“Yeah,” she said, her expression suddenly hostile. “What about her?”
“Why has she been absent from school for so long? What’s wrong with her? Every time I call, her mother tells me she’s sick. Jade won’t talk to me at all. Is she that sick? Have you seen her?”
“Not since last week,” she replied curtly. “If her mother says she’s sick, I guess she’s sick.”
“You haven’t talked to Jade either?”
“No.”
“I can’t believe that, Donna Dee. You’re her best friend.”
“Well, you’re her boyfriend. If she won’t talk to you, what makes you think she’d talk to me? Please, give me my keys. I’ve got to get home.” She extended her open palm; he ignored it.
“Are you saying you’ve tried to talk to Jade and she refused?”
Her small face was puckered with indecision and aggravation. “Listen, Gary, you’d just as well know that we had a falling out and are no longer speaking.”
He regarded her with patent disbelief. “You’ve got to be kidding!”
“I’m not.”
“What caused this falling out?”
“I’m not at liberty to say. Now please—” She reached for her keys, but he held them out of her reach. “Gary, give me my keys!”
“Not until you tell me what the hell is going on!”
Usually Gary was even-tempered. His current anger was a by-product of frustration and fear. For several days he had sensed that something was amiss. Classmates looked at him askance. Several whispered conversations had stopped the moment he had approached. Jade had a mysterious illness. Nothing had been normal since the day he had heard about his scholarship. Although he had nothing concrete to base it on, he had a strong premonition that his life had been tampered with.
“What’s the matter with Jade?” he demanded.
“If you want to know about Jade, ask her.” Donna Dee grabbed her keys before he had a chance to stop her.
He did, however, reach through the open window and grab her arm. “Does it have anything to do with Neal?”
Donna Dee’s head came around so quickly, her neck made a cracking sound. “What makes you ask that?”
“Because he’s being particularly obnoxious. All of a sudden he’s treating me like a pal, except that he’s so phony, he’s transparent. It’s like he’s in on a joke that I don’t know about yet.”
Anxiously, Donna Dee wet her lips. Her eyes darted furtively. She looked trapped, which gave Gary a sick feeling deep in his gut that his guess was right.
“Does Neal’s sudden friendliness toward me have anything to do with Jade?”
“I’ve gotta go.”
“Donna Dee!”
“I’ve gotta go.” She started her car and peeled out of the parking lot without looking back.
“Dammit!”
Gary ran to his car. He didn’t make a conscious decision to skip track practice that afternoon. He simply reacted to the compulsion to see Jade immediately. If he had to beat down her door, he was going to see her.
* * *
Jade recognized the sound of his car. Moving to the living-room window, she watched him jog up the front walk and rap twice on the door. Involuntarily, she moaned with yearning before composing her features and pulling open the door.
“Jade!”