I looked back toward the parking lot, but he was nowhere to be found. There was just Chelsea sneering back at us. As she whipped her hair over her shoulder, she caught Marci stifling a smile, and practically shouted, “Are you, like, gaining weight? That skirt can’t be let out any more, you know!” I dropped my eyes to avoid the hurt look on Marci’s face as she slid into Chelsea’s car.

As we watched Chelsea’s Bar B mobile speed past, Principal Teasley shouted at her to slow down.

Kori laughed. “Park got the Mazda up to seventy-five this morning. Cool, huh?”

I didn’t want to talk about Parker Walsh. Certainly didn’t feel like congratulating him on breaking the speed record on “The Strip”—the long, straight stretch of Kismet High’s driveway.

“What’s that look for?” she asked, seeing the scowl on my face. “God, you’re such a hater.”

“He’s a bad influence on you.”

That made her laugh. “Kinda like how I’m a bad influence on you?”

Touché.

“Why are you friends with him?”

“Why am I friends with you?” she countered, then winked.

Sometimes I wonder, I thought. But what I said was, “Speaking of bizarro friends, I can’t believe you used to be best friends with Chelsea Westad. She’s such a BBFBBM.”

“Is that one of your geeky anachronisms?”

“One of my geeky acronyms actually. Translation: body by Fisher, brains by Mattel.”

“Careful, that’s a compliment for her.”

“So, did you guys like have sleepovers and everything? Shudder.”

Kori’s eyes darkened a shade. We haven’t talked about her old affiliations in forever, and doing so, even casually, is like poking at a bruise—which sometimes you need to do just to gauge how it’s healing or to know if it’s really gone.

It wasn’t.

The circumstances of Kori’s defection from the in crowd aren’t something she ever talks about. And thinking back, I don’t remember much about those days toward the end of seventh grade right before Kori spent the summer at camp, or rehab if you believe everything you’ve heard about her, which I don’t anymore. I was naive and stupid back then. But I do know that when Kori came back, she was the slut of the school. And all I really know is whatever happened between her and Chelsea must’ve been pretty big if Kori won’t talk about it.