“Styx?” Alaska says.
“Okay, gotta go. Bye,” Joe continues as I stalk toward him and rip the phone out of his hand.
I put it to my ear. “Alaska, listen to me.” The disconnect tone mocks me from the speaker. I glare at Joe. “You have no idea what you just did.”
“Hey, I did you a favor. You’ve been pining over this girl for years.”
“That doesn’t mean I was ready for her to know.”
“Why the hell not? You’re not getting any older. Left to your own devices, you’d be dead before you made a move.”
I glare at my best friend. The kid I’ve known since I was five years old. “Get the fuck out.”
Outside, a car screeches to a halt in front of my house and a few seconds later, someone pounds on my door.
“Shit.” Joe rakes his hand through his hair. “I didn’t mean that. I just ... I want you to be happy, dude.”
I shake my head. “Just go.”
The pounding comes again, and I trudge up the stairs toward the front door. I open it.
Alaska’s fist is raised in the air, as if she was getting ready to bang her fist against it for a third time. Instead, she pounds her fist into my face.
I see stars. My head spins and I stagger back, holding my hand to my jaw. “Ow.”
For a little thing ravaged by cancer, Alaska has a mean right hook.
“Ouch,” Joe says, slinking by the two of us. He gives a wave and wanders across the drive to his house next door. “I’m just gonna head home now. Leave you guys to it. Nice to meet—”
“Fuck off, or you’re next,” Stones says, and Joe disappears inside his front door, leaving me alone with one hell of an angry teenage girl.
CHAPTER THIRTEEN
ALASKA
“Was I just a joke toyou?” I demand, shaking out my hand. Now that the adrenalin has subsided a little, I see how crazy I must look.