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Only now did she realize that the boy Milos had chosen did look just a little bit like Mikey She wondered if Milos had chosen him for that very reason What was it he had said? We could be for each other whatever we need She wondered if the girl looked like Jackin' Jill

"Next tirin

"No," said Allie, and took his hands, no longer in passion but in sympathy "There won't be a next time, Milos"

She could not hate hie He was just doing what boys do--and he was very good at it

"Too bad," said Milos "I could have walked you down the red carpet at the Oscars I could have danced with you in the White House"

"Noho's thinking too big?"

Milos sighed "Will you noalk back alone, orin the same direction, it would be silly to walk alone"

They returned to the highway together, yet apart It was a long and painfully aalk

"I'm sorry, Milos," Allie told him, when they were halfway there

But Milos shook his head "Please," he said "I posed a question, and your ansas no Never be afraid to tell anyone 'no'," he said "And that includeseven in defeat She knew she could have fallen for Milos had Mikey not already been a part of her life, and Milos knew it too Never before had Allie been put in a position of chosing between two boys So one against the other Allie thought to the times she teased Mikey about Milos, and realized that maybe she had done a little bit of that herself It made her want to see Mikey all the more

The one co's festivities was that her o unnoticed and unrecorded Mikey would never know

Except that he did

In fact, he was standing right beside thee Winds

When Allie and Milos returned to the interstate, Moose and Squirrel were there, but Mikey was nowhere to be seen Now that Milos's advances had hit a brick wall, he was itching tofor Mikey

"It is just like him to make the rest of us wait," Milos said

"How do you knohat he's like?" Allie said, defensively "You barely even know hiue the point

Allie looked around--to the fields across the interstate, and behind her, to the neighborhood they had just colow, but the

"Wherever he's gone, he couldn't have gone far," Allie told the others But when Mikey wasn't back byhappened to him?"

Squirrel stayed silent about it, but Moose--probably following Milos's earlier cue--was annoyed "Let him catch up with ush" Milos, on the other hand, had nized that Mikey's absence was so out of the ordinary "There will be a sensible explanation," Milos reasoned, "and when he does cory at hiil all night, her s that could have happened to hihts kidnapped hiht in one of Mary's stupid soul traps? Yet she knew she was grasping at straws Those Nashville Afterlights were tis--and as for soul traps, there was no evidence that Mary had ever been this far west

When dawn came, and Mikey still hadn't returned, Allie was beside herself The others kept their distance--not even Milos kne to handle this It was in that early ht that she took special notice of Squirrel He had nothing to say about the --yet he was evenhis weight froaze, and that clinched it In an instant she had him tried, convicted, and sentenced

"It was you!" She storer "You did so to him!"

Squirrel's jaw dropped open and he shook his head "Notto hiue of guilt wouldn't spread to him, but he was too late

"It was both of you!" yelled Allie "I know it just by looking at you!"

Moose's beady eyes seemed to widen within his helmet, like a cornered opossum She half expected hi! Milosh tell her it wazn't ush!" But Milos was not taking sides

"You're both lying!' Allie screamed at them "Tell me what you did, or I'll tear you apart with my bare hands!" In that moment, she believed she could do it, and they believed it too

"We didn't do anything! I swear, I swear!" pleaded Squirrel "Crossto hi from Squirrel, just sounded odd It was just a further indication to Allie that he

Finally Milos stepped in "Afraid of him? Why afraid?"

Squirrel looked to Milos then to Moose, and finally to Allie "I thinkI think your friend is some kinda ave hiot all these eyes--and tentacles He hides 'eot 'em"

"You're LYING!" screa, take it BACK!" She began pushing hi him

It was Milos who pulled her away fro like she never had in life Milos tried to co," she said over and over, her voice getting weaker each ti "