Tagged. Mara Purnhagen

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СКАЧАТЬ a while until I threatened to stop making them. No one calls me Katie, I don’t care how cute they are.

      I made his drink and handed it to him.

      “I hope you didn’t skimp on the chocolate,” he said.

      “Would you like to drink it or wear it?” I asked him sweetly. He smiled and took a sip.

      “Perfect,” he announced. “So, what was it you wanted to know?”

      I sat down across from him, which was kind of hard to do. Eli was tall and lanky, and his knees bumped into my legs. “I want to know everything,” I said. “What happened to Trent? Where is he? Why were you late to work?”

      Eli smiled and took an extra-slow sip. He was torturing me and enjoying every second of it.

      “Trent is alive and well,” he said finally. “He is at home. I was late because Brady’s new girlfriend is incredibly slow and we couldn’t leave without her.” He wrinkled his nose. “I mean, we could have and maybe we should have because she’s really annoying, if you ask me.”

      “I didn’t ask you about Brady’s girlfriend. I asked about Trent. Is he suspended? Did they take him to the police station?”

      Eli raised an eyebrow at me. “I thought you would know that.”

      “Just because my dad’s the police chief doesn’t mean he tells me everything. In fact, I probably know less than anyone else about what goes on in this town.”

      Dad tended to keep things to himself, which I appreciated. Occasionally, he would relate some police-related story at dinner, but only if it was funny—like a naked guy stuck in a tree, which happened a lot more than you would think—or strange—snakes discovered in a car, for example. Everyone seemed to think that I did know things or, worse, that I was potentially a rat. Sometimes kids would stop talking if I was close by. But my dad and I had an understanding that I would go to him if, and only if, someone was in danger of hurting themselves or someone else. Other than that, I was not responsible for the actions of others. Of course, try telling that to the entire school. Any time a party got busted, people looked at me funny the next day, like I was somehow responsible. Lan thought I was imagining things, but I knew I wasn’t. My dad’s job created a negative side effect for me: it made me stand out during those times when I most wanted to fade away.

      “I don’t know anything,” I repeated.

      Eli pulled his laptop out of his backpack. “I believe you,” he said. “Unfortunately, I don’t know anything, either.” He began typing.

      “You must know something,” I protested. “You’re his best friend.”

      Eli didn’t answer me. He was staring at his computer screen. “Just checking my e-mail,” he said softly. I could tell he was reading, and once Eli got into his computer, forget it. He completely focused on that and nothing else. “Well, Trent’s not suspended,” he said finally. “Yet.”

      A car pulled up to the window and Eli stood up. It was a big order: five drinks, each one different, including a strawberry cheesecake cappuccino, which is a hassle to make. Eli started on a low-fat, almond latte while I handled the cash register. We worked well together. Eli was fast and efficient, and I double-checked everything, made sure the lids were on tight and cleaned up afterward. After our customer left, Eli sat back down at his computer while I rinsed out the steamer cups.

      “So he e-mailed you?” I asked.

      “Yeah, but it’s brief.” Eli read aloud from the message Trent had sent: “I’ll be back at school tomorrow. They’re checking my alibi. Not to worry, it’s all good. No proof, no crime.” Eli started to say something else, but stopped. I knew he was holding back, but I wasn’t going to push it.

      “I wonder what his alibi is.”

      Eli yawned. “He was out of town visiting relatives.”

      “So you do know more than you’re telling me.”

      He smiled and shook his head. “Why does everyone assume it was someone from our school?”

      “Who else would do that to the building?” I wiped the counter and made sure we had enough medium-sized cups. I knew we’d be getting an after-work rush in a half hour, and nearly everyone ordered a medium.

      I glanced at Eli, who was still typing away at his computer. I wanted to remind him to do the inventory, but I also knew he would get it done and I didn’t want to sound like a nag. If Eli was anything, it was reliable. And adorable, in a way. When we first began working together over the summer, I thought he was potential boyfriend material, but the timing was off. He had just started dating Reva, a junior who came around all the time to gaze at him and glare at me, and I was just breaking up with Kevin Cleaver, a senior I had dated for a total of three months.

      Kevin and I had dated casually because we both knew he was leaving for college at the end of the summer. He took me to the prom, where we danced and laughed and ate chicken Marsala. We had fun, and I thought we would keep seeing each other until August, when he left for school.

      Then, a month before he was supposed to leave, he announced that he’d been “hooking up” with a college girl he met at a party. It was the first time anyone had broken up with me. Kevin just stood there, his hands shoved into his pockets, and shrugged. “We both knew this wasn’t a long-term thing, right?” he asked, and I nodded and said something like “Yeah, sure, no big deal.” But I was crushed. It actually surprised me that I was so hurt. I mean, I knew it was a temporary thing, but still. I guess it was the fact that I had been so easily replaced. I thought I had mattered to him at least a little, and when I realized I hadn’t, I felt even worse.

      “You look tired,” I said to Eli. He had dark circles beneath his eyes and he kept yawning.

      “I need to get back on schedule,” he said, not taking his eyes off the computer. “I stayed up too late over break. Ben was in town and he never sleeps.”

      Eli’s brother Ben went to college out West somewhere, where he was an undeclared senior. According to Eli, Ben changed his major every semester and would be in school at least another three years.

      Eli looked at me. “So, what did you think of it?”

      “Think of what?” I was debating whether or not to bring another bottle of almond syrup out of the back room. We were getting low.

      “The gorillas. What did you think of the gorillas?”

      “I think someone wasted an awful lot of time and effort. I mean, they’re just going to be removed.”

      “But what did you think about the actual gorillas? Did you like them? Hate them? Anything?”

      I considered it. My first thought had been that someone—most likely Trent—was going to be in a lot of trouble. But I also thought that the gorillas had been very well done. Beautiful, almost.

      Eli would probably think I was crazy if I called them beautiful, so instead I said, “We debated it in history. You know, whether it was art or just vandalism.”

      “And?” Eli seemed pretty intent on the topic.

      “And the class was fairly divided.”

      “Which СКАЧАТЬ