Ashes to Ashes by Jenny Han

but the idea of getting away from Jar Island for the night sounds like a plan to me. There’s just one thing keeping me from saying yes. “What are the other guys doing?”
    â€œAlex has some school project thing he’s working on. And Reeve’s doing something with his brothers. So it’ll just be us four,and we can fit into one car that way. I’ll pick you up at six.”
    â€œOkay. Great.”
    *  *  *
    Ash is late, as always. I’m outside on the curb waiting for her. Just for fun I put on a Jar Island varsity sweatshirt and tied my hair up in one of my cheerleader ribbons. When she arrives, almost twenty minutes late, I climb into the front seat. We pick up Derek next, and then PJ.
    I expect Ash is going to head straight to the ferry, since the next one leaves in a few minutes, but instead she makes a left and speeds toward T-Town.
    â€œDerek,” Ash says, rolling through a stop sign. “Text Reeve and tell him to be outside in five minutes. If he’s not there, we’re leaving without him.”
    I lean forward. “What? I thought you said he wasn’t coming.” If I’d known Reeve was coming, there’s no way I would have said yes.
    â€œI guess he changed his mind,” Ash says with a shrug.
    I pray that Reeve isn’t outside, that we will leave without him, but he’s sitting on his front stairs as we pull up. I flip down the visor and touch up my lipstick so I don’t have to make eye contact with him.
    As soon as we get to the other high school’s gym, I say that I have to go to the bathroom just so I can make sure that wedon’t end up sitting next to each other on the bleachers. On my way back I see two girls standing with Reeve at the bottom of the stands. I can tell he’s not interested in talking to them, because he keeps looking over their shoulders. But I still feel a pang of jealousy as I walk by, until I hear one of them mention the Montessori school.
    Oh God. What if it somehow gets back to Mary that I’m here with Reeve?
    I push the thought away. I don’t even know where Mary is. And I don’t think she keeps in touch with any of the Montessori kids from back in the day. I climb the bleachers, take a seat between PJ and Derek, and keep really focused on the basketball game, even though it’s insanely boring.
    After the game everybody starts piling into Ash’s car, and I immediately go for the front seat again, but Derek shakes his head at me. “No way, Lil. You’re the smallest one here. You don’t get shotgun again.”
    â€œDerek!” I protest. He is tall, though—like, basketball-player tall. Ash has to get on her tippy-toes to kiss him. “Come on. Be a gentleman!”
    â€œBackseat, baby,” he says, pulling the seat forward so I can climb in. Reeve and PJ are crammed into the back, and there’s barely room for the two of them, much less me.
    My eyes meet Reeve’s. “But . . . there’s no room.”
    Reeve tips his head back against the seat. Looking straight ahead, he says, “Cho, just get in. We’re going to miss the ferry home.”
    â€œYou can sit in Reeve’s lap,” Ash advises me. “Or stretch out on top.”
    This is basically the opposite of what Kat told me to do. Reluctantly I climb in between the boys. I perch as lightly as I can, half on Reeve’s thigh and half on PJ’s. PJ doesn’t move—he’s looking at his phone—but Reeve shifts as far away from me as he can and holds on to the handle above the window. “You can scoot back a little,” he says, his voice gruff.
    â€œI’m fine,” I say. To Ashlin I say, “Let’s go.”
    Ash starts the car, and we zoom out of the high school’s parking lot. Ash is always speeding. She’s gotten, like, a million speeding tickets in just the one year she’s been driving. The car is quiet except