Carly looked slightly annoyed as Beth flew down the sidewalk from her front porch to her new friend’s waiting Mustang. “Sorry!” Beth said, trying to sound only slightly apologetic. “I just couldn’t get my eyeliner straight.”“Oh, yeah. That sucks,” Carly agreed. “It looks great, though. Get in. We’ve gotta go get Amber.”Beth jumped into the front seat, trying to make it seem as natural as possible, like she belonged there, rather than in the back, or the trunk. She put her seatbelt on, and as Carly took off, she wished she had a couple more. This car had too much engine for such a tiny, inexperienced driver.“Your house is way pretty,” Carly said, stopping at the stop sign a block over, mostly in the intersection. “I didn’t know you lived there.”“Oh, yeah, thanks,” she said, trying to sound no

After about a half an hour of listening to her new friends gush all over every word Ryan said, Beth decided she’d had enough. She excused herself and headed over to another group of people. Tiffany was there, along with Mindy, and Shane was, too, but he was a few feet away, having an animated discussion with Marcus about some pro baseball player. Mindy was hanging off of Kyle, a new development, and every time she laughed, Beth wanted to jab her fingers far enough into her ears so that she could poke her own brain. But she had to ignore that urge and join in with them like she belonged there. Almost immediately upon her greeting them, Sammy took a few steps over so that he was also in the group, Robby following along like a puppy dog. Beth turned to see where Michael had gone off to and saw him join the conversation she had just left, leading her to believe he was avoiding her. She couldn’t really blame him for that, could she?She hadn&rsquo

The inside of his parents’ sedan smelled a lot like the old people at Beth’s church. Musty, perfumed, and nearer death than anyone wanted to think about. She almost pulled her shirt up over her nose, but when Sammy slid behind the wheel, she could see that whatever he wanted to say to her, he was very serious.“Beth… something happened to me the last time I was out here.”“What is it? You got taken advantage of by a pretty little bitch, and now you think there’s something I can do to make you feel more like a man?” She had her arms folded, and her words came out sharp. She hadn’t even realized how much animosity she’d been harboring about the whole thing, but it was clearly there when she finally spoke about it.“I guess I deserve that,” he said, which wasn’t what she expected. “But, no, that’s not what I meant. I think maybe Hal

Everyone wanted to know what Amber James’s house was like on the inside, but no one as much as Evelyn Monroe, and after spending a good hour answering her mother’s questions, Beth had spent another two or three on the phone with her other friends, telling them everything that had happened. She’d left out the part about Michael talking to Amber, though. It seemed silly to alarm Lexy over something that hadn’t really been much of anything at all.She’d just hung up the phone with Andi when her mom shouted at her to come downstairs. Thinking she probably just had some chores she wanted her to do, Beth groaned and pulled herself up off of the floor where she’d been camped out most of the morning. She was shocked to see Ryan standing by the front door, a friendly smile on his face.“Hi, Beth,” he said, a twinkle in his eye. “My mom said I could come over for a little while, if you’r

Beth's mind was in the clouds once again as she walked to her house. The fading sun left slightly cooler temperatures in its wake, and Beth was walking faster than she had on her way to her grandmother’s. It wasn’t until a loud banging sound caught her attention that she realized she was walking past Phoebe’s place.Normally, she would’ve avoided this block, but she hadn’t been looking exactly where she was going, and now it was too late, as she was just about right in front of the old Victorian. The banging was the lid of a trash can, however, and when Beth peered into the shadows cast by the large building over where the garbage receptacles were located, she could hardly believe her eyes.It was Halley, digging through one of the trash cans. Beth watched, her mouth hanging open but not making a sound, as she noticed Halley pull something out of the trash and slip it into the pocket of her jean shorts. Tho