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Perhaps I need to polish my vindictive streak, but I don’t want him to feel that bad Because I’ve seen him--I’ve seen the loneliness behind his eyes, the way he’ll stop in the halls unsure of where to make the next step

Since hehe’d disappear Now it feels like I’ve gotten half one His body re?" I ask Joni, despite my better instincts

"I don’t know if he’s happy But he’s got a cat"

"A cat?" As far as I know, Kyle hates animals

"He took in a stray"

"How ironic," I say, even though I know Kyle is one of the few people in our school who doesn’t do irony on a breathing basis

"Chuck has a cat, too," Joni volunteers

Which is, of course, her way of saying she wants to talk about Chuck

I brace myself

"He’s really not that bad," she says

"Who? Kyle?" I’ht as her best friend

"No, Chuck I really like hiet to know hi my words very carefully

"And I’m sure I’ll like Noah," Joni replies

I freeze for a moment, afraid she’ll propose a double date Instead she says that she, Chuck, and I should head out to lunch together tomorrow

Because she’s my best friend, I say yes

Only seniors are allowed to leave campus for lunch, but that doesn’t stop the rest of us fro out anyway Our principal’s wife owns the sub shop down the street, and I think she’d be out of business in a second without the support of cafeteria-fleeing sophoe to drive somewhere better, but the underclass-distance choices

Whenever I go out, I skip the sub shop and head to the Veggie D’s on the other side of the street The Veggie D’s used to be your usual processed-slaughterhouse fast-food joint, but a few years ago a bunch of vegetarians launched a boycott and soon the chain lost its link A local food co-op took over the building, keeping all the fixtures intact They even made the workers keep the uniforo used to be