I GOT A CALL the next day at home.
"Hey," a gritty voice said. "How you doing?"
"Who is this?"
"Who do you think?"
For a second I was afraid it was Knacke. He's not only the king of evil scumpacks at school, I thought, he's a pervert too, calling girls at home. But I was wrong.
"I was at Waterstreet. I saw your show. All the girls were hot for Jerod and Relly. But I was watching you."
"That's just great. Now what do you want?"
He kind of laughed, but it sounded mean and dirty too. "What are you doing?" he asked.
"Listening to some slimeball on the phone."
"Funny. Real funny."
"What do you want?" I asked.
"Just to talk. Get to know you better."
"Well I don't know who you are. And I don't want to know. So goodbye." I hung up. The phone rang again. "Die, all right? Why don't you just die?"
"Zee, what's going on?" It was my dad. "You answer the phone with 'die' now?"
"Some pervo was harassing me a minute ago. I didn't know it was you."
"Well, I'm just calling to say I'll be late tonight. I'm going out with Donna Lee after work, all right?"
"Sure, whatever."
Two seconds after I hung up with my dad, the phone rang again.
I picked it up but didn't say a thing. Neither did he, whoever he was. We played a game of chicken, seeing who'd hang up first. Silence stretched, and stretched even thinner. I could feel him on the other end, even if I could-n't hear a thing. I think the silence was even worse than his voice. But I didn't back down. I didn't say a word.
I won the game. He hung up after a while. I won, but it didn't make me feel any better.