I shook my head. “I can’t believe you just said that.” I looked at Griffin. “That’s totally gross, isn’t it?”
“I’m not a big fan of tofu,” he admitted.
“You ever eaten it?” said Jack.
“Yes,” I said. “My ex-boyfriend, who was a vegetarian, made me eat it once. It was horrible.”
“Well, who cooked it?” said Stacey. “Was it him?”
“Yeah,” I said. “So?”
“So, just try this.” She shoved her half-eaten burger at my face.
I cringed. She wanted me to take a bite of something she’d already eaten. That wasn’t sanitary.
“Go on,” she said. “I don’t have cooties.”
I took a tentative bite and chewed. I hoped I wasn’t ingesting a trillion germs. As I chewed, I realized that what I was eating didn’t taste half bad. “Hey. It’s not awful.”
“Not awful? It’s amazing,” said Stacey. “So good. Jack and I would barely survive here if it wasn’t for The Purple Fiddle. Do you know how hard it is to be vegan around here?”
“You’re vegan, huh?” I asked.
She smiled. “Yeah. Six months now.”
“Isn’t that the amount of time you’ve been sober?” I said.
She nodded. “Yup. Jack and I gave up meat, eggs, milk, and blow all at the same time.”
“Whoa,” I said. “Sounds intense.”
“Definitely,” said Stacey.
“I couldn’t do that,” I said. “I mean, I think that would be too hard.”
“Yeah, well, we were going to quit smoking too,” said Jack, “but we decided it would be too much to handle.”
“We’re going to quit eventually,” said Stacey.
“You guys want to be healthy, I guess,” I said.
“It’s more than that,” said Stacey. “I mean, while I was doing drugs and stuff, I really just wanted to stand out, you know? My dad left when I was a kid, and I guess I was looking for attention somewhere. I wanted people to see me, and always notice me.” She tugged on her hair. “That’s why, you know, I do stuff like this.”
I smiled. “I get that. I know what you’re talking about.”
“When you’re all fucked up,” she said, “you’re free, right? You don’t have anything holding you back. You can be as loud or as noticeable as you want.”
“Yeah,” I said. Wow. Stacey and I might have more in common than I had ever thought.
“So, when I quit, I didn’t want to lose that. I was afraid of being nobody. Like if I wasn’t the crazy party chick with weird hair and piercings, then who would I be, you know? But I decided that instead of using my appearance to validate myself, I’d used it for good. So, now I’m the crazy chick who’s vocal about being sober and making better food choices and all of that.”
I surveyed her. She was actually really together, in her own strange way. I liked her. “I think that’s cool.”
“Plus, being vegan is like effortless weight loss.” She gestured at me with her sandwich. “Not that you need to lose weight or anything.”
I took a bite of my jalapeño turkey wrap. “Well, every girl wants to lose weight.”
“I know, right?” she said, taking a drink of her soda. She inclined her head. “And all guys universally hate it when girls start talking about that.”
Griffin and Jack both seemed really interested in their food.
“They’re a lot alike, Griffin and Jack,” said Stacey.
I set down my wrap. “How do you figure?” They didn’t look very similar to me. Jack was skinny and pierced. He had long, blue hair. Griffin was the complete opposite of Jack.
“They’re both quiet,” she said. “They both keep things to themselves, especially bad things. They don’t open up about their pain to just anyone.”
That was true, I guessed, as far as it went.
Stacey sucked on her straw. “Jack hates cops, for instance. Hates ‘em. Won’t tell me why.”