Phillip drives down the gravel road that will take us back into town. It's deathly quiet in the car. He hasn't said a word to me, and I'm not about to break the silence. I'm mad about the way he treated me at the party. I know he thinks he's helping, but was it really necessary to drag me out of there? I've seen fights at parties before and survived them.

Okay, so I've never been the direct cause of one before, but that's beside the point.

I'm sure it broke up quickly and is already over. The guys are probably back to drinking, telling stories and having fun.

Without me.

It's not fair. I could be kissing Danny right now.

I really, really liked kissing Danny. I was also looking very forward to what might happen next, as in I just might have taken Lisa's advice and attacked him. I NEED to get back to the party, back to Danny.

Phillip pulls his car off to the side of the road, puts it into park, then turns to me and says, “Stop glaring at me.”

“I'm not glaring at you.”

But I may very well be giving you mad glances.

“Yes, you are.”

“Well, you're glaring back.”

“Look, I know you didn't want to leave, but, unlike you, I did the right thing tonight,” Phillip brags.

What is he talking about? This has nothing to do with right and wrong. Except that he was WRONG to make me leave.

“The right thing?”

“Yes, whereas you never thought once about whether any of the things you were doing were right or wrong.”

He is chastising me.

I have had about enough of jerk boys tonight, thank you very much.

“I didn't do anything wrong tonight, Phillip, if that's what you're insinuating.”

“Really? Did you once stop to think that getting Danny into a fight could possibly get him injured and ruin his football career?”

I stare at him. And uh, no, that thought did not cross my mind, but I will not share that piece of information with him.

“You ought to think about someone besides yourself for a change,” he adds insult to the injury.

“I didn't make Danny do anything. He wanted to. In fact, the whole making Jake jealous thing was his idea!”

This boy is infuriating!

He says to me, “Whatever. I'm not going to fight with you about this.”

He puts the car in gear and starts driving again.

Not only are we done fighting, evidently, we are done talking too.

“So where do you want to go?”

“Back to the party.”

He glares at me, so I say, “I really should let Lisa know where I am. I was supposed to ride home with her and don't want her to worry.” What I don't say is, I wanna see Danny, I wanna kiss Danny, I may even want to, uh, do it, with Danny. I am not ready for this night to end. Why did I let him drag me to the car? What was I thinking?

“I already told Lisa that I would take you home.”

Wait. How did he do that? We never stopped to tell her, and the fight broke out quickly, so that means he planned this.

He's not just a jerk.

He's a premeditating jerk.

“Before the fight started?” I call him on it.

“Yes.”

“So you planned this?”

“Well, let's just say that I was smart enough to figure out exactly what was going to happen tonight. So where?”

I really don't know what to do. I just know I won't give him the satisfaction of taking me straight home. Maybe the fight will break up the party, and everyone will head back into town. “Let's go to the Gas Stop. I'm hungry.”

“Great.” He gives me a smart-ass smile, “I need to get gas anyway.”

“You would have to turn it into something practical,” I mutter under my breath.

Of course, he hears me. “What's that supposed to mean?”

“Oh I don't know, Mr. Spontaneous.”

I get the glare again. “Well, I was almost spontaneous tonight. I almost drug you out of the party before the fight started, but I decided to give you the benefit of the doubt. Obviously that was a mistake.”

We pull up to the gas pump. Phillip jumps out and starts the pump, then gets back into the car. I'm checking out the parking lot between the Gas Stop and the bowling alley and see, sadly, that no one is around.

Darn. Now what?

I'm supposed to be hungry. That's why I wanted to come here, but food does not sound the least bit appetizing. Not even Hostess cupcakes.

I must be more distraught than I realized.

Phillip snarls, “I thought you were hungry.”

I can tell he knows I was lying.

“What can I say? You made me lose my appetite.”

See? Something is your fault. You're not perfect.

Jerk.

“I see,” he smirks.

The smirk on his face is pretty much the last straw, so I let him have it.

“Phillip, can't you ever do something just because it feels good? Why do you have to think through and analyze every situation to death?”

“What? Would you rather I was like you and never think anything through? You were in trouble at the party, and you know it.”

“Maybe I wanted trouble, Phillip,”

“Well, you know what? That would have been fine, but then you had to drag Danny into the whole fiasco.”

“I drug Danny?” The boy is playing rough.

Fine.

“Yeah, I drug Danny, kicking and screaming, straight to my lips and forced him to kiss me. Many, many times.”

I don't know why I think this will upset Phillip. I mean I know he doesn't like me, but I do know something about Danny and me together bugged him.

So there.

“Besides this mess isn't my fault. It's Jake's. He started the whole stupid thing.” I shake my head at him, “And Danny's a big boy. I can't make him do anything.”

“Oh, you'd be surprised at what you can make Danny do,” Phillip says, like I'm some harlot.

“Phillip, he kissed me. Not the other way around. Granted, he may have done it because he felt sorry for me, but no one, especially not me, made him.” I stop and look closely at Phillip to gauge his reaction. “And what would be so wrong about Danny and me together anyway?”

Phillip looks exasperated. He shakes his head in disbelief and chuckles, “You'd kill each other, for one, because you'd fight constantly. It'd never work. And you'd completely screw your friendship.”

“Well at least Danny and I feel strongly enough about things to fight about them. It shows we have passion, that something is important to us. You know, Phillip, it's okay to have feelings.”

Phillip doesn't respond.

So I say, “You know what? I give up. All you ever do is make me feel bad because I'm not perfect like you. I don't need it anymore, and I'm not sure I want to be your friend either. Take me home.” I madly cross my arms in front of my chest with a humph.

“I thought you didn't want to go home?” Phillip says in a snotty little boy voice.

I don't get a chance to respond to Jerk Boy because his cell rings.

Maybe it's Danny!

He sighs at me, looks at his phone, reads the caller ID and whispers, “It's Dad,” before he presses talk.

“Hey Dad.”

I listen to his side of the conversation.

“Yeah, I do. She's in the car with me now.” He glares over at me. “I was just about to take her home.”

He gives me the snotty little boy look again, then his expression drops as the color drains from his face. I watch his eyes bug out like he's hearing aliens just landed on earth or something else unbelievable.

“Uh. Ok-ay.”

He looks at me sideways and lets out a sigh.

“We'll be there as fast as we can, Dad.”