Bee frowned. “Something was definitely up that night,” she murmured, and for the first time, I noticed that while she might have been asking if I was mad, she was the one who seemed pissed.

“What’s that supposed to mean?” My brain was racing. Oh my God, had Bee put Mr. Hall’s and Dr. DuPont’s disappearance together with my pukeage?

A muscle worked in Bee’s jaw, and finally she spit out, “Mary Beth was going home for her free period yesterday, and she said she saw David Stark coming out of your backyard. She said he looked really weird, and then later, she saw Ryan leaving school, and he was super upset, and . . .”

She trailed off and my fingers tightened around my coffee cup. “Go ahead.”

“Mary Beth said that you and David have always been kind of . . . sparky. So she thinks there’s something going on with the two of you.”

I frowned at the “sparky” bit. David and I did not have . . . sparks. What we had was a feud that had been running since we were both in diapers. Something Bee of all people should have understood.

“Is that what you think, Bee?” I asked.

She shrugged. Today, Bee was wearing a huge pair of sunglasses that seemed to hide half her face. Her hair was done up in a high ponytail, and I could see a muscle twitch in her cheek, like she was grinding her teeth. “Explains a lot. Like why you’ve been so freaking weird lately.”

Then she glanced at me. “Explains what was going on in the bathroom the night of Homecoming.”

It was way too early in the morning for this conversation, I decided, drinking a little more espresso. It still tasted like battery acid, but I needed the caffeine. I already had a slight headache.

“I’m not going to pretend to understand why you suddenly have a thing for David when you have Ryan Bradshaw as a boyfriend,” Bee continued, yelling over the music. I went to turn it down, but she pushed my hand out of the way. “What pisses me off is that you didn’t tell me about it.”

“There’s nothing to tell!” I shouted. “I’m not cheating on Ryan, I don’t have a thing for David, and I was sick yesterday. That’s it! Not fighting with my boyfriend, not pregnant, and not any of the other hundreds of things you and Mary Beth probably guessed while y’all were talking behind my back. Oh, and by the way, David was at my house with his aunt. I’m guessing Mary Beth left out that little tidbit.”

Guilt, or maybe hurt, flickered over Bee’s face. “Do you think I’m a total dumbass?”

My head was pounding, and my face felt hot. “Right now, yeah, I do!”

Bee whipped into a parking place and braked so hard that I jerked forward in the seat.