He'd been sitting a few tables away when Lucky had stood up and started waving that gun around. The sad thing was that he knew exactly why Lucky was falling apart and there was nothing he could do about it. He'd taken refuge under the table and had started crawling, commando style, out of the lunch area. When students started stepping over him, trying to make their way to the parking lot, Cassidy had stood up and headed for his car. Suddenly, an overwhelming feeling of nausea overcame him and he threw up his lunch in some nearby bushes. Cassidy was still bent over and panting, when he felt someone clap their hand on his shoulder. He turned to see Dick holding out a can of 7Up towards him.
"I got this out of the machine for you," Dick nodded toward a nearby soda machine. "You gonna be okay?"
Cassidy started to nod and then threw up again. When he felt like there was nothing left to come up, he cracked open the can, took a sip, and spat it into the bushes. "I wish I could brush my teeth though." He swirled another mouthful of the fizzy drink in his mouth and spat it out. "My mouth tastes like an old sock."
Dick guided him to the hood of Cassidy's car and pushed him to sit down. "Yeah, that's the worst part of throwing up."
Cassidy looked up at Dick and remembered how often Dick had gotten hung over and thrown up. He held up the can to Dick. "Thanks. This'll help." He and Dick watched students milling around for awhile. "Was anyone hurt?"
Dick squinted at him. "Nah, but we'll probably get the rest of the day off. Once Logan checks in with Veronica, I was thinking we'd make it a three day weekend and head to Rosarito for some surfing. You up for that?"
Cassidy nodded and pulled out his cell phone. His heart surged when he saw that he had text messages. One was a picture Dick took of him throwing up and another was from his friend, Hart, asking him if he was okay. Nothing from Mac. Dick looked over at Cassidy.
"I saw Mac heading out of the computer lab a few minutes ago. You should find her and talk to her. Just to make sure she's okay. Chicks eat up stuff like that."
Cassidy shook his head. "I've got this bad breath," he gestured towards his mouth.
"She won't care. Look, I've got some Jolly Ranchers in my pocket, I think." Dick started to empty his pockets. "It'll freshen your breath." He waved a handful in Cassidy's face.
Cassidy angrily shoved Dick's hand away. "Leave me alone, Dick."
Dick sighed. "Is she still mad at you? I thought prom night got that sorted out."
Cassidy hopped off the hood of his car and unlocked the door. "It's not that easy. We've got some stuff to work out." He sat down inside his car and turned on the radio. He was hoping to see what the news had to say about it. Maybe Lucky would spill the beans about Woody and he wouldn't have to be involved at all.
"Are you kidding me? How complicated can a high school relationship be? You've already had sex. All your problems should be solved!" Dick groaned. "I'm so sick of this. I'm going to talk to her." He started walking away from Cassidy's car, thinking that at any moment Cassidy would stop him. Instead, he saw Cassidy intently listening to the local news radio station. He probably hadn't heard anything Dick had said. He guessed it was up to him to get those crazy kids back together. He saw Mac's car parked a few rows away. He figured it couldn't hurt to smooth the way for Cassidy.
A knock on Mac's bedroom window jolted her out of a deep sleep. Mac looked at her cellphone. It was two in the morning. She wasn't entirely sure that she had heard anything anyway. Maybe she'd woken up on her own. Mac had settled back into her bed when she heard three sharp raps on her window. Pulling aside her curtain, Mac saw what she thought was Cassidy standing outside her bedroom window.
"What are you doing here?"
Cassidy's muffled voice came through the glass. "I wanted to see you."
Mac pushed open her bedroom window and leaned out. "Here I am." Mac stifled a yawn. "What did you want?" Cassidy started to pull himself up to climb though Mac's window before she stopped him. "My parents would kill me and you if they found you in my bedroom in the middle of the night. You have to stay outside."
Cassidy nodded. "Got it." He kept forgetting that other people had parents who cared about them. "Do you think you could come outside?"
Mac sighed. "Does it really have to be right now, Beav? I'm tired."
Cassidy flinched at the use of Dick's nickname for him. "Sure. I'll talk to you at school." Cassidy turned at walk away.
"Wait!" Mac hissed out the window at him. "I'll be out in a minute."
In a few minutes she stepped outside of her house with a battered robe pulled over her pajamas. "So?"
Cassidy walked close and pulled her into a hug. Her familiar smell filled his lungs. "I'm really glad you're okay."
Mac hugged him back. "I feel the same way." She pulled away from his hug. "You could have done this at school. What's going on?"
Cassidy nodded toward what Mac recognized as Logan's yellow XTerra. "We're taking a three day weekend in Rosarito. I won't be at school tomorrow." Cassidy frowned. "Or should I say this morning? Anyway, I didn't get to see you after everything happened and I wanted to see you."
Mac gave him a shy smile. "Thanks. I was kind of annoyed that you sent Dick to check on me."
Cassidy looked confused. "Dick went to check on you?"
"Yeah, he said you asked him to. Dick said you were having a panic attack and you asked him to check on me," Mac gave Cassidy a piercing look. "You didn't do any of that?"
"It's not like I wouldn't have wanted him to . . ." Cassidy's voice trailed off.
"Were you even having a panic attack?" Mac demanded.
How could he explain that he was in a panic, but not about the school shooting? How would he be able to explain that he'd been so consumed with what Lucky would say about Woody that he hadn't thought about her until they were almost out of Neptune? Logan had stopped a gas station not far from Mac's house and while Dick was buying energy drinks in the convenience store, he'd begged Logan to take him by Mac's. He'd ended up paying for Logan's gas (this had been the bargain he'd struck with Logan), but it had been worth it.
Mac took Cassidy's blank stare to mean he was thinking of a lie to tell her. Mac groaned. "Look, just go on your surfing safari. I don't want to talk to you right now." Mac started back to her house.
"You just want to leave it like that? I won't be back until Monday." He called as loudly as he dared.
"Good. Maybe I won't be mad at you by then," she called back and opened the door to her house.
Cassidy glumly got back into the backseat of Logan's car. "That did not seem to go well," Logan commented.
Taking a can of beer from the cooler Dick had packed, Cassidy popped it open and took a long gulp. "Yeah, no kidding." It was going to be a long weekend.
