David walked out of school on Monday afternoon with his head hung low. Earlier, his science teacher had wondered aloud if he’d broken his neck. He had a date to meet Amanda at Silver Spurs. He planned to arrive early and order a strawberry milk shake, on the off chance that the sugar rush would make him happy.
“Have a good night, crybaby,” somebody yelled out.
“Hey, everybody make way for the most sensitive guy in the world!” a freshman on the hockey team yelled.
David knocked the kid out of his way without looking up. The guys from the hockey team had, of course, seen the Rangers-Flyers game. And his own guys from the basketball team hadn’t bothered to defend him. The whole thing was worse than embarrassing. It would become school lore, the kind of story that would maybe even get its own page in the yearbook.
He slung his messenger bag over his Potterton Basketball jacket and headed for the diner. On the way, he punched in #3 on his cell after Mom, and Amanda, and Jonathan picked up.
“Are you ready for my advice?” Jonathan asked, after hearing David’s story about what Amanda had done, which of course was a completely different story than what Jonathan had actually seen with his own two eyes.
“I’m ready.”
“Break up with her before she breaks up with you.”
“Why would I want to do that?” David asked. He stopped short in the middle of Bleecker Street and a cabdriver screamed at him in Farsi, which David knew, slightly, because of a trip he’d taken to Iran the previous summer with his parents. So he apologized, in Farsi. The cabdriver said to forget it before driving off.
“She cheated on you.”
“But I love her.”
“Look, you’ve got to be strong.”
“I do?” David asked. He was close to the restaurant now. The dangling Silver Spurs logo hung in front of him like a pair of Amanda’s gigantic earrings.
“Tell her to go to hell.”
“No way!”
“It’s the only way,” Jonathan said, before David hung up on him.
David had seen Amanda slip into the diner, her mouth in a frown. She was so short and he was so tall. He shook his head. They could have been so perfect. He sighed and opened the restaurant’s door.
“What are you getting?” David asked. He’d sat down with Amanda and now they both looked miserable.
“Grilled cheese with bacon and tomato,” Amanda said. She was always ordering stuff like that and then taking only two bites and pushing the plate aside. The booth they’d gotten was by the door, which kept opening and shutting, letting cool air in. This increased their shuddering. A waitress came by and dropped menus on the table before walking away.
They stared at each other, and David knew he was doing what he always did, which was getting blown away by how pretty she was, with her long blond hair and piercing green eyes.
“Who was it?” David asked.
“I don’t want to say,” Amanda said. “I’m not sure it meant anything. Maybe it did. Maybe it didn’t.”
“I don’t want to see you anymore.”
“What?” she asked.
“You heard me. You cheated on me, I can’t trust you. It’s over.” He stood up and his legs felt like they were made of potato salad. But he knew Jonathan’s advice was right.
“David, wait—”
“I can’t. I know what happened isn’t anybody’s fault and I don’t blame you, but I can’t see you anymore.”
“You’re being unreasonable.” There was a quaver in her voice that felt unfamiliar to him. Maybe she really did care about him? He’d never dared to believe that before. And now it was too late. Then she stood, too.
“Forget it,” David said. “I loved you.”
Then he was out the door, walking fast away from her, west, toward his parents’ apartment building, desperately trying not to think about what he’d done.