Possessions by Nancy Holder Read Free Book Online Page B

Hey ,” he said again, unhooking the tether around his waist and tossing it behind himself as he sloshed through the water toward her. He was wearing swim fins. “This is not cool.”
    She kept laughing, and a wild, crazed impulse came over me to push her in the lake. As if Julie sensed what I was thinking, she tightened her grip on my arm.
    Shayna stomped over to Mandy and held out her hand. “Give me your cell phone. Give it to me or I’ll tell Dr. Ehrlenbach.”
    “Hey,” Mandy said, wiping tears of laughter from her pale pink cheeks. “I didn’t really send it to Lakewood. How could I? I don’t have any reception.”
    “You lied to Kiyoko,” Shayna said. “You said all she had to do was go under the water. You didn’t say anything about skinny-dipping or guys!”
    The scuba guy looked at Julie for a full, measured beat. She blushed. Then he turned his gaze to me.
    “You’re wearing my jacket,” he said.
    And I couldn’t believe, given the circumstances, that he would either notice or care. So I said the first thing that came to mind: “You’re a jerk.”
    “Lindsay,” Julie murmured under her breath. “He didn’t know.”
    Mandy burst into fresh giggles. All the drama and anger were making her high. “You want it back?”
    He narrowed his eyes at her. “Yeah. Maybe I do.”
    I looked from him to Mandy to Kiyoko, tear-stained and hiccupping, wrapped in the blanket Shayna had brought her, like a true friend. I grabbed the jacket sleeves, my trembling hands clumsy as I eased out of it and held it out to him.
    “That’s actually mine,” Mandy said, reaching for it. “I won it in a poker game.”
    As her fingers brushed the right sleeve, I let go of it, and it tumbled into the lake.
    “Whoops,” I said coldly. Then I turned my back.
    Mandy was quiet. Then she started to laugh again, cackling like a wicked witch.

    Apparently , a bottle of some tequila was also in the backpack, and Mandy opened it and passed it to only a select few: Lara; the swimmer, whose name was Spider; the two other guys; and Kiyoko, who had calmed down a little. In fact, she saluted me with it before she drank.
    Then Mandy passed it to me. We were all gathered at the base of the cliff, sitting in a circle, huddled under our sweatshirts.
    After she changed back into her original clothes, Kiyoko took the bottle again and slugged back three big gulps. She was so thin I figured it was enough to get her really drunk. She laughed and tossed her hair like a superstar. Then she caught sight of Shayna, who was watching in silence with the other spectators, and hesitated.
    For a minute, I thought she would pass the bottle to Shayna, in a gesture of friendship. Shayna straightened her shoulders and waited; then Kiyoko handed the bottle back to Mandy.
    Shayna pursed her lips and turned away.
    I wanted to strangle Kiyoko. I knew she’d made her choice. I’d done the same thing. Heather Sanchez had stuck by me all the months— years— of my mom’s terminal illness. Maybe that was the real reason why I had dumped her. She had known me when. But what I’d told myself at the time was that she just wasn’t cool enough.
    Ida and Claire left shortly after the alcohol came out. Ida gave me a little wave as if to say, No harm no foul, catch ya on the flipside . I liked her more than ever. Then the boys rowed away shortly after that, disappearing back into the night. Julie loitered with three girls I didn’t know. I knew I didn’t have invitation rights, so I couldn’t call her over. But there was no way I would dis my roommate the way Kiyoko had dissed Shayna. So I left the territory of the charmed ones and walked over to her. She knew what I was doing, and I could see the warmth and gratitude in her eyes.
    “That was . . . ” she began.
    “Insane and mean?” I finished for her.
    “Kind of extreme,” she allowed.
    “If someone had pulled that stunt on me, I would’ve been gone in a hot minute,” I declared.
    Not back when you