Free Silver is for Secrets by Laurie Faria Stolarz Page A

do that fluttering thing again. They tremble midair in front of her eyes, as though she‟s trying to cool herself off—or simply hold it al together. It‟s almost as if my believing her and acknowledging what happened has made it worse, like maybe she could have been talked into believing that she simply mislaid the stuff in her mother‟s absence.
    “You told me something bad was going to happen,” she says.
    “Not with me around.” PJ goes to crack his knuckles, but his fingers are as loud as he is helpful.
    “So what now?” Clara asks. “Should I cal the police or something?” I shake my head. “There‟s no evidence. They‟l just think you put your things back in the wrong place and label you temporarily insane.”
    “Yeah, but you can tel them about your nightmares, about how you dreamed about me.”
    “And then they‟l label me temporarily insane.”
    “We need to be crafty,” PJ says, rubbing his palms together.
    “I need you to be super aware of where you put stuff for the next few days,” I say. “If someone went through your stuff once, I‟m sure they‟l do it again. Until that time, keep your doors and your windows closed and locked.”
    “So I‟m just supposed to sit around until someone breaks in and goes through my stuff again? What if I‟m home when they do it? What if they want to hurt me?”
    “I won‟t let them,” I say, but even as I do I remember the blood in my dream and how I saw the death lilies. How there was some guy carrying a whole bouquet of them following after me.

thirteen
    I tel Clara that she‟s welcome to stay at our place but she declines, even when I insist. PJ agrees to accompany her back, a bright and cheery smile across his sunblock-white lips.
    “I think I should come, too,” I say. “Maybe I‟l be able to sense something.”
    “No,” Clara says. “I mean, not right now. I‟m not sure I could take it if you were able to sense something else.”
    “Then when?”
    “Don‟t give it another thought, Stacey-bee.” PJ drapes his arm around Clara, accidental y elbowing her ear in the process. “With me around, Clara wil be as safe as a ten-dollar bill slipped down the front of a spinster‟s bustier.”
    “Do spinsters even wear bustiers?” Clara cocks her head in thought.
    “Just ask Stacey,” he says, winking at me.
    “Maybe you could come over later,” Clara says to me. “Right now, I think I‟d just like to make sure everything is secure and in place.”
    “You should probably cal your parents, too,” I suggest.
     
    “Maybe they‟l come back early.”
    Clara looks away, like maybe she‟s not so sure. Or maybe she doesn‟t want to tell her parents yet.
    I see them to the door—PJ, with his arm draped around Clara‟s shoulders, and Clara, leaning into PJ just enough to show interest. The sight of them together like that reminds me that I should go and talk to Jacob. I turn toward his room, but then remember Amber coming in and how upset she seemed.
    I knock on the door before going in. Amber is lying on her bed, staring up at the ceiling, the empty plate that formerly held the Mallomars sitting beside her, chocolate driblets at the corners of her mouth.
    “Did you see them like that?” she gasps. “PJ and Miss Hula Girl . . .” She sits up in bed and folds her arms.
    “I know,” I say, plunking down beside her.
    “I thought she was supposed to be after that Casey guy,” she continues.
    “Amber, I had no idea. I mean, maybe a little, but—”
    “What?” Her cheeks puff up in anger. “About Casey?”
    “No,” I say. “I had no idea that you were stil interested in PJ. I mean, I know you guys flirt, but after all this time of him trying to get you back—”
    “Are you dizzy?” she snaps. “I‟m not interested in him.”
    “Okay.”
    “It just total y bugs me out when I hear about some hula girl breaking up relationships and then coming over here and hanging all over a friend of mine. I mean, I don‟t have to be