Part 1 (2/2)

I imagine her dipping her fingers into someone else's food and then serving it to them. Ew. ”Well, you know that's kind of against the rules, right?”

She bats her eyes and lowers her gaze to her purple shoes and shuffles her feet around. ”It was a mistake.” She sniffles and fresh tears brew in her eyes.

Mistake? How do you accidentally stick your hand in someone's food? ”Still. Kind of gross,” I tell her.

In the silence that follows, I realize I sound like a pompous jerk who's never done anything wrong. Ha. I am the queen of wrong.

”But yeah. I get mistakes.”

”Yeah. I know you do,” she says and stares at me. Blinking.

My cheeks heat up.

”I was hungry,” she says. ”I never ate breakfast and I forgot to bring my lunch.”

”Maybe you could have, you know, bought something to eat?”

I glance at my phone. I haven't got much longer left on my break.

My foot taps up and down and I glance at my Twitter feed. ”You work in the snack shop, right?” I smile down at a tweet from one of my favorite Twitter friends, @debindallas. Her icon is of her in a flared black dress with red cowboy boots.

Dads are like noses, her tweet says. They're always in your face .

Dads aren't like noses, I tweet back. You're not allowed to pick them.

5.

sixteenthings.indd 5 9/9/13 2:21 PM.

J a n e t G u r t l e r ”Yeah. But. Um. I don't have money,” Amy says.

I look up. ”You get paid to work here. Right?” I return my atten- tion to my screen, wis.h.i.+ng she'd go away.

”I, uh, have to give my paycheck to my parents,” she says quickly.

I frown and glance up to study her.

”We, uh, need the money. For groceries and rent and stuff.” Her cheeks redden and she looks away.

”Really?” Great. Once again, I feel like a jerk. I turn my phone off and tuck it in my pocket. ”You have to give them your paycheck for that stuff?”

She nods. She looks like an underfed dog with jutting ribs, like she needs a steak or something meaty and juicy to bite into. I dig into my front pocket and pull out a wrinkly five. ”Here.” I put it in her hand. ”Go get yourself a hot dog. Don't eat from customer's stuff anymore.”

She stares at the money and then slowly makes a fist around it. ”Uh. Thanks.” She pauses. ”Do you think Adam will for- give me?”

”Why don't you explain it to him? Tell him the truth.”

”I can't do that.”

”Then maybe just avoid him.”

”But I don't want to avoid him,” she says quietly.

”The crush?” I guess, and she sniffles again and her eyes get brighter.

”At least he noticed me. No one ever notices me. My dad says it's probably because I'm so little.” She stops to catch her breath. I ignore the roll of jealousy in my belly at the casual way she men-tions her dad.

6.

sixteenthings.indd 6 9/9/13 2:21 PM.

1 6 t h i n g s i t h o u g h t w e r e t r u e She sniffles again. ”I'll pay you back.”

”Don't worry about it,” I say. It's only five bucks, and she obvi- ously needs it more than I do even though almost every cent I make is going to my college fund.

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