Fredward was walking past the front of my truck, looking straight forward, his lips pressed tightly together. I yanked that door open and jumped on inside, slamming it loudly behind me. I revved the engine and reversed out into the aisle. Fredward was in his car already, two spaces down, sliding out smoothly in front of me and cutting me off. Did he think he was funny? Was this a joke? He stopped there—to wait for his family, I assumed; I could see the four of them walking this way, arm in arm, but still by the cafeteria. I considered slamming the rear of his shiny Volvo, but there were too many witnesses. I looked in my rear-view mirror. A line was beginning to form; the Forks High School student body eager to flee to their exciting extracurricular existences, I thought, depressed. As if remembering my isolation wasn't bad enough, directly behind me Tyler Crowley was in his recently acquired Cadillac, waving.
While I was sitting there, looking everywhere but at the car in front of me, I heard a knock on my passenger side window. I looked over; it was Tyler. I glanced back in my rear-view mirror, confused. Was he still in his car? His car was still running, the door left open; he wasn't in it. He'd moved up to my passenger window and was now knocking at it. I leaned across the cab to crank the window down. It was stiff. I got it halfway down, but it was still halfway up. I gave up.
"Hey, I'm sorry. I'm stuck behind Cullen. Y'know?" I was annoyed—obviously the hold-up wasn't my fault.
"Oh, I know—I just wanted to ask you something while we're trapped here." He grinned a big grin.
This could not be happening. I considered cranking the window back up and decapitating Tyler.
"Will you ask me to the spring dance?" He continued, risking life and limb every moment he intruded on my personal space.
"I'm not going to be in town, Tyler." My voice sounded a little sharp. I had to remember it wasn't his fault that Mike and Eric, two boys that were equally as undesirable as he was, had already used up my quota of patience for the day.

78

Chapter 4

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