“No. Just because I’m Mexican doesn’t mean I’m a gangbanger.”

“I know that. But troublemakers like you look for trouble. You need to stay clean, Salazar,” he says. “Or you’ll find yourself locked up for more than a couple of hours, especially since your father wasn’t too keen on picking you up. I think his exact words were ‘let him walk home.’”

Officer Stone escorts me to the front, where he says I’m free to go. When I’m released into the lobby, my friends are there waiting for me.

“What happened?” Ashtyn asks frantically. “Are you okay?”

“Yeah,” I answer, not wanting to talk about it.

Trey pats me on the back. “You scared the shit out of me, man.”

Monika is standing next to him. It hits me that I forgot about the cake in my car. “I’m sorry I ruined your night,” I tell them. “And your cake.”

“It’s okay,” Monika says.

I notice that she’s not looking straight at me. Instead, she’s staring at the floor.

“We’re just glad you weren’t charged,” Trey says. “But if you were, we’d bail you out, bro.”

Because we all know my old man wouldn’t.

“Thanks, man.” I look at Derek and Ash, Monika and Trey, and Bree and Jet. I don’t know how to tell them that without them I’m nothing.

“It’s cool,” Jet says. “All you have to do is name your first born after me and we’ll call it even. You can call your kid Jake Evan Thacker Salazar. Or Jet. Or JT.”

I chuckle, because Jet’s not joking. “Yeah, well, straight-up that’ll never happen.”

Trey drives me home. I’m sitting in the backseat feeling like something is up with Monika. She’s sitting in the front seat staring straight out the window. She hasn’t looked at me or talked to me since the police station.

When Trey stops for gas and it’s just Monika and me in the car, I break the silence. “Is everything cool between us, Monika?”

She doesn’t look back at me. Instead, she keeps looking forward. “Why did you ask that?”

“Because you’re actin’ hella weird.” I don’t want her ignoring me. Hell, her friendship keeps me from going insane most of the time. She probably thinks I’m a fucking loser for getting arrested tonight. “Just so you know, I didn’t start the fight with Bonk if that’s what you’re thinkin’.”

She glances at me. “I don’t think you started that fight. I know you better than that. It’s just…”

“What?”

Her gaze is intense now, as if she’s trying to tell me something that words can’t express. “Do you ever wish things were different?”

Oh, hell.

Time stops.

I open my mouth to answer even though I have no clue what I’m going to say when Trey suddenly opens the door and slides into the driver’s seat.

“Gas is ridiculously expensive,” he says. “I feel like my wallet just got violated.”

Monika chuckles quietly.

“Yeah, I know what you mean,” I mumble.

There’s electricity in the air between Monika and me, but Trey seems oblivious. He yaps the entire rest of the ride about gas prices and then goes on a rant about hybrid and electric cars that I only partially hear because I’m too focused on wondering what Monika was trying to hint at with her loaded question.

After Trey drops me off, I’m still thinking about Monika’s question that I never answered. I walk into my room, knowing I’ll be going over our unfinished conversation for hours and probably won’t get much sleep tonight.

A pissed-off Dani is sitting on my bed.

“I hate you,” she tells me.

“I don’t care,” I tell her. “Bonk’s just hangin’ with you to get to me. He’s a snake.”

She crosses her arms and narrows her eyes at me as if I’m the one in the wrong here. “You don’t know anything about Matthew.”

I roll my eyes. “And you do? That’s a joke. What, you met him like five minutes ago?”

“I don’t care what you think about him, Vic. Oh, and just so you know, Matthew and I are going to homecoming together.”

“The only person Bonk loves is himself. And just so you know, you’re not going to homecoming with him. He’s our fucking rival, Dani. He would lie, cheat, and steal if it meant beating us. Hell, he already stole our quarterback, and we’d be screwed if Fitz didn’t step in as QB.”