him when he came to me with the video,” said Chaz.

“I agree with Maya,” I said, slurping up the last of my soda with my straw and waving at a waitress. “He seems like an a-hole.”

“Well, he’s a useful a-hole,” said Chaz as the waitress brought our food.

I pressed my lips together to try to stop laughing. If I had been with my friends, I would have said, “Hey, all a-holes are useful when you gotta take a crap!” But I didn’t know Chaz well enough. I needed to look mature. I couldn’t be Crazy Destiny.

I focused on my food for a minute. There was some green sauce in a metal cup. I grabbed the ketchup bottle instead.

“As for the camera, I didn’t ask him about it. They make really little ones,” Chaz said. “Why you ask?”

“That video,” I stopped to swallow so I wasn’t talking with food in my mouth. “The one with Billy—it looks different than some other ones. You can see Billy’s face the whole time, and it’s like straight on. Like the camera’s on Johnson’s head.”

I put more salt on my fries. “In the other videos it’s like the camera’s in a bag or pocket or something.”

Chaz nodded, his forehead wrinkled while he chewed his salad. (I’m not going to lie: he really was eating a salad! But he was still cute.)

“Next question goes with that,” I said. “Is Billy Watts usually dumb? I’ve never seen one of these teeny cameras, but you’d think he would notice something if it was on Johnson’s head. And the stuff he said—why would he say that to some random guy if he knew it was illegal?”

“Well—,” Chaz began.

I kept going. “I mean, how dumb do you have to be to say to practically some stranger ‘Yeah, me and my dad are doing illegal stuff’?”

I made my crazy chipmunk face. At least that’s what Kendra calls it. It always cracks her up. Chaz didn’t laugh and I felt stupid. I took a big bite.

“These are good questions, Destiny,” said Chaz. He seemed kind of annoyed. “But you’re overthinking it. People, especially in politics, are just stupid sometimes. Are you finished? We should leave soon.”

He started talking about the weather, so I just ate. Guess I should just go back to listening, I thought.