As they drove away from Liz and Chestnut, Ana held Pickles up to the window and waived his tiny front paws at them.
“What are we going to do with that dog?” Emily asked.
Ana looked horrified. “We are going to take it home with us.”
“Ana, your mom barely lets humans into her home, and we have to take off our shoes and our socks. There is no way in hell she’s letting you keep a Chihuahua. Especially one named Pickles you found in a gas station.”
“Yeah.” Brandon laughed. “Em has a point.”
“Don’t call me that,” said Emily.
“And don’t you be such a spoilsport about my dog,” Ana said.
“Ana, it’s not even your dog,” Emily said. “You stole it.”
“All I know is that any man who would kick this beautiful boy should not be considered worthy of a second thought. Neither should any puta who would leave her dog with that scumbag.” Ana nuzzled Pickles close to her chin while Brandon fed him a Dorito. “He’s much better off with me.”
Emily started to point out that there wasn’t even any way to explain to Ana’s mother where the dog came from without incriminating all of them, but Brandon’s cell phone let out a shrill ring in the backseat.
“Brandon?” Emily said. “Are you going to get that?”
“Get what?”
“Your phone, pendejo,” said Ana. “It’s ringing.”
“No, it’s not.” Brandon held up his phone. “It’s one of yours.”
“My phone is crushed into a kajillion pieces,” Ana reminded him.
“Shit.” Brandon held up a phone. “This must be Liz’s. We have to go back. Maybe we can still catch them at the gas station.”
“No way in hell.” Emily sped up a little. She was finally on the highway and she was not going to stop again until the beautiful sight of the Steins’ mountain mansion swung into full view.
“Are you sure?” asked Ana.
“If we take back that phone, we take back that dog.” As she said the words, Emily knew they would knock Ana out of the argument. She could handle Brandon on her own.
“You play dirty,” Ana said, her eyes narrowed.
“That’s so cold,” said Brandon.
“What? How is that cold?” Emily was so tired of feeling like the stick-in-the-mud. She was tired of being exasperated with her friends. She took a deep breath. “All I want is to get to this party, is that okay? We are already two hours behind schedule. If we’re lucky, we’ll have an hour when we get there to freshen up and pull our outfits together.”
“Wait—outfits?” said Brandon. “You’re not wearing that?”
Emily looked at Ana. “Do you want to take this one, or shall I?”
Ana shook her head. “Ay, mamacita. He’s hopeless.”
“Me?” yelped Brandon. “I’m hopeless? You two are talking about outfit changes and a party like it’s so important. I just want to get this poor woman’s phone back to her. I mean, for chrissakes, she’s robbing gas stations to feed her kid. She doesn’t have money for a new phone.”
“I honestly can’t tell if you’re serious,” said Emily. “Just in case you are, lemme break this down for you. First off, if we turn around now and go back, the chances are very slim that Liz will still be at the Arco.”
“Well, we can just go back and meet them at the diner,” Brandon said.
“Have you lost your mind?” shrieked Ana. “That place must be crawling with cops by now.”
Brandon sighed. “I just don’t feel right about it. I mean, she did pay you back for your phone.”
“Yeah,” said Ana. “Because she smashed it to smithereens with a gun which she was using to hold up a diner.”
“I really think Liz will find another phone to use,” said Emily.
“Can’t we at least call Chestnut’s phone from her phone and—”
Emily knew Brandon was still talking, but that’s as far as she heard that sentence. Whatever his reasoning, Brandon continued to pitch ways of reuniting Liz and her phone, and for each one Ana responded with a reason why that was a bad idea. Any other time Emily might have pointed out with more than a little bit of arrogance that Ana was currently holding a small dog stolen from a gas station, and was surely herself in the running for Bad Idea of the Decade, but this time she was unable to even utter a syllable. Her jaw became locked in terror, and suddenly, instead of speeding down the highway in a midsize SUV, Emily had the sensation that she was plummeting down the first drop of a roller coaster.
Brandon must’ve caught a glimpse of her eyes in the rearview mirror, because she heard him yelling her name: “Emily? Emily? Are you okay? EMILY!”
By that time Brandon had followed her gaze out the back windshield, and slowly, haltingly, he turned around and stared down the highway behind them. He began to softly repeat a string of curses so quietly and with such slow determination that it almost sounded like he was reciting poetry or an ancient incantation of some kind.
Ana was completely fixated on Pickles, so she wasn’t aware of what was happening until the entire car was bathed in red and blue light, and the sound of everything else was drowned out by sirens.
“Emily!” she shrieked. “What is happening?”
“It appears we’ve been caught,” she said, and as she did, a strange sense of calm washed over her.
“What do you mean?” Ana was having trouble making sense of the events at hand.
“I mean, it looks as if we won’t be making it to the party,” said Emily.
“Of course we will,” shouted Brandon. “Just step on it.”
“Give me a break, Brandon.” Emily said this evenly and quietly. It seemed to rattle Brandon that she was so even-keeled in the face of impending doom.
“Whatever you do, don’t pull over!” he yelled.
“What, and add ‘evading arrest’ to the charges?” Emily asked. “Not a chance. Besides, he’s already got my license plate. Even if I did floor it now, he’d have every patrol car in a ten-mile radius on our tail in thirty seconds.” Emily signaled and pulled onto the shoulder of the road, slowing to a stop, then putting the car into park.
In the rearview mirror she saw a short stubby man with fingers like sausages step out of the cruiser, hitch up his pants, and walk slowly toward her window. She wasn’t sure if she should dig out her registration and license now, or wait until he knocked on her window. She wasn’t sure if she should try to text her father from the car, or wait and make him her one phone call at whatever jail they were taken to for the night. Emily wasn’t sure of anything, really. Not anymore.