Coming Clean Read Online Free Page B

making sense.
    â€œLeave? And go where?”
    â€œI don’t know. We can figure something out.”
    â€œJust leave Mom? Leave town? Leave everything? No way.”
    â€œWhat other options do we have?” Adam asked.
    â€œWhat’s this ‘we’ stuff?” I said. “I never had anything to do with it.” I regretted saying that the second it escaped my mouth. Adam’s face dropped. He had never looked so alone.
    â€œThen hop out, man. Just go.”
    â€œI didn’t mean it like that,” I said. I wondered how much time we had before Adam’s name started popping up all over the place. The investigation would be in full swing come morning.
    â€œMan, I’m an idiot,” Adam said.
    â€œThe police will be looking for the dealer and the supplier,” I said. “You’re the small fry in all of this.”
    â€œI’m the front, Rob. That’s what you’re not getting here. I’m the guy people know. And…” He stopped. “And everyone knows I’m full of shit a lot of the time. If the police question me and I tell them the truth, they’ll have, like, fifty people who’ll say I’m a big talker. That I lie all the time. And Sly will be the first one to point the cops my way. He’s totally clean in all of this.”
    â€œSly never once gave anyone anything?” I asked. Adam shook his head.
    â€œNo, man, it was all me. He never even talked about drugs. What am I supposed to do?” I looked at the road that led to the highway. I could hop out, and Adam could drive away. He could be hundreds of miles from Resurrection Falls by the time the police came knocking at our door.
    He could just leave.
    Looking back at it now, I wonder what would have happened had I let him go. Not that it was up to me, really. But he was looking for a way out at that moment. He was looking for permission.
    And I made him stay.

Chapter Seven
    It was Tuesday before the police landed on our doorstep. I’d been home from school for about an hour when it happened. I had an Xbox controller in my hand. Grand Theft Auto was paused on our television.
    A burly man in a long coat stood on the front porch.
    â€œRobert MacLean?” he said. A wiry mustache tickled his upper lip. He had no sideburns. In fact, he’d trimmed his hair up above his ear, thus producing negative sideburns.
    â€œUm, yeah?”
    â€œDetective Weir. Can I ask you a few questions?”
    â€œAbout what?”
    He pulled a pad and pencil out. “About the death of Mary Jane McNally. You obviously knew her, right? She was in your class? And you were at the club on the night of her death?”
    â€œWe were in the same grade. Some of the same classes as well. I was DJing that night. My friend and I found her.”
    â€œWhat was your relationship with the deceased? You did know she was deceased, correct?”
    â€œI heard, yeah,” I said. “We were in a couple of the same classes. And then I found her at the club during the blackout.”
    Detective Weir looked around me. “Would you mind if I came in? Are your parents home?”
    â€œNo, my mother’s at work. But, sure, okay, come in.” Adam was in his bedroom. His car was in the garage. I dropped the controller on the back of the couch and quickly shut the television off, feeling even more like a criminal suddenly. I led the detective to the kitchen and pulled a chair out for him.
    â€œSo you saw her on the night of her death?” Weir asked as he sat down. I was suddenly conscious of the fact that our kitchen was a disaster. Plates and dishes all over the place. Towels on the floor. Splotches of sauces and juices that had been dropped and never cleaned.
    â€œI did. She was just lying there.”
    â€œBefore you found her, I mean.”
    â€œOh, yeah, that too,” I said. “I saw her on the dance floor.”
    The detective looked directly at me. “Did you