Free Dead End Job by Vicki Grant Page B

“Let me see if I got this right. After he left his first wife, Tom had seven kids with three different women? In, like, what? Ten years?”
    He burst out laughing. “The man’s a love god! I hope I’m doing that good when I’m ninety.”
    â€œTom’s not ninety,” I said.
    â€œOkay then. I hope I’m doing that good when I
look
ninety.”
    I cracked up. We both cracked up. That was mean. But it’s true. Tom’s this little round guy with a white ponytail and shorts that come up to his armpits. No one around town could believe he managed to get himself one tall, beautiful wife. They were going to die when they found out he’d had four.
    Anyway, we were having a great time together and so I just kept blabbing away. I told Leo about Devin grabbing the picture and seeing right off what was wrong with it. I said the guy sure had a good eye. I was really impressed.
    That was my big mistake.
    Leo slammed his mouth shut and just stared at the road the whole rest of the way home.
    I hate it when he gets like that. All I did was make one little comment about a guy having a good eye.
    But that’s not what Leo hears.
    Leo hears: “The guy is really artistic so he must be really smart too. And, by the way,did I mention that you’re not? You’re just a big dumb hockey player who wants to stay in Lockeport for the rest of his life and take over his dad’s garage. That’s why I’m going to dump you for some complete stranger.”
    Which just goes to prove that Leo really is a moron.
    Ever since I decided I want to go away to art college next year, he’s had this big chip on his shoulder. Like I was doing it to make him look stupid or something. Nothing I could say made any difference. Leo
is
smart. I’ve always said that. Not in school, maybe. (Okay, not in school, for sure.) But he’s smart in other ways. He can fix anything. He’s got common sense. He’s really funny. He understands stuff about people and the world that a lot of kids with good marks just don’t get.
    And if all that isn’t enough, he’s a whole lot hotter than a dorky girl like me deserves.
    I love the guy. Even when he’s being an idiot.
    Part of me really wanted to let him have it right then. He was acting like such a baby. But the other part of me was just too tired. I wasworking hard at school. I was working hard getting a portfolio together for Art College. And I was working at the Highway Buyway. Frankly, at one o’clock in the morning, I didn’t have any energy left to work at our “relationship.”
    It pissed me off to think that I even had to.
    Leo pulled into my driveway and left the car running. I looked at him. I wanted to say, “C’mon, Leo. Don’t be like that. I couldn’t care less about Devin.” But Leo turned his head away. He started drumming his fingers on the steering wheel like I was wasting his precious time. Like I was supposed to just hurry up and apologize.
    I couldn’t do that.
    I sighed and said, “See ya.”
    He said, “Yeah.” Then he punched the dashboard hard.
    I got out. He gunned it down the driveway.
    The light in my parents’ room went on.
    Great.
    Two more people mad at me for something I didn’t do.

Chapter Three
    Leo didn’t call all the next day.
    I guess I could have phoned, but what was I going to say? Talking to him right then would only have made things worse. He’d want me to say sorry. And I’d want to tell him what a jerk he was.
    I figured I’d give it a day to blow over. I tried to study for history. I tried to do a landscape for my portfolio. I tried to read a trashy magazine, but I couldn’t even concentrate onthat. This thing with Leo was really bugging me. I ended up just hanging around the house and picking stupid fights with everyone until it was time to leave for work at six o’clock.
    I was surprised to see Mr.