Free Rebel by Francine Pascal Page A

should be happy that
she
was happy. So why wasn't he?
    "What's up, guys?" he called as he rolled toward them. "You thinking of auditioning for a Doublemint commercial?"
    Gaia smirked. "Very funny."
    "Hey, my grandma bought me this coat for Christmas," Mary said. "It was out of my hands. I swear."
    Ed shook his head, slowing to a stop in front of them. "Yeah, sure," he said with a lopsided grin. "Grandmothers never buy anything that cool. Trust me. I know. Mine gave me a pair of polyester 'slacks.' "He made little quotation marks in the air with his fingers. "Her word, not mine."
    Mary laughed. "So how was Christmas, anyway, Fargo?"
    "Boring," he grumbled. "Why do you think I came out here to hang with you guys?"
    "Because you want to be seen in public with two amazingly hot chicks," Mary joked.
    Ed flashed a fake smile.
Actually, yes,
he thought.
You're right.
The really sad thing was that Mary had no idea how beautiful she was. And neither did Gaia. They suffered from the opposite problem that Heather did.
She
thought she was God's gift to men. How could certain people be so insightful about others and
    yet so utterly stupid about themselves?
    "So do you feel like getting back in the action?" Gaia asked, rubbing her gloved palms together. "You've got a lot of turns to make up. We've been on a pretty wild ride so far."
    "I'm sure you have," he mumbled.
    "Let's get out of the park, though," Mary said quickly. "Let's go someplace we hardly ever go. Like Chinatown or something."
    Ed stared at her, his brow furrowing. Mary seemed a little jumpy again. Her eyes kept flitting from one group of people to the next. And she couldn't stand still. She kept shifting her weight from one foot to the other.
    "We just got here," Gaia pointed out.
    "Yeah, but ... I--I don't know," she stammered distractedly. "It's just kind of dull."
    "What's the matter?" Ed asked.
    Mary shook her head--a little too emphatically. "Nothing," she said.
    Ed exchanged a quick glance with Gaia. She shrugged.
    "We can split," Gaia said. "Whatever. I've never been to Chinatown before."
    Before Gaia had even finished, Mary was already hurrying toward the north exit, straight under the arch. Gaia jogged after her.
    Ed frowned. Okay. Mary was freaking out about
    something
. He was not imagining this. He followed them slowly, peering to his left into a darkened clump of trees. Maybe she had seen an ex-boyfriend, or--
    Him.
    Ed's chair jerked to a stop. There was a guy. A fat guy with a beard--standing under a tree, hidden in the shadows not thirty feet away. He was staring directly at Gaia and Mary. Ed shivered. The night didn't seem as pleasant as it had before. He was freezing, in fact. Cold air nipped at his nose and ears. That guy looked familiar. Ed had definitely seen him around the park before. In fact ... yeah,
he
was the guy who'd been staring at Mary the other day. So he must have been the reason she was freaking out. Ed's gaze flashed back to the two girls. They vanished briefly behind the right side of the Arc de Triomphe. He turned back....
    The guy was gone.
    For a few moments Ed craned his neck, trying to spot him--but all he saw were tree branches, swaying in the winter wind under the ghostly lights of the park. Had the guy figured out that Ed had noticed him? More important, was he following Mary? Or Gaia? That was a distinct possibility. In fact, it was a
probability.
He'd learned a long time ago that it was wise to be paranoid when hanging out with Gaia. Any real danger always ended up exceeding his wildest fears, anyway.
    "Hey, Ed!" Gaia called. "Are you coming or what?"
    His head whipped around. Gaia and Mary were already halfway down the block, heading east. His eyes darted around the street on the other side of the park fence. The guy was nowhere to be found. As quickly as he could, Ed sped out of the park, nearly tipping as he whipped through the arch and around the corner onto the sidewalk.
    "Jesus." Gaia looked at Mary, frowning. "Are you