"Oh really? How would you know?"
"I know because…" She hesitated. "Well, I guess I don't, actually."
"Exactly," I said. "Admit it. You don’t even like him."
"Who? Jake?" she said. "That's hardly my fault. It's hard to like him when he's a jerk all the time."
"He'sa jerk?" I said. "What about Bishop?"
"What about him?"
"He only comes over when he wants to gripe. You know, I've been living with Jake for a few weeks now, and seriously, the only time we ever hear from Bishop is when he comes by to tell Jake what a screw-up he is." I made a sound of annoyance. "Which, by the way, he isn't."
"Luna, come on," she said in herlet's-all-be-reasonablevoice. "Jake pisses people off for a living. You've gotta admit that much."
"So what?" I said. "What does Bishop do?"
"What do you mean?"
"For a living. What does he do?"
Her gaze shifted outside, where Jake and Bishop appeared to be engaged in some sort of standoff. They weren't talking so much as glaring.
Was that an improvement? Honestly, I didn't know.
I turned back to my sister. "Admit it. You don't even know."
"What Bishop does?" she said. "I do, too."
"Oh yeah? What?"
"Well, he has some patents, and does some security stuff."
"That sounds awful vague to me."
"It's not vague," she said. "It's passive income. He makes money for things he invented forever ago."
From what I'd heard, he made a lot of money. But that was beside the point. "I'm just saying that I don't appreciate you judging me. Or Jake either for that matter."
At the hurt in her eyes, I softened my tone. "I love him. And he's a great guy. You'd know that if you ever gave him half a chance."
"Ihavegiven him a chance."
"You have not," I said. "And neither has Bishop."
Selena closed her eyes and said, "I don't believe this."
"What?"
With her eyes still shut, she leaned back in the booth and let out a long, weary sigh. "Why arewearguing?They'rethe ones who are mad at each other."
"Yeah, but it's important to me. Can't you at least try to like him?" Thinking of Jake, I turned to look out the window.
I heard myself gasp. "Oh, crap."
Instantly, Selena's eyes flew open. "What?"
I pointed out the window. "Look."
Selena looked. From the expression on her face, she knew exactly what I meant.
Outside, a silver-and-black sports car with dark, tinted windows and flashy silver rims had pulled up to the curb, just a few feet away from where Jake and Bishop were standing.
Hanging out of the open passenger's side window was someone all too familiar. It was Ronnie North, Dorian's younger brother, who'd flipped out at the convention center when he hadn't won that regional sports award.
And since Ronnie wasn't driving, I knew at least one thing for certain. He wasn't alone.
Damn it.
