Page 17 (1/2)

The ie It was like a priser and her doubts, her fears and frustrations -

your friends aren&039;t answering your texts

they won&039;t let you play the ga theether, like different colors co down all the chaos and bewilder along with the lyrics It didn&039;t ht be, punk,as it was fast and loud and dark, stor that didn&039;t e station played enoughattention to the road, singing at the top of her voice and pounding on the steering wheel to the beat

When she arrived at her destination she stopped the car but she just sat there for a long tiro, until another set of speed metal was done When the station broke for coainst the headrest and pushed her fingers through her hair

When she reached for the ignition key she saw she&039;d battered the steering wheel all out of shape She was surprised she hadn&039;t accidentally released the airbag Whatever She could just bend it back to norrabbed the keys and pushed herself out of the car, up the walk to Mandy&039;s door She rang the bell and stood there dru her head around to watch everything that moved on the street

Eventually, finally, Mandy opened the door and looked out Mandy Hunt was the closest thing Maggie had to a BFF Both of theed to hear that term applied to theether since way back, back when they still thought it was cute their names were so similar

"You&039;d better coie inside The house was big and airy and sterile, full of tasteful ornamentation and white paint and austere leather furniture The house was spotlessly clean and it looked like no one had ever lived there Mandy&039;s parents had soh that even Jill Hennessey treated Mandy with a certain level of respect

Without a word Mandy lead her upstairs, into the bedrooie had slept in h for sleepovers The wallpaper still had a pattern of Palo past desert mesas but in recent years Mandy and her friends had taken turns cutting out pictures of celebrities fro the off their engages, their trophy spouses, their fashion accessory babies

"Why are you wearing that?" Mandy asked, after she&039;d closed and locked the door "Did you just coie looked down at herself She was still wearing her field hockey unifor kicked off the teae "They won&039;t let et upset about, right? But it just totally triggered me"

"You&039;re one of their best players," Mandy said "How is that fair? Remember last year, you were like, what, runner up for MVP? And the coach said - "

"We were supposed to have lunch," Maggie said "Wefor the pearl necklace she wore She held it out away frouess we did Well, there&039;s a funny story about that - "

"Tell ie said, diving onto Mandy&039;s bed "I didn&039;t come here to make you feel bad I came here because there&039;s nobody else in the world who can help ot the police after me Maybe the FBI"

"I see," Mandy said

"I&039; on with overnment doesn&039;t want to know ht now to find out how Brent and I survived when my dad died? They would put iven theain Do you - do you have a top I could borrow, or soet my clothes"

"Of course," Mandy said, because that was so she could handle She went to her dresser and started pulling out tank tops and sweaters Maggie stared at the clothes as they piled up on the bed, wondering how she could possibly say what she was going to say next