Things I Should Have Known
Page 24
“Leaving so soon?” Snake asked. Now that he was standing directly under the light, I could see the way his eyes were burrowed deep into his skull. How his full lips had a perfect model pout, like his whole mouth had gotten stuck on the kissy-face setting. His pretty face was too posh for his image.
“As fascinating as this conversation’s been, I’ve got to get home and eat dinner.”
“You should invite me over.”
“A dude named Snake with a pierced ear, a crap tattoo, and a fixation on violent screamo music? Yeah, not gonna happen.”
He shook his head as he ate another Twizzler. “Are you this mean to everyone you meet?”
“Only the special people,” I muttered.
As I was preparing to leave, he grabbed my arm. I was one security camera away from clocking him.
“I’ll see you around?” he asked, his tone strangely earnest.
I yanked my arm out of his grasp. Even though he was determined and forceful and weird, at least he wasn’t annoyingly exuberant. I had to give him brownie points for that.
“I’m not really around,” I said as I walked away.
My mother was waiting for me at the front doors with a bag in her hand. “I bought you anti-itch ointment just in case your fanny chafes again.” She smiled, proudly holding up a thin white tube. “And I picked you up a journal just in case you change your mind.”
“It better not have ducks.”
“Duck-free. Promise.”
She proceeded to babble on about birthday cards and half-price two-liters and a bunch of other irrelevant things I didn’t care about. We got in the minivan and rode away, listening to some girl group singing a ballad about the joy of the Lord.
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About the Author
Author photo by John LaZebnik
CLAIRE LAZEBNIK has written five adult novels, including Same As It Never Was, Knitting Under the Influence, and Families and Other Nonreturnable Gifts. Her young adult novels include Epic Fail, The Trouble with Flirting, The Last Best Kiss, and Wrong About the Guy. She has also coauthored two books on autism: Overcoming Autism and Growing Up on the Spectrum. She has contributed to GQ, Self, the New York Times, and the Wall Street Journal, among other publications, and to the anthology play Motherhood Out Loud. A graduate of Harvard University, she lives with her TV‑writer husband and four children, one of whom has autism.