Free Creeping with the Enemy by Kimberly Reid

second, sipping her chai to stall while she thinks of how to say whatever she’s about to say. I don’t try to fill the silence. Lana says you learn the most from a perp not from questioning him but from letting him just speak his mind. Bethanie isn’t a perp, but I have to treat her like one if I want to get some information out of her.
    â€œBefore Marco, I’m guessing you didn’t really have a lot of boyfriends.”
    Bethanie is being generous in calling Marco my boyfriend, and we both know it. She is definitely trying to tread lightly.
    â€œI haven’t had a boyfriend because I’m not into serious,” I say. “I figured there are too many fine men out there to waste my time on one.”
    â€œMen?”
    â€œYou know what I mean.” How could she? I don’t even know what I mean; I’m just trying to sound like I know what the hell I’m talking about.
    â€œSo you must know a lot about boys.”
    At first I think she’s being sarcastic seeing how she’s always trying to give me advice on Marco, but I realize she’s serious. Did she actually believe my story about never having one boyfriend because I’d rather play around? She might be a blue ribbon winner of something, but she’d never be a great detective. Or even a mediocre one.
    â€œI know enough,” I say, going along with it.
    â€œI wish I did. I’ve never even been on a date until last night.”
    Okay, I was blowing up my knowledge about boys a little, but at least I’ve been on a few dates, even if they were lame setups by Tasha that didn’t lead to second dates. Once I get past how honest a girl has to be to admit that to someone after pretending she’s a pro on the subject, I wonder how Bethanie could be about to turn seventeen and never have had a date. Between her looks, the car, and her money, surely she could have attracted some guy, even if for the wrong reasons. I try to act like I’m not as surprised as I am, but she reads my mind.
    â€œIt’s because of my dad. He’s always been super-protective of me, especially when it comes to boys.”
    â€œAll fathers are like that,” I say, not that I would know since I never met my father. Lana was almost sixteen when she got pregnant; he was seventeen and didn’t want anything to do with Lana or being a dad. Because they only got together one time, he even suggested he might not be the father. My father. Conveniently for him, just a few days after Lana confirmed she was pregnant, his military parents—who she suspects were never told about me—had their posts reassigned. Lana says it was convenient for her, too, because he was no one she wanted to raise a kid with. We never talk about him; it’s like he never existed. That means I only have Tasha and Michelle’s fathers to go on, and in Michelle’s case, her father’s a preacher and crazy strict. That still didn’t keep her having her first time with Donnell Down the Street, Aurora Ave.’s resident thug. So even without firsthand experience, I know fathers get crazy about their daughters, and somehow the daughters still manage to hook up if they really want to.
    â€œI’m pretty sure nobody’s father is like mine when it comes to protecting me. And now with the money, he’s just over-the-top crazy about it.”
    â€œI’m guessing he doesn’t know about last night, then.”
    â€œHe thinks I was hanging out with you, which is true.”
    â€œSo you only asked me to double date so I could be your alibi?”
    â€œIt’s not like I committed a crime,” Bethanie says. “Even if my dad might think I did.”
    â€œHe has to know you want to date. I mean, you’re almost an adult.”
    â€œYeah, almost an adult and afraid to go on my first date without you and Marco there,” she says, looking like I’d feel after sharing something like