Coming Clean Read Online Free Page A

yelled. He undid his seatbelt and came across the seat at me. He managed to get me pinned with one hand and started hammering on me with the other. I covered my head and face with my hands and arms and bent over. “Why’d you hit me?”
    â€œBecause you didn’t do anything,” I shouted.
    â€œI did,” he said, still punching me. “I killed her.”
    I suddenly shot my left arm out. Caught him under the chin. As he fell back. I undid my seatbelt and rolled out of the car. I crab-walked away from the open door. Adam got out and, holding on to the hood, maneuvered himself around the front of the car. He let go for a second and slipped on the ice, hitting the ground with a sharp, fast exhalation of air.
    â€œYou didn’t kill her,” I yelled. “I don’t know what happened, but you didn’t shoot her or stab her or strangle her. You didn’t kill her.” Adam pulled himself up and leaned against the hood of his car.
    â€œI gave her the pill,” he said.
    â€œWhat are you?” I said. “A drug dealer? Is that what you do at the club?”
    â€œNo. Not really.”
    â€œWhat then?” I said.
    â€œI just give them to people.”
    â€œSo you’re like, what, an illegal-substance Santa Claus? I don’t get it.” Every time one of us spoke, the air filled with the warm white clouds of our breath. Whenever we stopped talking, the world seemed entirely silent.
    â€œNo. It wasn’t like that. It was…” The door of the house we were standing in front of opened. A guy came out in a worn-out bathrobe.
    â€œWhat’s going on out here?” he yelled.
    â€œWe hit some ice,” I said.
    â€œOkay, so what’s all the yelling about?”
    â€œWe’re on our way,” I said. I looked at Adam. “Right?”
    â€œJust trying to get the car out of this snowbank!” Adam called. He turned himself so that his hands were on the hood, with one leg stretched out behind him. “Get in and back it out.”
    I got into the car and turned the ignition. I put it in reverse and gave it some gas. With Adam pushing, the car popped off the icy patch and out of the snowbank back onto dry pavement. I put the car in Park and slid across to the passenger seat. Adam got in and slammed the door closed.
    â€œWhy were you handing drugs out?” I asked.
    â€œIt was just something I did, man. It was nothing. I mean, everyone there is on E or something. It’s no big deal.”
    Well, I thought, someone died because of it. So maybe it is a big deal.
    â€œWhere were you getting the drugs from?”
    â€œSly,” he said. “And it was just E. Nothing else.”
    â€œWas he paying you for doing this?”
    â€œNot really. Not officially or anything.”
    â€œHow did people pay for the drugs?”
    â€œThey gave me the money. But I never kept any of it. I put it in this box.” It was beginning to sound ridiculous.
    â€œMan,” I said. We were at a T intersection at the end of the suburban area. If we went right, we’d head toward the downtown core. To the left was the highway. “So what are we going to do?”
    Adam rested his head on the steering wheel. “I don’t know. There’s going to be an investigation. As soon as the police start asking who people were getting drugs from, my name is going to come up. I guess that’s why Sly had it set up this way. He never talked to anyone about drugs. He never handed anything out or was seen with the money.”
    I looked out the window. Adam had been used. He knew it and I knew it, but neither of us were going to say it. Adam was the front. The one everyone knew.
    The one who had sold Mary Jane the drugs that killed her.
    â€œSo what are we supposed to do?”
    â€œWe can just leave,” Adam said. He looked to the left. It was almost six in the morning. My stomach felt filled with acid. Absolutely nothing was