Witch world

Chapter 2

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I was an idiot to get in Alex's car. But I was not fool enough to sit in the backseat between Ted and Jimmy. Debbie ended up sandwiched between the boys, where she looked quite content.

It was two in the afternoon by the time we hit the road. Our parents had insisted on taking us three girls to lunch, but it was only as fun as long as our appetites lasted. We were anxious to get to Vegas. Also, there was tension between Alex's and Debbie's parents.

It was rooted in the UCLA fiasco and the ugly talk surrounding it. The truth was Debbie had only been accepted by the University of Santa Barbara, an incredibly beautiful campus, in my humble opinion, and she had graduated second in our class, while Alex had finished thirty eighth. Alex made no effort to soften the tension, wearing a UCLA t shirt to lunch. Out of the five parents present, my mom was the only one who did much talking.

No one was jealous of me. I had finished tenth in our class and my SAT scores equaled Debbie's, but I hadn't bothered to apply to college. It was a money thing, I didn't have any. And I couldn't apply for financial aid because my father was rich.

Silly me, I kept hoping my father would suddenly remember he had a daughter who had just graduated high school and who needed six figures just to get an undergraduate degree. But so far he had not called, or written, or emailed me.

My mom didn't appreciate his silent rejection. She bitched about it whenever she had a chance. But I took the rejection in stride. I only cried about it when I was alone in my bed at night.

I hardly knew my father but it was weird, I missed him.

'I enjoyed your speech,' Jimmy said to Debbie as he and Ted climbed aboard in a deserted parking lot far away from any stray parental eyes.

'Thank you,' Debbie said. 'I was afraid it was too long. The last thing I wanted to do was bore people.'

Christ, I thought. Her thirty minute speech had been twenty minutes too long. I knew because neither Alex nor I could remember the last twenty minutes.

Debbie had spoken on the environment, of all things. What did she know about that? She had grown up in the goddamn desert. We didn't have an environment, not really, just a bunch of sand and dirt.

'You point on the impact of methane versus carbon dioxide gases on global warming was important,' Ted said. 'It's a pity the tundra's melting so fast. I wouldn't be surprised if the worlds temperature increases by ten degrees in our lifetime.'

'Won't happen,' Alex said, swinging onto the interstate and jacking our speed up to an even ninety. She always sped and often got stopped by the cops. But so far she had yet to get a ticket. Go figure.

'Why do you say that?' Ted asked.

'We'll never live that long. We'll die of something else,' Alex said.

'Like what?' Jimmy asked.

Alex shrugged. 'That's my point. Here we're worrying about carbon dioxide raising temperature and now it turns out methane is the real culprit. That's the way of the world, and the future. You can't predict nothing.'

'Anything,' Debbie muttered.

'Whatever,' Alex said.

'What are you majoring in at UCLA?' Jimmy asked Alex.

'Psychology. I figure there's going to be a lot of depressed people pretty soon.'

'You plan to cash in on their sorrows?' Debbie asked.