Page 67 of Something Tattered
"You can reject hot dogs?" I said.
She gave me a look. "You ever been to a restaurant with him?"
I had, in fact. And so had Cassie. By unspoken agreement, we almost never went with him anymore. It was just too painful to watch, him running the servers ragged, just because he could.
"Point taken," I said.
"So," Cassie went on, "even from the next stand over, I can see that Derek's being a total jerk. Like, he grabs the kid's tip jar and says–" She imitated Derek. "'–If you want it back, you're gonna have to earn it.'"
I felt my jaw clench. "God, what an ass."
"No kidding," Cassie said. "And all this time, Angelina's there, laughing like she always does."
I rolled my eyes. "Like a coked-up hyena?"
"Oh yeah." Cassie's mouth tightened. "And then the innuendos start."
"You mean from Angelina?"
"I wish," she said. "I mean from Derek."
"What do you mean?"
"Well, he starts making all these cracks about hot dogs, and wieners, and asking the kid if he sees a lot of wieners at home." She made a sound of disgust. "Stuff like that."
I stared at her. I almost didn't know what to say. Even for Derek, this was a new low. I asked, "Were you tempted to say something?"
"Oh, I wasmorethan tempted," she said. "I left my cooler, marched over there, and told him, flat-out, to give it a rest."
"What did he do?"
"Nothing," she said. "You know how he is. He ignored me and kept on going. And all the while, Angelina's still laughing, the people behind him are grumbling, and the kid, Spencer, he's looking like he wants to run, or jeez, even cry." She winced. "It wasthatbad."
Listening, it occurred to me that this was exactly why I'd been reluctant to hear this story the first time around. Cripes, I almost wanted to cover my earsnow.It was vintage Derek, but worse.
Still, a huge part of the story seemed to be missing. I gave Cassie a perplexed look. "But what does this have to do with Joel? You still haven't said."
"Right. Because I was savingthatpart for last."
"Why?"
She smiled. "Because it's the onlygoodpart of the whole story."
I gave her a dubious look. "There's agoodpart?"
"Oh yeah," she said. "And you're gonna love it."
Chapter 32
So far, I wasn't loving anything about this story. Derek had been spiraling out of control all summer. I was accustomed to him givingmea hard time, but the thought of him harassing some kid at a hot dog stand was almost more than I could stomach.
Across from me, Cassie reached for a new tube of icing, and began drawing green leaves around the pink flowers. "So, Derek has the tip jar, and he's holding it high over his head, making all these stupid cracks. And finally he says, 'Hey, dog-boy, you wanna fetchthis?'"
I frowned. "Please tell me he didn't actually throw it."
"Well, he does, and he doesn't."
"What do you mean?"
