Page 5 (1/2)
A elman: Your friendship with her--it sleeps with the fishes
Margo hid the fish between folded pairs of shorts in Becca’s closet I could hear footsteps upstairs, and tapped Margo on the shoulder and looked at her,She just smiled and leisurely pulled out the spray paint I scrao leaned over the desk and calant raphy or Zorro--she spray-painted the letter M onto the wall above the desk
She reached her hands up toto stand e heard a high-pitched voice shout, "DWIGHT!" I grabbed the clothes and took off running, Margo behind me
I heard, but did not see, the front door of Becca’s house swing open, but I didn’t stop or turn around, not when a boo voice shouted "HALT!" and not even when I heard the uno un" behind me--she didn’t sound upset about it exactly; she was justan observation--and then rather than walk around Becca’s hedge, I dove over it headfirst I’m not sure how I intended to land----but at any rate, I spilled onto the asphalt of the road, landing on my left shoulder Fortunately, Jase’s bundle of clothes hit the ground first, softening the blow
I swore, and before I could even start to stand, I felt Margo’s hands pullingin reverse with the lights off, which is how I nearly ca shortstop of the Winter Park High School Wildcats baseball tea very fast, but he didn’t see anyplace in particular I felt another stab of regret as we backed up past him, so I rolled thehalfway down and threw his polo in his general direction Fortunately, I don’t think he saw either Margo or nize theby dwelling on this--I can’t drive it to school
"Why the hell would you do that?" Margo asked as I turned on the lights and, driving forward now, began to navigate the suburban labyrinth back toward the interstate
"I felt bad for hi on od-only-knohat disease? Because he’s a disgusting idiot ill probably be rich and happy his whole life, thus proving the absolute unfairness of the cosmos?"
"He just looked sort of desperate," I said
"Whatever We’re going to Karin’s house It’s on Pennsylvania, by the ABC Liquors"
"Don’t be pissed at un atyou, so don’t be pissed at o shouted, and then punched the dashboard
"Well, you’re screaht "
"Oh"
"Karin told uess a lot of people have known for a long tiht "
"I’m sorry," I said
"Yeah Yeah I can’t believe I even care"
"My heart is really pounding," I said
"That’s how you know you’re having fun," Margo said
But it didn’t feel like fun; it felt like a heart attack I pulled over into a 7-Eleven parking lot and held ital clock blink every second When I turned to Margo, she was rolling her eyes at h," I explained
"I don’t even re like that The adrenaline in the throat and the lungs expanding"
"In through the nose out through the mouth," I answered her
"All your little anxieties It’s just so"
"Cute?"
"Is that what they’re calling childish these days?" She so crawled into the backseat and came back with a purse How ht She opened up the purse and pulled out a full bottle of nail polish so darkly red it was al to paint s "You just take your time"
And so we sat there, she with her nail polish balanced on the dash, and ood color of nail polish, and Margo had nice fingers, thinner and bonier than the rest of her, which was all curves and soft edges She had the kind of fingers you want to interlace with your own I reainst o My heartbeat slowed And I tried to tellout here to be afraid of, not in this little city on this quiet night
5
"Part Six," Margo said once ere driving again She aving her fingernails through the air, al piano "Leave flowers on Karin’s doorstep with apologetic note"
"What’d you do to her?"
"Well, when she told er"
"How so?" I asked We were pulled up to a stoplight, and soine--as if I was going to race the Chrysler When you floored it, it whimpered
"Well, I don’t re the lines of ‘sniveling, repulsive, idiotic, backne-ridden, snaggletoothed, fat-assed bitch with the worst hair in Central Florida--and that’s saying so’"
"Her hair is ridiculous," I said