Chapter Seven I don’t know why I’d been so worried about upsetting Mandy that night. I don’t know why I even bothered trying to be nice to her. A lot of good it did me. The next morning, I got up early. I knocked on her bedroom door. She went, “What?!” like she was already pissed off at me about something. “Can I come in?” I said. She went, “Why?” “Because I want to ask you something.” I said it nicely but it didn’t make any difference. “Forget it!” she said. She didn’t even open the door. “I’m not lending you any money, Chris. You still owe me eleven dollars from last week!” It really bugged me how she automatically assumed I was going to ask her for money, but I didn’t let it show. I tried to explain that I’d pay it all back in a couple of days. I’d even throw in a couple of bucks extra, but she just went, “Yeah, right. How dumb do you think I am? Like I haven’t heard that before? Why don’t you just get a job instead of bumming money off everyone?
