Claire’s mouth fell open. “Are you kidding me?” she hissed. “You can’t go with them. You’ll get raped or kidnapped or something. They’re scum!”

Coldness trickled down my spine. I’d known Claire for years now, grew up with her, and liked her a bit less every day that passed. She’d always been the leader of the school, and everyone was jealous of my place beside her. But underneath, I knew Claire was plain mean. “I’ll be fine. Call you later.”

“Allegra!”

The car door opened and I jumped in the back seat. Connor gave a loud whoop and pulled out of the lot, leaving my friends gaping at the curb. A thrill raced through me as I leaned back and looked at David, the third in the crew. “Hey,” I greeted him.

“Hey,” he said back.

We settled into silence as the Foo Fighters blared and everyone lit up cigarettes.

With their piercings and tats, they didn’t fit in with any of my current friends. I bet they weren’t in track or tennis or swimming, or anything else that stunk of conformity. I needed that today. Sure, I was probably being reckless going off with people I didn’t know. They might sleep around and do drugs and not care about grades or planning for the future. But, hell, they were real. And I wanted that so bad, I was starting not to care about the consequences.

“Want one?” Freda asked, tapping out a Marlboro Light.

All I could think of was those horrible TV commercials showing people with one lung or cutout vocal cords because of smoking. My mother’s droning voice kept replaying in my head in a mantra of nonsense words like stupid, cancer, and ruin your life. I squeezed my eyes shut and pushed it all to the side.

“Sure.” Heart beating at a ridiculous rhythm, I took the cigarette and Freda showed me how to inhale without mocking me. After a few coughs, I finally got it. I let the smoke settle, then blew it out, not liking it too much but feeling good about doing something my mother would hate. With every puff, her voice grew dimmer.