The Accident by Diane Hoh

Author:Diane Hoh [Hoh, Diane]
Language: eng
Format: epub
ISBN: 978-1-4532-4812-6
Publisher: Open Road Integrated Media LLC
Published: 2012-05-15T00:00:00+00:00

Chapter 13

IT BECAME VERY CLEAR to Megan the next morning that Juliet wasn’t going to be much help to a recuperating mother, in spite of her promise to Megan to “take care of your mother.”

“Dishes? Gosh, I don’t have time! Justin’s picking me up in two minutes. Can’t Thomas do them?”

Thomas, gulping down the last of his cereal, howled a protest. “I have to put air in my bike tires. I don’t have time for dishes.”

Megan, watching, disapproved of both Juliet’s attitude and her outfit. The perfectly innocent white peasant blouse Megan was so fond of looked very different on Juliet, who had pushed the tiny, puffed sleeves off her shoulders, baring them.

“I don’t wear it like that,” she had told Juliet upstairs.

“It’s more fun like this,” had been Juliet’s response.

Hearing that her father had decided to take the day off to stay with his wife, Megan followed Juliet to school. Leaving Juliet alone for any length of time would be not only dangerous, but foolish. After Juliet had left, Megan heard her father turn to Thomas and say in a perplexed voice, “Now, what’s got into that girl? She didn’t even tell your mother goodbye.”

Megan hoped that Juliet’s behavior at school wouldn’t cause the same reaction from her friends and teachers. Would everyone be chorusing, “What’s got into Megan?” by the end of this week? Maybe even by the end of this day?

But none of that mattered as much as being sure that Juliet was safe. Maybe my being around her won’t protect her, but if I don’t know that she’s okay, I’ll go crazy worrying.

Fighting her anxiety, Megan searched the halls and classrooms at Philippa Moore for Juliet. The complete silence in the building seemed to Megan positively freakish. There was no laughter, no chatter, no footsteps clattering down the halls, no slamming of locker doors. The building itself seemed to be holding its breath, waiting to see where disaster would strike next.

Being in the school but separated from it by the hideous invisible wall between her and her familiar world made Megan wish ferociously that she hadn’t daydreamed her way through so many classes. I took it all for granted, she scolded herself, and now, if anything happens to Juliet, I might never get it back.

No. That couldn’t happen. It couldn’t!

Megan found Juliet in the cafeteria with Hilary. But her relief was short-lived when she realized they were arguing.

Juliet and Hilary were sitting at a corner table in the sparsely occupied room. Hilary’s face was scarlet, her short, squat body rigid with anger. Juliet seemed perfectly relaxed.

Uh-oh. What’s going on?

“You could at least say you’re sorry!” Hilary said. “You embarrassed me in front of Justin. That stinks, Megan! I could have had a date Saturday night if I’d wanted one, and you know it.”

Toying with a plastic fork on her tray, Juliet said, “Then why didn’t you? I mean, Hil, you keep telling me to go for it with Justin. How do you expect me to do

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