We Are the Ants(47)

“You guys know I’ve got no clue what you’re talking about, right?”

Audrey and Diego both turned to look at me like I’d climbed atop the table, dropped trou, and hosed them down.

“You’ve never seen Doctor Who?” Diego glanced at Audrey. “You have failed as a best friend.”

“Hey, I only got hooked last year,” Audrey said. “There was nothing to do at my grandma’s house except watch a ton of ?TV.”

“How’d you watch it, Diego?” I asked. “I thought you didn’t have a television.”

Diego focused on eating his sandwich, chewing each bite deliberately. His smile and laughter vanished like he’d blown a fuse, and an impenetrable wall rose between us.

“Look.” Audrey pointed toward the door, where Marcus McCoy stood sweeping the cafeteria with his eyes. His forearm muscles bulged from clenching his fists, and his lips were twisted into a snarl. I’d spent enough time with Marcus to know that it took skill to make him seriously angry. He was rich and popular, which insulated him from the effects of most humiliation. He started walking and wound through the crowd until he reached a table occupied by Larry Owens, Shane Thorpe, Tania Lewis, Missi Lizneski, and Zac Newton. Everyone was watching Marcus—taking pictures and video with their phones—and I had to stand to see over their heads. He was yelling at Zac, but his words were lost in the excited murmuring of the lunch crowd. Zac’s shorter than Marcus, but he’s on the wrestling team and built like an inverted pyramid. He got in Marcus’s face, using his weight to bully him backward.

Marcus sucker-punched Zac in the jaw and followed with a left to the nose that sent him reeling into the table. Zac’s friends rushed to help him, but Marcus didn’t even wait to see if Zac was going to retaliate before he stormed out of the cafeteria. Mrs. Francesco chased after him while Mr. Baker cleared a path to Zac.

“What the hell was that?” I asked. Zac’s nose was gushing blood, and Mr. Baker was trying to stanch the flow with a handful of napkins. If I hadn’t witnessed it, I wouldn’t have believed Marcus capable of breaking Zac Newton’s nose.

“You didn’t hear?”

“Hear what?” A small knot of students had gathered around Zac and Mr. Baker, offering ice and towels. It took the combined strength of Larry, Shane, and Mr. Brown to keep Zac from running after Marcus.

“Someone smashed the windows of Marcus’s car,” Audrey said. “Obviously, he thinks it was Zac.”

“Do you think it was Zac?” I asked. Audrey’s only answer was a shrug. “Why the hell would he have busted Marcus’s windows?”

Audrey’s voice rang with a note of satisfaction. “Because he’s dating Natalie Carter—was dating Natalie. I’m not too clear on the current status of Zac and Natalie’s rocky romance.”

“That’s no reason to take it out on the car.”

Mr. Baker led Zac out of the cafeteria, and I sat back down. Audrey was gathering her trash and babbling about how Zac learned Natalie and Marcus had hooked up because someone posted pictures from Marcus’s party on their SnowFlake page, and when Zac confronted her about it in the quad before classes, she hadn’t denied it, reducing Zac to tears.

Diego hadn’t spoken since the beginning of the afternoon show. I kicked him under the table, gave him a smile. He barely returned it.

“You have econ with Zac, don’t you, Diego?” I asked. “Do you think he did it?”

“Don’t know. Don’t care. I’m just glad Marcus got what he deserved.” Diego picked up his tray, dumped his trash, and returned to his seat. He didn’t say another word until lunch ended.

? ? ?

“Everything all right?” I asked Diego as we walked to study hall. He seemed preoccupied. “Diego?”

“What?”

“I asked if you were okay.”

Diego shrugged. “Sure. Why wouldn’t I be?”

“You’ve been somewhere else since lunch.”

He shifted his backpack from his left to his right shoulder. He smiled, but there was something off about it, like milk that was about to turn. “Really, I’m good.”

I had no reason not to believe him, but my gut told me something was wrong. Maybe he wasn’t lying, but he wasn’t being entirely truthful, either. It reminded me too much of the way Jesse had deflected my questions and pretended that life was wonderful even when it wasn’t. “If something’s wrong, you can talk to me.”

“It’s nothing. Drop it, okay?”

“Sorry.” We got to my class and stopped by the door. “You don’t need to walk me to class every day.”

“It’s not a problem.”

“I can’t believe Zac trashed Marcus’s car. Pretty ballsy move.”

Diego glanced at his watch. “I guess. Listen, I can’t give you a ride home today.”

“It’s cool.”

“You sure?”

“Yeah.”

“See you later then.” He took off down the hall and disappeared into the crowd, leaving me to wonder what the hell I’d done.

? ? ?

Audrey’s dog yapped at the waves and skittered backward as the water rushed toward it. The tiny terror was barely the size of a football, and answered to the name Plath.