Pushing Perfect(61)

“Upset?” I yelled. “Upset does not begin to cover it. Upset is the coffee shop being out of croissants. Upset is not acing a test you studied for. I’m not upset. I’m fucking furious.”

“I think that’s the first time I’ve ever heard you swear,” Alex said.

I was so sick of people thinking I wasn’t capable of being anything but logical. I could get pissed off and irrational just like everyone else. “Maybe you just don’t know me that well,” I said.

“So not the issue right now,” Justin said. “Look, Kara, I’m just as mad as you are. But I’m not seeing how all of us getting arrested is going to fix things.”

“It’ll take her down,” I said. “I don’t care about anything else.”

“Right now you don’t,” Raj said, gently. “And we understand, really we do. But you have so many good things to look forward to. If you try to get her this way, you’ll take yourself down with her.”

“And the rest of us,” Justin said. “Don’t forget about that.”

“We’ll find another way,” Alex said. “I promise.”

“I’m all for a strategy session, but I’ve got some things I need to know now,” Justin said. “Like whether my boyfriend was also being blackmailed, or whether he’s just a lying, blackmailing scumbag who is most definitely not my boyfriend.” He started typing on his phone, though Mark was just sitting in his car.

“You really want to have that fight now?” I asked. “Are we supposed to drop you off somewhere?”

“Oh, I have no problem having that fight in front of all of you. And I’m sure he’s got things to tell us that we’d all like to know. It’s just a question of where it should happen.”

“My house is out,” Alex said. “Parents are home, and I don’t think they’ll leave us alone if there’s going to be a lot of screaming.”

“How about that place we met up last time?” I asked. “After Walmart? It’s not too far from here.”

Justin texted Mark to meet us at the Bayview Diner and got a beep back quickly. He read it and laughed. Well, it was more of a sardonic chuckle. “He’d rather be alone. As if. Come on, let’s go.”

“What if he doesn’t come?” I asked.

“Then we’ll eat eggs, talk about what an asshole he is, and decide what to do about Ms. Davenport. All this anger is making me really hungry.”

“Works for me,” Raj said.

I was surprised to find that I was hungry too. And I knew Alex still wanted to kill Justin, though I wasn’t sure what that would do to her appetite. I started the car back up and headed for the diner. It looked exactly the same as we’d left it; we even had the same waitress.

Mark walked in as we were looking at the menus. “Justin, what am I doing here with these people?” he asked, as if we weren’t even there.

“Nice to meet you, too,” Alex said.

“Just sit,” Justin said, and Mark did.

We were off to a great start. I put down my menu and looked over at him. Now that he was sitting here, I had a vague memory of seeing him around school, though I’d thought he was a student. He had messy dark hair but was clean-shaven and wearing a button-down shirt with a T-shirt underneath. The T-shirt had a cartoon on it. The whole outfit didn’t really add up, but he didn’t look like a teacher, that was for sure.

“The way I see it, you’ve got some things to say that all of us want to hear,” Justin said.

“This is between you and me,” Mark said.

“Not even close,” Alex said.

“Look, I helped you guys,” Mark said. “You got a picture, right? You guys basically own me now. Isn’t that enough? Can I please just go talk to Justin alone?”

“You’re right that we own you.” Even just hearing the words come out of my mouth made me feel powerful. It was an unfamiliar feeling, and I liked it. “Feels pretty terrible, doesn’t it? Now you know what we’ve been going through.”

“As if I didn’t already? You think I was doing this on my own?”

“It’s possible,” Justin said. “And we don’t even know the extent of ‘this’ yet.” He made little air quotes with his fingers.

“Don’t you know me better than that by now?” He was looking only at Justin, his tone and his eyes both pleading.

“I thought I did. Now I’m not so sure.”

Mark sat up straight in his chair and looked off to the side. He seemed to be working something out in his head. “If you’re not sure, then I guess I have to convince you.”

“Exactly,” Justin said. “Start talking. Don’t leave anything out.”

“How much do these guys know already?”

“Enough.”

The waitress picked that perfectly inopportune second to come back and take our orders. We ordered pancakes and omelets and coffee, so much food I think we even impressed the waitress. “Late-night snack, huh? You kids and your metabolisms.”

“Nothing for me, thanks,” Mark said.

“He’ll have a water,” Justin said. “Wouldn’t want you to get a dry throat, from all that talking.”