Free All That's True by Jackie Lee Miles Page B

taking Bridget out of the room in handcuffs. Handcuffs, like she’s a criminal. The main security guard, who acts like he is the boss over the others, says Madeline and I can go. Go where? Go about our life like nothing has happened? They didn’t find anything in either one of our purses, but they discovered Bridget had half the junior department in hers.
    “You better not tell,” Madeline whispers. “Or else.”
    I don’t need to say or else what? Or else she’ll tell my parents I’m a slut. This is not good timing. My mother’s coming home, and we’re having a baby, and we have a wedding, and we’re going on a cruise. And now I wonder if Bridget will even get to come? Will she be on probation and not able to leave the country? I could just kill Madeline. But then I’d have to join Bridget in the slammer, if that’s where they have her. The guards show me and Madeline to the door. We walk over to Longhorn’s Steak House which is across the street from the mall. This is supposed to be where we order Shirley Temples and an appetizer and wait for the best steak you can sink your teeth into. Instead, here we are, having to tell Bridget’s father that she’s been arrested.
    “You do it,” I tell Madeline and just make my eyes as thin and mean as a Siamese cat with an attitude.
    Bridget’s father and Donna are waiting in front of the restaurant. Donna smiles brightly but right away Mr. Harman’s eyebrows arch upwards, like, what gives? Where’s Bridget? And the part of my stomach that is convinced it lives somewhere else marches up my throat again.
    “Mr. Harman,” Madeline says. Her voice is all syrupy-sweet. “Something terrible has happened. Bridget’s been caught shoplifting.”
    Mr. Harman takes hold of one of her arms. “What did you say?” he says, and leans in a little closer, like maybe he hasn’t heard her correctly. He has his head cocked to the side and one ear turned toward Madeline.
    “I just don’t know what got into her,” Madeline says. She opens her eyes wide and shakes her head from side to side.
    She’s a total liar, but she doesn’t look like one. She’s very convincing. If I didn’t know better, I’d think she was being sincere, too. What I need to do is explain exactly what I know happened, but do I do that? Oh no, I just stand there with tears running down my face and my shoulders heaving like a five-year-old.
    Donna walks over to me and puts her arm around me. “Don’t worry, Andi,” she says, “It’s going to be okay. These things happen.”
    She pulls me tightly against her and pats my back and I’m thinking I could just love this woman. Go figure. She’s like my enemy. Now how can I send her the letter I’ve been working on? This is all getting very complicated.
    Rodger Harman doesn’t look like he thinks these things happen. He looks like he’s ready to start a war.
    “Let’s go,” he says and nods his head toward the car.
    “Are you okay, Andi?” Donna says. “Do you want me to call your father?”
    So that’s it. She wants me to call my father. She wants to see my dad. And here I thought she was starting to be someone I could like.
    ***
    Bridget has been released into her father’s custody and we are sitting with my father in our library. At times like this it’s very inconvenient having an alcoholic mother. I would really like her to be here. She would be sitting next to me with her arm around my shoulder. I just know it. My father is sitting across from me and watching my every move. Madeline has been taken back to Westwood Academy. She boards in, which means she lives there except for when she spends the weekend at Bridget’s or goes home to Savannah, which I wish she would and then just stay there. Bridget has been crying and her eyes are very pink around the edges and her face is blotchy.
    “Why would you do this?” her father asks her. “What got into you?”
    Bridget doesn’t answer. She just shakes her head and swallows hard like