Cat Bennet, Queen of Nothing by Mary Strand

Author:Mary Strand [Strand, Mary]
Language: eng
Format: epub
Publisher: Mary Strand

Chapter 12

Her performance was pleasing, but by no means capital.

— Jane Austen, Pride and Prejudice, Volume I, Chapter Six

Mary didn’t speak to me on the way home.

I finally couldn’t take the silence. “What’sa matter? So I sang with your precious band. Jealous?”

She kept driving, eyes on the road, not answering. When we reached a stop sign, she finally turned and stared at me. “Jealous? Are you nuts?”

“Not the last time I checked, but thanks for asking.” I glanced out the passenger window of the Jeep as we passed Tess’s house. Seeing a few cars I recognized in front, I pushed down my own stab of jealousy. “You just can’t handle it. You finally got to be cool, at least according to some people, and I stepped on your turf. Deal with it.”

Mary bit her lip as she kept driving, and I figured she was trying to keep from crying. I frowned when she suddenly started laughing. Big loud laughs rumbled out of her chest, and tears rolled down her cheeks, but she definitely wasn’t crying.

She swiped a hand across her face. “You are too funny.”

I glared at her. “I’m funny? I’m not the one who thinks she can strum a guitar and—poof!—suddenly start hanging out with Kirk Easton. I’m not you.”

Her cheeks were dry now, but Mary was still grinning. She finally glanced at me, then back at the road. “No, you’re not me, and I’m not you, just like I’m not Liz. But I was trying to tell you that your singing wasn’t, uh, all that. I mean, it wasn’t awful. It was just over the top. As if you thought you were singing at the Grammys.”

What a jerk. “You are jealous.”

“Nope.” Her hands gripped the steering wheel, though, which was a good clue. “Not that you sing off-key, or at least not mostly. I know your so-called friends asked you to sing with us, but can’t you see they were setting you up?”

“Like Kirk?” I crossed my arms over my chest, half-wishing Mary would drive the Jeep right into a ditch, even though it meant I’d go down with her. “Hey, I totally get it. You’re in a band with the coolest guy in school, and you can’t handle it that he wants me to sing. We’re pals.”

Okay, not exactly, but she was acting like a jerk.

She rolled her eyes. “He’s pals with that guy you used to like, isn’t he? Drew? And part of that whole gang? The ones you think are so cool?”

I rolled my eyes, even though I’d wondered. Why did Drew suddenly want to dance with me? Why was Kirk being so nice? And why was Tess so involved in it all? “Whatever. For your information, I sang just great.”

“Oh, sure. Great.” Mary snorted, and I would’ve slapped her if I didn’t think she’d lose control of the steering wheel and hit a little kid or something. “Honest, Cat, I don’t want to be mean, but—

“Since when?”

She just kept talking. “Did you happen to

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