Shine by Lauren Myracle

Author:Lauren Myracle
Language: eng
Format: mobi, epub
Publisher: Amulet Books
Published: 2011-04-27T07:00:00+00:00

I STEPPED INTO THE PITCH-BLACK COUNTRY NIGHT. Certain parts of town had streetlights, but not in this neck of the woods. I thought about how Christian would disapprove of my being out here alone, and to tell the truth it was spooky. Then someone said my name, and I nearly jumped out of my skin.

“Robert, what the heck?” I said, peering into the shadows to see his weaselly face. Weaselly wasn’t a nice word to describe him, but it was accurate. Robert was an eleven-year-old trapped in a body that was scrawny by nine-year-old standards, and what he lacked in size, he made up for in hyperness. I felt bad for him, because it wasn’t his fault. His mama drank too much when he was in the womb. These things happened.

But there he was, scrawny and hyper, and just because he wasn’t to blame didn’t mean people forgave him for it.

“Ha-ha, got you good,” Robert said, practically dancing around me. “I saw your bike, and I sat here and waited. Passed the time by throwing pinecones at that there tree”—he jerked his chin at a dark blob among other dark blobs—“and I woulda hit it, too, if I wanted. I just didn’t wanna.”

“Uh-huh, that’s great, Robert,” I said. I took hold of my bike and toed up the kickstand.

“You come here about Patrick?” he said.

I didn’t know what to make of his question.

“I listened in,” he bragged. He laughed and did a sideways nod at the open windows. “I’m good at being sneaky, ain’t I? I hear all sorts of stuff.”

“Like what?” I almost said, but at the last moment, I avoided the trap. Robert would talk my ear off if I let him, boasting about one thing or another, and none of them more interesting than pinecones.

“Yes, Robert, you’re good at being sneaky,” I said, swinging my leg over the frame. “And now, I gotta go.”

“Naw, wait,” he said. Mucus snaked out of his nose. He sucked it back in while at the same time stepping closer, as if along with his snot he wanted to suck every ounce of attention from me that he could. “I like Patrick, even if he is a spoilsport.”

“Huh?”

“He made me go home when it wasn’t even my bedtime. I don’t even have a bedtime. Duh.”

I cocked my head. “Are you talking about the night your sister and everybody went to Suicide Rock?”

“Everyone but me,” Robert complained. “I’ve never gotten to go there at night, not even once. And the others didn’t care if I went. But Patrick was all, ‘Robert’s too little. Robert has to go home.’”

“He was just looking out for you,” I said.

“Only I don’t need him looking out for me,” Robert said. He flipped his wrist. “And ain’t it just like a fairy to get his panties in a wad over something that’s none of his business.”

“Robert, don’t.”

“What?”

“Don’t call him that.”

“A fairy? But he is one.”

I was too tired for this. Most everybody called Patrick names, so it wasn’t as if I was going to change Robert’s way of thinking.

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