Michael Malone - Weebly

love to get next to a girl and cop a feel. That's what
guys call it. Ray Ransom is always trying."
"On you?" Joy smiled with tolerant disbelief.
"Don't be sick, no. Suellen Hayes told me."
"Oh, her." Joy watched herself, reflected in the glass
windows of the Tea Shoppe; as she floated by, her
silvery blue, starry T-shirt shimmied with light. "Listen, I
don't want to stay too long, okay? I feel rotten."
"You don't look like you feel bad."
"I look awful," sighed Joy, who knew otherwise.
Joy had changed, Polly thought, puzzled and a little
sad. She no longer said, "Oh, vomit!" when the boys
from Alexander Hamilton Academy invaded Miss
Lattice's restaurant like a Wall Street panic of
underaged stockbrokers in their striped ties and gray
blazers. She no longer wanted to ride her bike or
explore Birch Forest. No, now she lingered at her
locker, happily penned there by a lanky circle of long
arms and legs. She stayed in her room listening to
records endlessly repeated. Now, she sighed and
daydreamed, her phone was always busy, her grades
were even worse than before. Polly was losing her best