Soul Catcher Read Online Free Page B

long black hair that he never washed. He had this bad case of acne; he probably never washed his face, either. But he was the best friend of John, Gwen’s fantasy Romeo, so we were both nice to him. Like mine, Troy’s vase was tall and straight, but he managed to make his hollow. He poked two holes in the side with his finger.
    Louise walked slowly around the wheel.
    ‘It’s a bong,’ Troy said. He was kind of cute when he smiled. His face would glow and his brown eyes would turn up at the corners and look almost Oriental.
    ‘I know what it is.’ Louise pressed it back down into a blob of clay. ‘Try again.’ She looked at her watch. ‘All right, the rest of you can leave, it’s already late.’
    That was a relief; we’d gone almost ten minutes overtime. I took off my clay-spattered apron and waited for Gwen. She was hovering around Troy, making noises about how unfair it was he had to stay after.
    As we rushed to the gym, I couldn’t resist telling her that I thought her publicity maneuvers were a little obvious. ‘Troy’s never going to talk to John about you, anyway.’
    ‘How do you know?’ she said. ‘It couldn’t hurt.’
    ‘It’s tacky.’
    A few sweaty kids from basketball were standing in front of the gym, talking. I started to run, hoping Patrick hadn’t given up waiting for me.
    ‘V.J.!’ Gwen called, running after me.
    V.J. meant value judgement. Just the night before, in his after-dinner announcements, Silvera had declared that value judgements were bad and to be avoided. And so all day, people had been shouting V.J. at each other for the smallest things.
    Eddie was inside the gym, sitting on the floor, tying his sneakers. His stomach bulged over his gym shorts. His short, heavy legs were pale and covered with dark fuzz. His wavy brown hair fell over his eyes and his thick lips pouted in concentration.
    ‘Have you seen Patrick?’ I asked him.
    He looked up and shrugged. ‘I dunno. I think he went to the woods to take a leak or something.’
    ‘First you say you don’t know, then you say you do know,’ Gwen spat at Eddie. ‘Hey man, do you even know where you are? I mean, like, what a shmo.’
    ‘V.J., bitch!’Eddie said.
    I left the lovebirds to go look for Patrick. I was just coming around the side of the gym to the small field that led to the woods, when I saw him. I thought he must have fallen down, because he was struggling up from the ground.
    ‘Patrick!’
    He tucked in his shirt and walked toward me with what seemed like a great effort. As he came closer, I noticed that his skin, which was usually pale, was so colorless it looked grey. His eyelids were heavy, and he was having trouble staying on his feet.
    I put my arm around him and he leaned on me. ‘What’s wrong?’
    ‘I’m fine.’ His voice was slow and thick, syrupy.
    ‘You’re not feeling well? I wish we had time to sit down, but we’ll be late for dinner.’
    He leaned so much of his weight on me that I thought I’d collapse. I had no idea what was wrong with him. The flu, maybe, or stomach cramps from too much running. Whatever it was, he was in bad shape, and I was afraid we wouldn’t make it across the road.
    ‘I love you,’ he hummed.
    I felt a rush. He hadn’t told me he loved me since the time we were standing in front of Girls Dorm, just before ten o’clock, when he whispered ‘Te amd” and kissed me. Since then, there had been moments I was afraid he’d stopped loving me. I wanted to tell him I loved him too. But before I could say it, his knees buckled and he was lying in the road. His eyes were glassy, staring at the sky.
    ‘Are you going to be sick?’ I said, leaning over him.
    ‘I’m fine, just give me a minute.’
    That’s when I heard the sound of an engine coming toward us, and panicked. I said, ‘Hurry up, a car’s coming!’ and tried to pull him up.
    He wouldn’t budge.
    ‘Come on!’
    Tamara the cook’s gold Mustang skidded to a stop. She looked at us from the driver’s