Free Light Years by Tammar Stein Page B

station. Even if I get caught, they won’t book me. I’m totally safe.” She snuggled in next to me, pushing my hair out of her way. “Tonight’ll be great. Dov is such a hottie.”
    “Did you all get high before you picked me up?” It explained Bar’s erratic driving. I knew that I probably sounded like my mother, which wasn’t cool. But I wasn’t happy with the thought of riding in the back of a sardine can whose driver wasprobably seeing clouds and butterflies drifting by. It was also disappointing that Dov did drugs. It changed my opinion of him.
    “Just wait till you see this new club,” she said, oblivious. “Bar knows the bouncer, otherwise we’d never get in. God, I’m starving. Honey—” she called out. “Stop at the next kiosk we pass. I’m so hungry I could pass out.”
    Bar swerved, slammed on the brakes, and jumped a curb, scattering the people loitering around a shacklike falafel stand. We got a lot of glares, and someone shouted, “You fucking maniacs.” I hunched down in my seat.
    Daphna shrieked with laughter. I loved her and we’d been friends since forever, but I hated it when she got high.
    Bar got out, tilted his seat, and Daphna crawled out. She nearly fell and Bar caught her. She laughed and wrapped her arms around him. They kissed.
    I looked away.
    “So.” Dov twisted to get a better look at me. “You ready to have a good time tonight?”
    “Not as good a time as you guys, apparently.”
    “They were like that when I got here.”
    I ignored the relief sneaking through me. He didn’t do drugs. So what? “Is he safe to drive? I don’t want to ride with a driver who’s going to mistake a stop sign for a grinning monkey.”
    “You want me to drive?”
    I thought about it for a moment. There was something very sober and steady about Dov.
    “Yeah, I do. But there’s no way you’ll be able to talk Bar out of driving. No way he’ll let you. He’s a maniac about his car.”
    “Is that a dare?”
    I laughed. “Sure, if you want to make it into one. Let’s see you do it.”
    He was out of the car before I finished. He walked over to Bar, who was kicking pebbles, waiting for Daphna to get her order. Dov threw an arm around Bar and said something. Bar laughed. They both looked over at me. I glared and looked away. When I looked back, Dov was talking again and Bar was nodding.
    Dov returned to the car.
    “Come on, you’re moving up front.”
    “What? But there’s hardly room back there for me and Daphna. How is Bar going to fit?”
    “They’ll figure out something.”
    I got out. Dov and I leaned against the hood while Daphna devoured her stuffed pita. Bar kept taking bites until she ordered him to get another one for himself.
    “What about you?” Dov asked. “Hungry?”
    “No. It’s nearly midnight; I don’t know how they can eat that greasy food so late. Makes me queasy just thinking about it.” I made a face. “You have to tell me how you convinced him to let you drive.”
    Dov looked down at me, amusement playing on his lovely face. “Oh, it’s no problem. You just have to know what cards to play.” Which of course made me wonder even more what he’d said to put that look in Bar’s eye.
    The orange streetlight washed out the color of Dov’s eyes and made them seem nearly clear. Leaning against the hood, he folded his arms across his chest and brushed against me. I tried not to jump. I felt the contact all the way down to my toes. I studied him from under my lashes. He was wearing black cargo pants and a silky gray T-shirt that molded to his body. Something shifted and tightened in my stomach.
    Bar and Daphna staggered up to us, howling at some private joke. Dov opened the door and tilted the seat. Daphna crawled in first and Bar grabbed her butt. She shrieked and twisted, and Bar dove in after her.
    Dov drove smoothly, staying mostly in the same lane, shifting around slower cars in a controlled way that made me feel much better about the night to