Swallowing Stones by Joyce McDonald

Author:Joyce McDonald
Language: eng
Format: mobi, epub
ISBN: 9780307816825
Publisher: Random House Children's Books
Published: 2012-03-14T22:00:00+00:00

a few days later Michael learned from Steven Chang, who had learned from his girlfriend, Allison—because this was how they all stumbled upon some of the more painful truths in their lives, truths mouthed like verbal chain letters—that Darcy and her friends had been to Amy’s house right before Michael showed up.

It was a sticky Saturday afternoon, and the pool, as always on weekends, was crowded. Steven and Allison were there with a group of friends, but Darcy had not come to the pool since the night she had broken up with Michael. As he was punching quarters into the soda machine during his break, Michael saw Steven coming toward him.

“Allison told me what happened,” he said.

A can of root beer thumped into the tray. Michael popped open the metal tab. “Yeah? And what’s that?”

“I mean about you and Darcy breaking up.”

Michael merely nodded and took a sip of the soda. “It happens,” he said, because he did not want to talk about Darcy.

Steven dropped a few coins into the machine and lifted a can of soda from the tray. “It was rotten what they did, though.”

Michael stood perfectly still. He was afraid that if he said the wrong thing, he might never learn the truth. He stared into Steven’s dark eyes. Steven’s lips parted slowly.

“Oh, man, you didn’t know, did you?” He flung his hands outward, sending a stream of ginger ale onto the pavement. “I thought you knew.” He turned to go. “Allison’s going to kill me.”

Michael grabbed Steven by the arm. “Tell me,” he said, tightening his grip, “what they did.”

“Mike,” Steven pleaded, “drop it, okay?”

Michael kept his hand clamped on Steven’s arm. “This has to do with Amy, doesn’t it?”

Steven turned to look at Allison and their friends, sitting on the other side of the pool. “I can’t figure it out,” he said. “You had Darcy. What were you doing messing around with Amy Ruggerio?”

Michael spun Steven around so fast, he almost fell over. “There is nothing going on between me and Amy. Nothing. She’s a friend.” He dropped his hand from Steven’s arm. “I can’t believe this.”

“I guess Darcy thought she was something else,” Steven said.

“Are you going to tell me what she did, or should I go ask Allison?”

Steven shook his head. “Hey, man, don’t get pissed at me. I wasn’t in on any of this.”

Michael emptied his can of soda and tossed it in the recycling bin by the machine. “I’m waiting,” he said.

Steven took a deep breath. “They told Amy they’d found out you and the other guys on the track team had this bet going. They said you’d bragged about how you could screw around with her mind enough so that she’d do anything for you, including sleep with every guy on the team if you asked her to. They told her each person on the team put up twenty bucks saying you couldn’t do it.”

Michael stared at his friend in disbelief. “They told Amy this?”

Steven nodded.

“Why?”

“Man, are you dense,” Steven said.

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