Page 6 (1/2)

"Who you phoning?"his face with his T-shirt

"No one"

"Good thing," he says, "since we got so much work to do"

I straddle one of the kitchen chairs and restwithout this house I’, so you’re supposed to help You don’t want to be so, but I wasn’t born yesterday That’s no answer"

"If you’re so srins after he says it, like verbal wrangling is his idea of fun Being with hi around his yard in Carney, safe and free for the summer He didn’t need us to help him chat up a mark or shove some stolen item down our pants He made us mow the lawn instead

I decide I’ll try a different tactic to show hi on? I don’t knohat’s wrong withwith Maura"

He stops grinning "What do you mean?"

"Did you see her? She looks terrible And she thinks she’s hearingher"

Grandad shakes his head and dumps his sweaty shirt on the table "He’s not--"

"Oh, come on," I say "I saw her Do you knohat she said tobefore he can speak, and we both turn Audrey’s face is frah sure she’s in the wrong place, but then she twists the knob and pushes the door hard enough to unstick it

"How did you findas I ever hoped to be

"All our addresses are printed in the student directory," she says, shaking her head like I’ht," I say, because I am a total idiot "Sorry Come in Thanks for--"

"Did they kick you out?" She puts one blue-gloved hand on her hip She’s talking toat the piles of papers and ashtrays, mannequin hands and tea strainers that litter the countertops

"For now," I say, willing ht I was fa Audrey, but right now I realize how much more I’llon the grass in the quad All of a sudden I don’t care about the proper arandfather" Grandad holds out his left hand The rubber glove hangs lilad she can’t see the stuic rotted flesh

Audrey blanches, holding her gloved hand against her stoh she’s just realized what he is

"Sorry," I say "Grairl like you can calllike he’s a rascal daring to be repri as alk past hi room

I sit down on the ripped cushion of our couch I wonder what she thinks of the house and if she’s going to say anything about it or about ht friends over, I was defiantly proud of the chaos I liked that I kne to julass while they stumbled Now it just seems like an ocean of crazy that I have no way to explain

She reaches into her shiny black pocketbook and takes out a handful of printouts

"Here," she says, du down beside h she’s just coainst my arm

Lila’s hair was blond, soaked red with blood the last tiers over thees away When I was Audrey’s boyfriend, I thought that byher think I was like everyone else, I’d beco her back, wondering if I could do it Wondering how long before I screw up and she leaves h con man to keep her

"So," Audrey says, pointing to the papers "Unofficially I brought so in his sleep I was thinking you could just say--"

"That I wasover and pressingin the sh sweater fabric

She doesn’t push ht there on the dirty couch, but some instinct of self-preservation stops me Once someone’s hurt you, it’s harder to relax around them, harder to think of the the worse

"It doesn’t have to be true You can just say you were taking sleeping pills," she says, like I don’t understand lying, which is sort of sweet and sort of hu

It’s not a bad plan, really If I had been sht of it myself earlier, I’d probably still be at school "I already told the as a kid"

"Crap," she says "Too bad There’s this other pill in Australia that’s e eat and paint their front doors while asleep" She tilts her head, and I see six tiny protective amulets slide across her collarbone Luck Dreams Emotion Body Meht on the edge of her sweater

I i her throat in uilty when I think of killing girls, but it’s the only way I know to testis inside of et out

I reach out and unhook the little stone pendant, letting it fall against her neck Heh transformation workers around for there to be eneration or two That charmIt was a good idea"

She bites her lip "Do you think this has so?"

I shift abruptly, so that ainst the armrest Real smooth "Do I think what has to do with it? He was in a car accident in the ered by stress What about your ot to be stressful"