Conformation Faults by Bonnie Bryant

Author:Bonnie Bryant
Language: eng
Format: epub
ISBN: 9781497653894
Publisher: Open Road Media Teen & Tween

NINE

“That’s great!” Stevie exclaimed into the phone. “I’m so happy for you, Callie. Okay, I’ll see you tomorrow. Bye!”

She hung up the phone, feeling proud of Callie and almost as proud of herself. Callie had just filled her in on her conversation with Sheila. It sounded as though they had made a real breakthrough in their relationship, and Stevie was glad about that. Callie deserved as many true friends as she could get.

“Who was that?” Phil asked, looking up as she walked back into the den.

“You were gone long enough,” Alex added, looking disgruntled. He was leaning against the built-in bookshelves, tossing an apple from hand to hand.

“Sorry about that. It was Callie. She had to tell me something.” Stevie flopped down on the sofa beside Phil. “So did you guys have any brilliant brainstorms while I was gone?”

Phil shook his head ruefully. “Not even close,” he admitted. “We were just talking about how long A.J.’s weird behavior has been going on.”

“It’s been longer than I realized,” Alex put in, rubbing his apple against his shirt. “With school starting and everything, I didn’t even realize it, but he broke up with Julianna like four weeks ago.”

Stevie let out a low whistle. “That is a long time,” she agreed solemnly. “Way too long. So what are we going to do about it?”

“What can we do?” Phil sighed. “He made it pretty clear yesterday that he isn’t interested in talking.”

Stevie didn’t like the helpless, almost resigned tone of Phil’s voice. She hated seeing him so worried about his friend and not being able to do anything to help. “If he won’t tell us what’s wrong, we’ll just have to figure it out another way,” she said with determination. “I mean, there are only so many things that could be bothering him, right? So let’s come up with a few theories.”

“If we were talking about anyone but A.J. here,” Alex said slowly, “the first thing I’d think is that maybe he’s gotten himself mixed up in drugs or drinking or something like that. But he isn’t that kind of guy.”

“No way,” Phil said quickly. “He’s never even taken a swig of beer at a party, as far as I know.” Then he paused. “Still,” he said, “I guess we have to put it on our list, right? I mean, just to be thorough or whatever. Right?”

Stevie didn’t answer. She didn’t even like to think about the possibility that A.J. could be involved in anything like that. “What else?” she asked. “How about some kind of health problem? Maybe he just found out he has cancer or something horrible like that.”

Alex nodded thoughtfully. “Could be, though I hope not. It wouldn’t necessarily have to be anything as bad as cancer, though. Maybe it’s something minor, like he’s never going to get any taller, or he’s allergic to girls or whatever.” He grinned. “Not that that last one would be minor.”

Stevie rolled her eyes. “I guess it’s possible it could be something medical,” she said dubiously.

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