“You get a decent snapshot, Montgomery?” asked Daniel from the front passenger’s seat.
I pulled up the photo in question and handed over my phone to him.
“Perfect, baby girl!”
Eric cursed under his breath, and everyone in the van looked up front to see steam emanating from the hood.
“Relax,” Eric assured as Vanessa and Carly began panicking. “It’s just overheating.”
Thankfully, there was a gas station at the end of the block and we pulled right in. Eric cut the engine, and the guys climbed out to assess the situation.
“Unless you want second degree burns, don’t touch the cap yet,” warned Daniel, slapping Mark’s hand away from the radiator. “It’s gotta cool off first.”
“Doesn’t look like there’s a leak in the cooling system. It’s probably just low on coolant,” said Eric. “Not a surprise. The guy I rented it from didn’t exactly look like he was rolling in the Benjamins. Lucky he even had gas in the tank.”
“Why didn’t we just take your Escalade?” moaned Kelsey.
“I’m sorry, did you just miss what we did back there?” laughed Mark. “With the way the neighborhood watch is around here, someone was bound to see the van. If we pulled up to Harris’s place in the Cady, we may as well have just left some Polaroids of ourselves on his doorstep.”
We waited awhile until the car cooled off, and the guys confirmed it. The van was low on coolant.
Eric ran inside the gas station to pick up some, and the rest of us continued moseying around the van in boredom.
“Come on,” Kelsey whined impatiently.
“Pop a Valium,” said Mark, watching her pace about. “We’ll get to the bonfire soon enough.”
“Yeah, but Zack’s already there, not to mention Tiffany,” she moaned.
“I don’t get why you date Zack,” said Carly. “The guy’s an experiment in Artificial Stupidity, and his eyes wander more than someone with strabismus.”
“Strabismus?” laughed Mark. “You become a doctor all of the sudden?”
“Well, she did give me a pretty thorough body exam last night,” cracked Daniel, immediately receiving a backhand to the chest from his girlfriend.
The theme from Dracula blasted in the air, causing everyone to jump.
“Cheese and rice!” bellowed Carly. “You really need to change your ringtone. That is so creepy.”
“Sorry,” I laughed, pulling out my phone to read the new text.
Carly eyed me curiously. Snatching my phone clean from my grasp, she stole a look at the screen and gasped. “Oooooh, look at what we have here.”
“Car, don’t be nosy,” said Vanessa.
“What? I can’t help it. I think it’s cute she has an admirer.”
“That’s hardly a newsflash,” laughed Mark.
She rolled her eyes. “I’m not talking about Adam.”
Everyone paused in curiosity.
“Oh?” Vanessa, who never minded in gossip, even seemed intrigued by the development.
“It’s-”
“Don’t,” I warned.
Carly sucked in a breath. “Blaine,” she mouthed wickedly, receiving an immediate backhand to the forearm from me.
“Holy crap!” spat Eric. “Blaine Ryder? You gonna be hooking up with him tonight?”
I groaned. “It’s nothing serious. Honest.”
“This is still gonna break Adam’s heart,” Vanessa pouted. “You two were so cute together. Childhood best friends, separated from each other for years, only to be reunited and become lovers. It was so romantic.”
“Yeah, well, it’s all the more proof that Nicholas Sparks didn’t write the story of my life,” I grumbled, unable to hide my hurt. “If he had, I still wouldn’t want to put a fist-sized hole through Adam’s face.”
Vanessa merely sighed. “I still think you’re moving on rather quickly. And with the resident Golden Boy no less. You little heartbreaker, you.”
Carly shot her a glare. “V, will you knock it off? She had to move on eventually.”
“I’m still surprised Kat stayed with him as long as she did,” commented Daniel. “Let’s face it. The guy was flakier than a Pillsbury biscuit. He deserved what he got when she dumped his ass.”
“And that’s precisely why she needs to move on,” said Carly, wrapping an arm around my shoulders. “Kat deserves only the best.”
“Thanks,” I finally laughed.
Tires squealed as a souped-up Dodge Challenger roared into the lot. The car did a quick 180 and pulled up right in front of the first available pump.