The Broken Lake Read Online Free PDF Page A

large grin. “Danny.”
    “Sophie. You’re a soldier.” He came up and gave me a strong one-arm hug. “You actually came.”
    “What? You didn’t think I would? You guys act like you haven’t seen me. You
did
come every day I was in the hospital. I told you I was fine.”
    “Yeah, but you were doped up.” He laughed. “Dawn bet me whether or not you’d come to work today.”
    “And?”
    “And,” he said, heading back toward the front, “I won twenty bucks.”
    At least someone around here knew me. I wasn’t a quitter, that’s for sure, and Danny knew me well enough to pick up on that. He had come to be like the big brother I never had. I really liked him, and Dawn too. They were great friends, but Dawn was like the younger sister. One that needed to be kept out of trouble. Even still, she was my closest friend here.
    My other best friend was in Virginia. Kerry and I were still really close, but I hadn’t seen her since I visited last summer, so it was nice to have Dawn and Danny. And the two of them usually made working a riot, especially when their dad wasn’t around.
    I was supposed to work until 8:00, and for dinner we usually ordered in or picked something up. This time we didn’t have to. Wes dropped off Thai food for all of us. Large containers of just about every sampling on the menu.
    “You’re so stupid,” Dawn said as we carried it to the table in the back room.
    “What are you talking about?”
    “I would’ve been long gone with that guy. He can bring me Thai on a tropical island,
not
at Healey’s Used Books.”
    “Dawn, stop it. You’re out of control. Besides, he hasn’t asked me to go with him to some tropical island.”
    We had the food containers spread out now, and she busily plopped a large portion of rice noodles on her plate. “That’s too bad. I’ll have to have a talk with him.”
    We both laughed and filled our plates with a little bit of everything. After a few minutes, Mr. Healey came into the back room and quietly took me up on my offer, fixed himself a sampling, and moseyed toward the door.
    I called after him, in between bites, “Mr. Healey, tell Danny to come back and get some.”
    “Danny left for the night.”
    “What?” Dawn asked. “He’s not supposed to leave until 9:00.”
    “He had some studying to do.”
    Dawn and I both laughed, although my laughter was a bit more restrained than hers.
    She practically spit out her food and would’ve had she not had a napkin to cover her mouth.
    Rolling her eyes, she replied, “Yeah, right, Dad.”
    Mr. Healey wasn’t smiling. “Dawn,” he said, authoritatively pointing his plastic fork at her, “maybe you ought to try studying sometime.”
    Pointing her finger into the air as if a light bulb had just blinked on, she answered, “You know, Dad, I will. I have a test tomorrow, so I’m not staying until 9:00 to cover for him.”
    He shook his head and, choosing not to continue with the way the conversation was headed, reminded us to clean up after ourselves and left the room with his food. Dawn was making it overtly obvious that she really didn’t want to work at Healey’s anymore. I wondered what was up, but figured I’d leave it alone for now.
    “Why did Danny just leave without saying anything? And since when does he pass up food?”
    She shrugged. “I don’t know what Danny is up to these days, but it ain’t
studying
, that’s for sure.”
    “So what do you know?”
    She shook off the question. “He’s just been hanging out with some weirdos. Ever since we went to that party, he’s had some losers over at the house all the time. Like they have nothing better to do than hang out in our basement. They’re fronting like they’re starting a band, but whenever Mom and Dad are home, they all leave. Dad actually buys into the studying bit.”
    “Maybe he is. Studying, I mean.”
    “No, Danny has always gotten good grades, even if he sleeps in class. It’s sickening. He doesn’t
need
to study, and