“Yes.”
“Do we have to wear jackets and ties?” Noel asked, smiling.
“No, of course not.”
“We have to mind our manners, though,” Eddie said. “No eating with your fingers, Noel, like you do at your house.”
“My parents aren’t stuffy people,” I said defensively, maybe too defensively. No one spoke for a few moments.
“Where we going for pizza?” Kent asked to break the silence. “Let’s stop at Luigi’s, which is right before the mall. The mall place is nothing.”
“Big spender,” Noel said. “That is more expensive than the mall pizza, though.”
“We could chip in,” Susie said.
“I bet Semantha could buy it all,” Eddie quipped. To my surprise, even my new girlfriends laughed.
“I didn’t bring much money,” I said, in a little panic.
“Just kidding,” Eddie said. “If we can’t afford some pizzas and drinks, we oughtta stay home.”
Even so, I felt a combination of embarrassment and annoyance. The conversation moved on to other things, but the echo of their insinuations about me and my family and our wealth hung in the air around me. Once again, I wondered if Cassie wasn’t right. We were different, and we should be more discriminating about whom we chose as friends. I hated feeling like this, but I couldn’t shake it off. At the restaurant, I know I was markedly quieter than the other girls. Kent kept asking me if I was all right.
“You don’t mind eating in a dump like this, do you, Semantha?” Eddie asked with a wide smile.
“Stop it, please, Eddie. I’m not a snob.”
Eddie laughed, but that seemed to end the teasing.
Kent whispered an apology for him as we left the restaurant. “He’s just feeling his oats because he’s able to drive at night and has a new SUV,” he explained.
I tried to relax, but no one else but me seemed to be enjoying the movie later. Eddie and Susie talked so much that people around us began to complain loudly. Bobbi and Noel were kissing so passionately that they couldn’t have followed the story, anyway, so when Eddie suggested that we leave and go to Cary Lothar’s house, they all leaped out of their seats.
“C’mon,” Kent urged me. I had no choice but to follow them out. Our leaving brought some applause from the people who were sitting behind and in front of us.
“How can we just go to Cary Lothar’s house?” I asked when we all got into Eddie’s SUV.
“He’s home alone with Nikki Benson and told me we could come over after the movie, but why waste time, especially with this dog of a film?” Eddie said.
I was afraid to say I had been enjoying the movie. As soon as we got into the SUV, Kent put his arm around my shoulders and urged me to draw closer. He kissed my cheek and neck, and then, when I turned, he kissed me on the lips. I was self-conscious about kissing like this in front of the others, but aside from Eddie, who had to drive, everyone else was kissing, too. However, Susie was practically on Eddie’s lap nibbling on his ear.
“Oh, boy. You’ve got my full attention,” he said, and sped up.
None of us in the rear could have warned him. We were all too occupied. Susie had apparently put her hand between Eddie’s legs, and he wasn’t paying much attention, either. The elderly man who backed out of his driveway was either distracted by something himself or was just careless, but his car shot back directly in our path. Eddie hit the brakes hard, but because his eyes weren’t on the road, he was far too close by then. We weren’t wearing seat belts in the rear, and Noel, who was in a bad angle at the moment, literally flew forward between the two front seats and slammed his head into the dashboard, just as Eddie’s SUV crashed into the rear of the elderly man’s automobile, spinning it around.
The sound was deafening. The airbags popped out in the front, squeezing Eddie and Susie back. Kent and I managed to hold on to each other and just bang into the back of Susie’s seat. Bobbi fell to the floor, twisting her arm but not breaking it.
For a moment, no one spoke. We were all in too much shock. The air around me seemed electric. I felt nauseated and dizzy but held myself together. The echo of the crash still reverberated in my ears. Every bone in my body was still vibrating. I raised myself a little to look out the windshield at the mess. There was a fender on the road, and the entire rear of the other car was bashed in as if it were made of clay. I could see the elderly man was in shock himself but got out of his car and then swayed and fell back against it. The noise of the crash brought people out of his house. I saw an elderly woman and a younger woman hurrying down the driveway to him, the elderly lady screaming. Then Bobbi screamed. She held up her hand to show us there was blood trickling down the side of Noel’s head.
Eddie sat there, gaping down at Noel.
“Hey, Noel, hey,” Eddie said, shaking him a little. Noel didn’t respond.
“He’s unconscious. Do something, Eddie!” Bobbi shouted at him.
He fumbled with his cell phone for a moment and then just got out and screamed for an ambulance. The younger woman hurried back into the house. The elderly lady guided the man, whom I assumed was her husband, back into the car to sit and wait.
Kent started to move Noel.