Prom Date by Diane Hoh Read Free Book Online Page B

awful."
    Scott went by himself.
    Michael's friends rallied around him then, leading him to the stone steps and sitting with him while they waited for help to arrive. "She wouldn't have gone up there alone," he kept repeating. "She wouldn't have."
    He said it so often, sometimes crying it out loudly, other times shaking his head and muttering the words to himself, that Margaret became convinced that he and Mitch were right. Both knew Stephanie well. Could they be that wrong about what she would or wouldn't do? They seemed so certain.
    On an impulse, she got up from the steps she'd been sitting on with Jeannine, Sarah, and Lacey, and moved to one side of the lighthouse, signaling to Liza and Beth to join her. They looked dazed, their faces stony-white, their eyes blank.
    "Margaret?" Liza asked duUy as they arrived at her side. "Michael needs us now. What do you want?"
    "You were Stephanie's best friends. Both of you. Is Michael right about how she hated the lighthouse?"
    "Oh. Yes, he's right." Salt spray had completely undone Liza's makeup and her blond waves. Her hair hung limply along her shoulders like a wet scarf.
    "Then what was she doing up there?"
    Beth answered first. "Fve been thinking about that." Her voice was husky with tears. "And I agree with Michael. I can't figure it out. This isn't the first time we've all been out here on the Point. We've been coming out here for years, having picnics and bonfires."
    Margaret nodded. "Us, too. I mean, my friends and L"
    "Well, in all that time, Stephanie only went up into the lighthouse once. She hated it, said she would never go inside again. And as far as I know, she never did." Fresh tears shone in her blue eyes. "Until now."
    Kiki, seeing them gathered together, left the steps to join them. She caught enough of the conversation to say to Margaret, "Why die you so interested?" Her tone was hostile. "You're not a friend of hers. We are. We're
    her best friends, have been practically forever. Stephanie and Liza and Beth and I. But not you. You hardly knew her."
    "Kiki, Margaret's just trying to help/' Liza said.
    But Margaret thought the question was fair. She just didn't know how to answer it. She couldn't say, I'm interested because I've had this awful feeling in the pit of my stomach ever since I came across those slaughtered dresses at Quartet, and what's happened to Stephanie has made that feeling much worse. She couldn't say that, because her mother didn't want Liza and Beth to know what had happened to their prom apparel.
    Not that there could be any connection between the two disasters. How could there be? It would be stupid to compare the ruination of clothing to the brutal death of a real, live human being. It was just that the feeling she had now, right this minute, was like the feeling she'd had in the alley at Quartet, only magnified a million times because that corpse out there in the ocean, and she knew it was a corpse, had been a real, living, breathing human being, not something made out of fabric.
    When Margaret didn't answer, Liza turned and went back to the lighthouse steps to con---
    sole Michael. Beth, pressing a tissue to her eyes, followed.
    Just because I didn't know the girl, Margaret thought, turning to look down the slope toward Mitch and Scott, doesn't mean Fm not every bit as horrified as everyone else who did know her. Michael's face was ashen and his teeth were chattering with shock, and Beth was crying quietly. Liza and Kiki seemed intent on comforting Michael. David and Lucas, their faces somber, waited silently for help to arrive, keeping their eyes on Michael.
    Only Lacey said stubbornly, ''Don't expect me to burst into tears, Margaret, because it's not going to happen." She was clearly remembering Stephanie's cruel remarks at Quartet. Her own remarks were almost a whisper, which Margaret was grateful for. "I couldn't stand that girl and I'm not going to pretend I'm shattered. She was mean, you know she was."
    "Not mean enough to die like