The Broken Lake by Shelena Shorts Page A

seem surprised or fazed by any of it.
    “Don’t you think it’s weird?” I finally asked.
    “I’ve seen a lot of weird things over the years. Sibling rivalry and teens not getting along with their dads is nothing new.”
    Something about the reflective tone in his comment made me think back to how Lenny died. I vividly remembered a dream where Lenny fought with her dad over Wes, stormed out, and died in a car accident shortly afterward.
    And all I did was remind him of that by rambling and complaining about the bookstore. Something that had nothing to do with us.
    I leaned over and kissed him on the cheek. “I’m sorry.”
    “Sorry about what?” He was looking both ways, waiting to pull out onto the highway, but I knew him well enough to know he was thinking back.
    “I’m sorry about reminding you of Lenny. I didn’t realize. Dawn’s stupidity really isn’t that stupid.” Fighting with your parent over someone you love is serious, especially if you’re willing to give up everything for someone. I wanted to take Wes’ mind off of Lenny’s decision to come see him over her father’s wishes. So I tried to change the subject.
    “I don’t know what you’re going to do about Chase.”
    He looked at me for the first time since pulling onto the highway. “What do you mean?”
    “Well, Mr. Chase thinks I have pretty eyes.” I batted them trying to be funny.
    Wes smiled. “You do.”
    “Yeah, but that’s your job to remind me. Don’t you think?”
    “Sophie, anyone with a brain can see that. I can’t get mad if another guy notices.”
    “Yeah, but he intrudes into my personal space.”
    Casually, still driving and focusing on the road, he replied, “Now that’s another matter.”
    I smiled. Why is it that girls get a kick out of their boyfriends being jealous? I don’t know, but I liked it. I bounced and shifted closer to him.
    “Are you jealous?” I prodded, leaning over to kiss him on his ear.
    “No.” He answered confidently.
    “No?”
    “No, I’m not jealous. But if he violates your personal space again, let me know.”
    He turned toward me and kissed me on the tip of my nose, looking ever so confident and strong.
Yum
, was all I thought. Well, that’s not totally true. I was also thinking about not wanting to go back to work. Unless Dawn was going to be there, it was going to be too weird. In the meantime, I resumed kissing Wes on the entire right side of his face and neck until he broke out into a laugh.

Chapter 9
     
THE FIGHT
     
    A mazingly, Dawn managed to get herself out of major trouble. She ended up telling her parents that she and one of her friends, Jenny, met up to hang out with Jackson and his brother, and when she got tired, she just went home with Jenny. She said she never got her dad’s calls because she left her phone in her car.
    It was a ridiculous story, and I’m not sure Mr. Healey believed it, but he only grounded her for a week for sneaking out. He also told her that Jackson was off-limits until she learned to become responsible.
    I was just glad that she was at work. Things were almost back to normal, other than Danny’s strange
studying
behavior. He started leaving work earlier and earlier, until sometimes he took the whole day off. The story was that he had major tests coming up and wanted to start thinking about grad school for an MBA. None of us could picture Danny in a suit and tie, but Mr. Healey was just tickled pink at the idea.
    Besides making Dawn sick, and making me curious as to what he was up to, I had no problem with Danny taking off work. Until Chase started filling in. He was extremely annoying. Just one of those guys who feeds off attention. It seemed like he expected girls to swoon over him and when they didn’t, he shamelessly attempted to turn the chips.
    When it came to Dawn, he managed to find ways to infiltrate her boundaries by doing something to make her laugh. He often walked by her and taped something onto her back, and once he put a