Chapter Forty-Five

�God, I thought I was gonna die in there,� I groaned as the three of us walked out of class after the bell finally rang.

�You thought you were gonna die?� Jamie laughed. �At least you knew what he was talking about� What the hell is an intercooler, anyways?�

�Well��

�Never mind,� she interrupted, �I don�t even wanna know.�

Miguel and I just laughed.

�Whose car is that?� Jamie asked as we walked through the parking lot.

�What d�you think of it?� Miguel asked, not answering her question.

�Is it yours?�

�Mine? It�s purple!� he practically shouted.

�Oh, come on, Miguel,� I teased. �You know you�ve always wanted a purple car� He wishes this were his car,� I continued, turning to Jamie.

�Whose is it, then?� she asked again as we walked up alongside the car.

�Mine,� I said, grinning as I unlocked the door.

�Really?� she asked, getting in. �Did you do all the work on it yourself, or did you buy it like this?�

�Buy it like this?� I laughed. �Girl, do you even know how much it would cost to buy a car like this?�

�Uhm�no�� Jamie answered slowly.

�Nah, I didn�t buy it like this. Did all the work myself.�

�All the work yourself�yeah, right,� Miguel added, smirking at me. �I�ll make sure to tell Leon you said that��

�Okay, okay,� I hurriedly said. �With some help from my cousin and my�my ex.�

�Still, pretty impressive�� Jamie said, looking around.

�Yeah, whatever�� Miguel smirked.

�You need to shut the fuck up, unless you want to walk the rest of the way,� I said, glaring at him.

For once Miguel actually listened to me. He didn�t say another word until we were pulling into the driveway of Hector�s garage.

�Okay�I�ll see you in about an hour or so,� he said as he climbed out of the backseat.

After we dropped Miguel off, the car got pretty quiet. Jamie kept trying to start up conversations, asking how long I�d lived in LA, if I had any brothers or sisters, shit like that, but I only gave her short answers. Just didn�t feel like doing all the small talk bullshit�I never have been all that good at it anyways.

�So uh�here we are,� I finally said as we pulled up to the garage and I parked the car.