Free Rivals by David Wellington Page B

her
dresser and started pulling out tank tops and sweaters. Maggie stared at the
clothes as they piled up on the bed, wondering how she could possibly say what
she was going to say next.
    “A while
back,” she began, “you said you wanted to kill yourself. You even showed me
all the pills you had saved up.”
    Mandy stopped
with her back to Maggie. Stopped as if she’d forgotten how to move. “They
were just—aspirin. They wouldn’t have even given me a headache. And you
know I got into therapy after that. You’re the only one who knows that, except
for my family.”
    “Yes. And I
don’t want to open up old wounds. Really.”
    Mandy’s shoulders
lifted and then fell again. Was she crying? “I assume you have some reason to
bring it up, though.”
    “Yeah. This
one’s nice,” she said, holding up a black halter top with a wide teal stripe
running down the middle. “It matches my skirt, too.” It was an attempt to get
Mandy to turn around, to look at her, but it didn’t work. “Back then. When
you told me. Do you remember what I said?”
    “Yes. ‘Don’t
do it yet. If you absolutely have to, come find me. We’ll run away to Europe
together instead.’ Just like that.”
    “I would have
done it, too. I would have taken you anywhere, rather than see you destroy
yourself. Now I’m asking—”
    Mandy turned
around then and Maggie saw there were definitely tears in her eyes. She didn’t
look angry, though, or sorry. She looked terrified. “When was the last time
we hung out?” she asked.
    “What?”
    Mandy ran the
back of her hand across her nose. “When was the last time we went to a party
together? When was the last time we sat down and watched a DVD? Or talked about
boys? Or went shopping at the mall? When was the last time you asked me how I
was doing? When, Maggie?”
    Maggie’s brain
spun around in her head. “I know I’ve been kind of distant, lately,
but—”
    “It was more
than a year ago! You turned into something weird after your Mom died. You
deserted me, even though I could have been such a good friend to you, even
though I wanted to help you through your grief, you just deserted me. And now
you come here, today, less than a month before Homecoming and you want me to
run away with you? Just like that?”
    “It’ll be just
like old times. M and M against the world.”
    “I won’t do
it. I just won’t. I know I owe you. I know you need me right now. But I
won’t do it. Give me that!” Mandy grabbed the halter top out of Maggie’s
hands and threw it behind her. “I can’t do it. I’m not strong enough. I’ve
already been accepted at Northwestern for next year! I can’t be homeless. I
can’t be broke all the time. I don’t have superpowers like you.”
    Maggie stood
up and took a step toward her friend. She just wanted to hug her, to tell her
she understood, that it was really okay—anything to get her to stop
crying, even lies. Like, I’ll be fine on my own , or, I’m sorry, it wasn’t fair even to ask .
    But when she
got close enough to touch Mandy shrank away from her. Mandy’s eyes went very
wide as she backed right into her bureau and knocked a set of silver
hairbrushes to the floor.
    “Please don’t
hurt me,” she said, in a very small voice.

Chapter 18.
     
    Brent would
have driven Grandma to the hospital, learner’s permit or not, but Maggie had
taken the car. He didn’t know what had happened between her and Grandma but it
had to have been bad.
    Really bad.
Grandma’s fingers were sticking out in random directions. He was pretty sure
all of them were broken. “I’ll carry her,” he told Lucy. “I’ll just pick her
up and run to the hospital—I can get there faster than with the car,
anyway.”
    “Sure,” Lucy
said. She was very calm. “Except, when you were carrying me before? You were
just walking, and still I bounced up and down with every step. If you run with
her, she’ll be shaken up like a bottle of soda. I don’t think it would