The River's Edge Read Online Free

eyes as
Wendy, but her complexion was darker than Wendy’s.
    “Are too,” Wendy said.
    “Hi, Paige.”
    “Hi, Chris,” Paige said.
    “You’re so big. Last time I saw you, you were just a little bird,”
I said.
    “Why are you all muddy?” Paige asked me.
    “None of your business, dork,” Wendy said.
    “Better stop calling me names or else.”
    “Or else what?”
    “Or else I’ll tell Mom.”
    “Tell her what?”
    “Oh, I don’t know. That you were at the river.” She held up two
fingers as if offering a peace sign. After a moment, she grinned and put her
fingers against her mouth and inhaled on a pretend cigarette.
    “You brat,” Wendy said, leaning into her face.
    “It’s okay.” I pulled Wendy away from her. “She won’t tell, will
you, Paige?” I winked at her and put my arm around her shoulder. “I haven’t
seen you in ages. How old are you now?”
    “I’m seven,” Paige said, putting her arm around my waist. We
walked arm and arm back to the cottage with Wendy following behind us.
    As we neared the cottage, two kids exploded out of the neighbor’s
door, scaring me. They both had blond hair and looked like they were the same
age as Paige.
    “Give it back, Cody. Give it back or I’ll—” The girl was pulling
on a rag doll that the boy was holding ransom.
    The neighbor woman ran out the front door.
“Cody, give your sister her doll, and both of you, get back in this cottage!”
    “Hi, Alice.” My aunt waved from the screened porch. “Getting
settled in I see.”
    Alice looked apologetically at my aunt. “We’ve been here one day
and they’re already at it,” she said, defeated. “Twins. You’re lucky to have
yours so many years apart.”
    “It still doesn’t make it easier. At least you got to get through
the diapers all at the same time.”
    Paige walked over to them. “Hey, Callie, want to play?”
    We slipped by my mom and my aunt who were still on the porch and
went in the back door so they wouldn’t see my dirty clothes. It led to a
hallway where the bathroom was immediately on the right. It was so small that
it only had a toilet in it, no sink. Straight ahead was the shower stall,
separated only by a frosty white shower curtain.
    We crept into our bedroom.
    “I can’t believe you swam out to Slippery Rock. That was brave,”
Wendy whispered. “I wouldn’t have done it, even if I knew how to swim.”
    “I can’t believe it either,” I said, rubbing my muscles. “I really
didn’t think I was going to make it.”
    “Please don’t tell my parents. I would get into so much trouble,”
Wendy said.
    I ran my fingers across my mouth, turned an invisible key, and
threw it away.
    “I didn’t know you smoked,” I whispered.
    “I don’t,” Wendy whispered back.
    “I don’t like it,” I confessed.
    “I don’t think anybody does, but whatever Julie does, the rest
do.”
    “Why does she act so stuck up?”
    “Popularity. It changes people. When I was ten, I had to have my
appendix out, and she was the only one from camp who came to the hospital to
see me. She used to be real nice. Now she just pretends.”
    I fumbled in my suitcase for some dry clothes. I changed as fast
as I could. I didn’t have any brothers or sisters so I felt weird being naked
in front of Wendy. I saw her looking at me and felt myself blush.
    It was awkward and I think she felt it too because she quickly
said, “I’ll show you my scar.” Standing in front of me, she raised her T-shirt
and lowered her shorts a little to show me. It was still raised and angry
looking.
    “Did it hurt?”
    “It did at first, but it doesn’t anymore. It’s
just a reminder now.”
    After I changed clothes, we went to the living room and sat down
next to Paige. The couch still smelled moldy from being closed up all winter.
    My aunt and my mom were at the table sipping coffee. They talked
in whispers and every so often, my aunt reached over to touch my mother’s hand.
I tried to listen but Wendy and