I guess it must have registered on my face, because Nan took the wicker basket from me and tried to knead my shoulder with her good hand. I pulled away from her. I didn’t want anyone to touch me.

“Why are you two so upset?” she asked. “Your mother didn’t eat any of her breakfast, and you’re walking around with the biggest scowl on your face, you’d think someone peed in your lemonade.”

I started to open my mouth, but then I remembered how Nan felt about me revealing the future. “Forget it. Has to do with my future.”

“Doesn’t it always? Something bad?”

“Pretty much the worst.”

Her eyes narrowed. “Car accident?”

“I think so.” Now I was surprised. “How did you know?”

“On the ride home from the hospital. You saw it, didn’t you? That’s why you were upset.”

“Yeah. I think it will kill me. Me and a girl. The girl I …”

“Oh. The one who was outside just now?”

Nan had probably been listening in on the whole thing. For someone who didn’t want to know the future, she sure was nosy. “Yeah.”

“She’s cute. Is she the one you’re in love with?”

I cringed. “No. I mean, yeah. I mean, I think I could be. But I have to stay away from her.” I pressed my lips closed.

“But?”

“Well … my life is one disaster after another. But being with her makes me almost happy. It makes me feel normal.”

Nan looked at me for a long time. Then she put a hand on my cheek. “Well, why do you need to stay away from her, then? You said it was a car accident. Stay away from cars, honey bunny.”

“I know. But what if it’s just meant to happen, and messing with it just means it will happen some other way? Why should I take chances?”

“You said it yourself. Because she makes you happy. That makes it worth it.”

I sighed. “Okay. If I just say there’s no way I’m going to get into a car with her again, it won’t happen. Right?”

Nan nodded.

Just as my spirits started to pick up, I thought about her driving away in Sphincter’s Mustang. “But she’s with Sphinc—Spitzer now. I think they might be together.”

She shook her head. “Evan Spitzer? Oh, Nicky, you’re every bit as worthy as he is.”

Sure, in her warped world, a world where bifocals were a necessity and everyone who breathed was “good,” I was. That’s what I got for discussing my love life with my grandmother. Some things were better kept to myself. “Right.” It was better just to agree with her.

“You deserve to be happy.” She reached into the pocket of her apron and pulled out a hard butterscotch candy. “Want one?”

I took two and unwrapped them, one for me and one for her.

“School’s Tuesday,” she said. “And your underwear is in a sorry state. Thought I’d go and pick up some new ones for you.”

I muttered a thanks. I didn’t want to think of underwear any more than I had today.

“Oh, and pens and notebooks.” She ruffled my hair. “You need a haircut, too. You look scruffy.”

I nodded like I’d take that into consideration, even though I knew there was no way I’d get a haircut before school. I didn’t feel like it. I liked scruffy, anyway.

“Anything else you need?” she asked.

“A million dollars.”

Nan launched into the same speech I’d heard a thousand times before, so I muttered, “I know, root of all evil, blah blah blah.” By then, I was already out the door of the kitchen, headed upstairs. The last thing I wanted to think about was school, where my life would suck even more if Sphincter and Taryn were a couple. In my head, I could see them walking down the hall together, pinkies intertwined, then stopping at her locker to have a massive PDA. It seemed pretty vivid. Could have been the future. Now, the thought of her and me together was faded out, like an inactive menu option on a computer screen. “Whatever,” I said.

As I climbed the stairs, my head ached. Things were cycling again, because I’d been ignoring the You Wills. Once it quieted, I tried to see my future. After all, if Taryn and Sphincter were a couple, there was no way we’d die in a car crash together, right? I tried to call up my graduation, but again, my mind just went blank. As soon as I got up to my room, though, I saw the image, felt the darkness and humidity in the Jeep. It would be raining. Steel folding in on us. Glass showering down.

What the … how could that be?

My stomach flopped. The walls of the house, like the steel walls of Taryn’s Jeep, seemed to press in on me. I needed air.

I ran back downstairs. “Nan, I’ll go get those things,” I said, huffing like I’d run a marathon. “You should sit. Rest your arm.”

“You okay?”

“Yeah, just need something to do.” She tried to hand me a twenty, but I waved her away. “I’ve got it.”

As I crossed the street, following the You Wills, I noticed the cars were packed against one another like sardines, up and down the block. People were everywhere. When I came to Central, I realized why. The Labor Day weekend arts and crafts show was going on at the grounds of City Hall. Right. Nothing brought the throngs of people out more than the opportunity to blow money on stupid knickknacks.

As I navigated the crowds scavenging the racks of the B&B Department Store’s annual sidewalk sale, contemplating whether I should get underwear, I had this really weird feeling. Like I was going to see Taryn again. Soon. In my mind, I could see her blond head poking out from between a display of Seaside Park lighthouse and seagull souvenir magnets at the Ocean Pharmacy. No local would be caught dead looking at them. But Taryn was no local. In my head I saw her reaching for the seagull.

I had to stop her. Stop her and save her, and in the meantime, beg for forgiveness about how wrong I was. We’d just stay away from her car and everything would be fine. My future would have to change, how could it not? I’d taken three quick steps when I realized something else.

Not twenty minutes ago, I’d seen her speeding toward Ocean Avenue with Sphincter. There was no way she could be in the pharmacy. Not unless she left him a few minutes later and went right there. No. She was probably lying on the sand with him now, in a tiny bikini, looking so … forget it.

I thumped the side of my head as if that would make it work right again. As if it ever worked right. But even before I knew it, I was running toward the store. I pulled open the door and a blast of arctic air from the AC hit me as a little bell above the door jingled, startling me. Some lady glared at me over her reading glasses. I could still feel her staring as I ran past the aisles of cold remedies and tissues, looking for the souvenir magnets.

I saw them at the end of the paper products aisle. A big display of them, right next to the rack of personalized bicycle license plates. But no Taryn.

I turned away, chewing on my lip. Staring Lady was still doing what she did best, making me forget what I’d come in there for. I pretended to be really interested in toilet paper while I tried to remember. When the bell above the door tinkled again, the lady broke her death glare on me to check out the new customer, and I relaxed enough to let it come to me. Pens. Notebooks. School stuff.

I started to book it to the stationery aisle when I looked up and saw Taryn.

“Hi,” she mumbled.

I was cleaning my throat to say something when I realized that for the first time, her voice wasn’t chipper. She actually grumbled. And for the first time, she didn’t look happy to see me. She brushed past me, as if she didn’t want anything to do with me. As she should have done all this time. Her face looked red. Like she was upset. What had Sphincter done to her?

Of course, she wandered off toward the magnets. I followed her in time to see her pick up a seagull. “Locals call them beach vermin,” I said. “Do you really want a rat on your refrigerator?”

She shifted her gaze to me for a nanosecond, and then made a “hmph” noise and put the magnet back. Then she picked up a lighthouse.