Free Razor's Edge by Nikki Tate Page B

happened?”
    â€œAre you having girl trouble?” Angela asks.
    â€œAngela, please. Stay out of this. Travis? Answer your father. What’s going on?”
    â€œI fell.”
    â€œAgainst someone’s fist?” Dad says, drying his hands on the kitchen towel. He sits down and scoops some spaghetti onto his plate.
    â€œRyan and I had a little argument.”
    â€œYou and Ryan?” Dad looks at me hard. I wonder what he’s heard.
    â€œWe had a difference of opinion about something.”
    There’s a long, uncomfortable silence. Angela breaks it by giggling.
    â€œWhat!”
    â€œDoes Ryan have the hots for Sassy too?”
    I push back my chair so fast and so hard it rocks back on two legs. Luckily, I manage to catch it before it crashes over.
    â€œTravis! You haven’t finished your meal!”
    â€œNot hungry,” I say. I stomp out of the room.
    The knock on the door comes only moments after I throw myself onto my bed. Dad pushes the door open and comes in. “What’s going on with you, Travis? Don’t just lie there, staring at the ceiling. Look at me when I’m talking to you.”
    Dad is a patient man, but I can hear the tension in his voice. If I start to talk, I won’t be able to stop. I’ll have to tell him about how Sassy figures that Jasper is stealing tails, how I went through his stuff and what I found. How I didn’t exactly accuse Japser, but how the evidence kind of looks bad. Then I’ll have to tell him about Ryan and why he got so mad, how everyone is trying to tell me what to do, who to trust, who to like. It shouldn’t be so hard to tell my dad the truth. But somehow, not a single word will come out. The whole story stays stuffed somewhere down my throat.
    â€œYou know, you’d better figure out who your real friends are, Travis,” Dad says. “They are going to be around a whole lot longer than—” I put my hand up to stop him from saying anything else. He sighs and shakes his head. “Just don’t let down the people who really matter.” And then he’s gone, the door closing behind him.
    â€œI’m not going to, Dad,” I mutter to the empty room. I will
help Sassy get her mother a car. I have a plan. It doesn’t matter what Dad or Ryan or Jasper or anyone thinks. Sassy needs my help, and I’m planning to give it to her. I have no intention of letting her down.
    â€œWhere’s Jasper?” I ask Ryan when I drag my backside into the barn the next morning.
    Ryan glares at me. “Thanks to you, moron, he’s not here.”
    â€œThanks to me?”
    â€œHe says he’s not coming back to work with a racist.”
    The word stings, leaving an ugly mark. “What the—?”
    But Ryan has already turned his back and walked away. “I’ll do the hay. You can start on the stalls.”
    Racist? Is he kidding? I’m not a racist. I’ve been friends with Jasper since…since we were little kids. I never thought about him being anything except my friend until this mess with the stupid tails. I can see how hard it must have been for Sassy to say the things she did, knowing that Jasper is my friend. I feel the same way now. I want to protect Ryan, to make him see that maybe we shouldn’t be so quick to let Jasper off the hook. Even if I think Jasper might have something to do with it, it’s not because I’m a racist. It’s because there’s evidence. Just because someone’s a friend doesn’t mean they can’t make mistakes. Why doesn’t Ryan want to see that?
    When Ryan gets back with the hay, he stands between me and Romeo’s stall. He’s too big for me to go around or shove out of the way.
    â€œTravis,” he says, holding my gaze. “You have to find a way to fix this.”
    â€œMe? I’m not the one who—”
    â€œDo you really believe he did it?”
    I can’t say yes. I