Rebel (10 page)

Mary shook her head, but she was a little pale, too. Gaia sighed. This was just great. Ed was making Mary paranoid, too--and Mary was edgy enough already. There were tons of scuzzy guys with long beards in New York, and most of them looked exactly alike: an army of bearded clones.

"I'm outta here," Ed announced. He spun his wheelchair onto the street with a quick, jerky motion. It rattled as it bounced off the curb.

"Come on, Ed." Gaia groaned. "If this guy's following us, how come he hasn't tried anything yet? I'm sure--"

"Maybe Ed's right," Mary interrupted quietly. "Maybe we should just go home." She wrapped her arms around herself. "It's pretty cold, anyway. And it's getting late."

Gaia sighed, waving her hands hopelessly. It wasn't that cold. Besides, it was never late in New York. Something was always happening. And Chinatown was a hot spot. For the first time since Gaia had moved to the city, she felt like she was a
part
of it-- discovering it, unlocking all of its potential. More important, she wasn't focused entirely on herself and
her own messed-up life.
Sam Moon hadn't crossed her mind once. She didn't know when she'd get the opportunity to feel so
Sam-free
again. She wasn't about to let anyone blow it for her.

"What about the game?" she asked.

"The game is supposed to be
fun,
Gaia," Ed replied through tightly clenched teeth. "Even if I
am
imagining things, I'm not having fun. So there isn't much point in my playing, right?"

"That's true," Mary muttered, staring down at the ground.

"What are you
talking
about?" Gaia protested. "I'm having fun."

Ed sneered. "And everyone knows that Gaia Moore's fun takes precedence over all."

Gaia's eyes hardened. "What's
that
supposed to mean?"

"Nothing," he muttered. "Look, if you guys want to get shot or stabbed or raped, be my guests." He released

the brakes on his wheelchair and struck out into the crowd. "I'm gone."

"Oh, come on," Gaia called after him. "I didn't mean ..."

"Let him go," Mary said, grabbing Gaia's arm. "We shouldn't have invited him along, anyway. Let's just go back to my place, all right?"

Ed vanished into the night.

A queasy emptiness settled in Gaia's stomach.
Maybe she had been a little harsh.
She had thought she would never get into another serious fight with Ed Fargo--not after the whole Charlie Salita thing. And he'd been right about Charlie. But he was definitely wrong about this mysterious bearded stalker. No way would somebody follow Mary halfway across town without Gaia or Mary noticing. It was just too far-fetched. Besides, Ed was just overprotective. How many times had he proved that already?

BY THE TIME ED ROLLED THE MILE OR
so up Broadway back to the West Village, his fury had subsided to a
dull rage.
His neck was starting to ache from shaking his head so much. He knew he must look like a lunatic, gesturing and
muttering to himself, but he couldn't care less. His mind was in a haze.

He'd always known Gaia to be reckless. But never
stupid
. Even when she'd insisted on tracking down "the Gentleman"--that whacked-out serial killer who turned out to be the new kid in their class--she'd showed some kind of
logic.
Some kind of rational thinking.

All right, maybe not.
It was hard to call vigilantism rational under any circumstances.
But at least she'd been mildly concerned with her personal safety. Even when she'd agreed to go out with Charlie Salita and Sideburns Tim, she didn't believe she was making a bad choice. It had been stupid, yes, but not irrational.

Now she just didn't seem to give a shit about anything.

Whatever. It wasn't his problem. Nope. If she and Mary wanted to get killed at the hands of some fatso drug dealer, he'd just find a couple of other hot chicks to hang around with. This was a big city, right? His wheelchair bounced as he turned off Broadway onto Bond Street. Here were plenty of nice young women around. Normal women. Women who wouldn't endanger his life.

Maybe he could even meet some right now.

Sure. The Atomic Diner was just up the block on the right. He loved that place. It was one of those retro fifties joints, with minijukeboxes at each booth and an old-fashioned soda fountain. It was a favorite haunt among the hip Greenwich Village high school crowd.

He used to hang there a lot himself when he was going out with Heather. And he'd always secretly noted that she wasn't the only beautiful girl who liked to eat bacon and eggs at 10 P.M. on a Friday....

He jerked to a stop. His eyes narrowed.

Speak of the devil.

Sitting right there, in the first window booth of the Atomic Diner, was none other than Heather herself.

She was stuffing her face with french fries and talking animatedly with somebody just out of view of the window frame. Probably Sam Moon. Ed bowed his head. Tonight was really his lucky night, wasn't it? First he got blown off by Gaia. Then he saw his ex-girlfriend whooping it up. Clearly Heather's being here was a sign. Yes. A sign that he should go straight home and lock himself away for the rest of the holiday season--

There was a loud rapping on the window.

Ed glanced up.
Oh, brother.
He should have moved more quickly. Heather had spotted him out there on the sidewalk, and now she was furiously waving at him, beckoning him to come in. He tried to force a smile.
There were about a million things he'd rather do than hang out with Heather and Sam--
including hard labor, prison time, calculus homework....But it was no use: She'd trapped him. He nodded and sighed.

Wait a second.
He did a double take as he scooted past the window.

Heather wasn't with Sam. She was with her older sister Phoebe. Ed's spirits immediately lifted. He hadn't seen Phoebe since the summer, when she'd come home for a break from college. He waved. She waved back. Whoa. She looked amazing. Didn't girls usually put on weight in college? If anything, Phoebe looked like she'd
dropped
fifteen pounds. She looked older, too, somehow--mature and exotic and skinny. Her long, brown hair hung far down her back, and she was wearing a wild-looking, floral blue dress.

He picked up his pace and rounded the corner, pushing through the diner door. The delicious odor of fried food wafted over him. Maybe this wouldn't be so bad after all. It was nice and warm in here ... and besides, he'd always liked Phoebe. Yes. Phoebe was always very cool. She had an edge, and it was probably for that reason that she and Heather had never gotten along all that well, but deep down she was a lot more mellow and easygoing than her sister.

And way out of your league, bozo,
he reminded himself, knowing full well where these thoughts were taking him.
Even before the accident. And she's a sophomore in college. Not to mention the fact that she's your ex-girlfriend's sister--and therefore necessarily in the "untouchable" category.

"Hey, Ed!" Phoebe called as he rolled down the narrow aisle to their booth.

"Hey, Phoebe. What's up? You here for Christmas break?"

"Yeah." She smiled at him. "I see nothing's changed. You're still roaming the streets at night like a hoodlum."

"Looking for fights, no doubt," Heather chimed in brightly.

Ed smirked at Heather. "What are
you
so happy about?"

"Don't ask," Phoebe said, rolling her eyes. "She just came from her boyfriend's dorm."

"Oh." Ed cleared his throat. He felt a quick pang of two conflicting emotions--the same jealousy he always felt when he pictured Heather and Sam being together, but also a strange sort of relief. He'd thought that Sam and Heather were on the rocks. But if Sam was hanging out with Heather, that meant that he wouldn't be hanging out with Gaia. So Gaia would just have to find someone else to fall in love with.

Like me, for instance.

Ed shook his head. He was supposed to be
mad
at Gaia.
Not obsessing over her.

"What's wrong?" Phoebe asked.

"Huh? Oh, nothing." He glanced at her dress, shoving Gaia from his thoughts. "What's up with the new threads? You aren't turning into a hippie on us, are you?"

She laughed. "As if. Why? You don't like it?" Ed was surprised by the question. Phoebe wasn't the type to care what people thought. She'd always been too confident for

that. In fact, she'd always been a tad
over
confident.

"No, no, I like it a lot. It's just not your usual style."

"She's being brainwashed by her friends at SUNY, Ed," Heather remarked dryly, her mouth half full of fries. "I mean, look at what she's eating. She actually ordered a salad. I mean, who goes to a diner and orders a salad?"

"Good point." Ed leaned over and frowned at her plate. Not only had Phoebe ordered a salad; she'd barely touched it. Then again, he couldn't blame her. That heap of wilted green lettuce didn't look very appetizing. "Did you join some kind of vegetarian cult or something?"

"Very funny," Phoebe muttered. She grinned. "I just decided to go on a little diet. Besides, do you know how many years
one
order of Atomic Diner fries can take off your life?"

Ed laughed. "Is that the kind of thing they're teaching you in college?"

"That, and how to dress in clothes that went out of fashion before the first Woodstock," Heather replied. She shook her head in mock disdain.

"Hey, I like this dress," Phoebe said, giving her sister a playful kick under the table. "Besides, none of my old clothes fit me anymore."

"I like it, too," Heather grumbled with a smile. "I'm just jealous."

"Well, then, you'll just have to go to school in the fabulous metropolis of Binghamton, New York, too,"

Phoebe said. "I'll put you on a strict wheat germ diet and take you shopping for secondhand clothes, and we'll look like twins from a
Doublemint
commercial."

"Oh, goody!" Heather cried. "Just what I always wanted!"

Ed laughed again. It was amazing to see Heather and her sister actually getting along. And not only that--
he
was enjoying himself. He didn't think such a thing was possible. Especially tonight. Here he was, sitting with Heather and her sister, chatting and laughing. There wasn't any tension. None. For a few blissful, fleeting seconds he'd even managed to forget that he was in a wheelchair.

It was a good thing he'd ditched Gaia after all.

Well ... no, it wasn't. But at least he could pretend it was for the next few minutes.

SKIZZ
.

There was no doubt in Mary's mind: Ed had seen Skizz. The pig hadn't been kidding about coming to find her. He'd probably been following her all day. For all Mary knew, he could be lurking outside the apartment building right now.

She stood at her bedroom window, staring down at the lights of Park Avenue. She didn't see any people out there--but Skizz was clever. The twenty-four hours he'd given her to pay him back
had long since expired.
At least this was a high-security building. Her door was dead bolted. Besides, there was a doorman. There were video cameras. All the doorman had to do was press a button, and the police would rush right over....

"... should call him," Gaia was saying.

"Huh?" Mary tore her attention from the street below and glanced back at Gaia's sprawled form on the unmade bed. "Sorry. What was that?"

"Maybe I should call Ed," Gaia murmured, staring up at Mary's ceiling. "I feel bad. I guess I just kind of got caught up in the game."

Mary walked over and sat on the edge of the mattress. "You know, Gaia, we don't have to keep playing." She bit her lip, debating whether or not to tell Gaia about Skizz's call. No. It was best not to think about it. Besides, there was a chance that his threats were empty. And even if they weren't, this was
her
problem. Not Gaia's. She didn't want to drag Gaia into the middle of it--especially after Skizz's warning about the "psycho blond chick."

"But I
want
to keep playing," Gaia stated.

"But maybe for Ed's sake ..." Mary let the sentence hang.

"You don't believe him, do you?" Gaia asked. She sat up straight, her eyes narrowing. "Did you see something, too?"

"No." Mary sighed and shook her head.

"Then what are you worried about?"

"It's just ..." Mary lowered her eyes. It felt terrible to keep her feelings bottled up inside her. She could at least let Gaia in on her thoughts without going into all the gory details. And as a friend, Gaia had a right to know why she was acting so strange. "Remember that guy you beat up the night we met?"

Gaia nodded. "How could I forget?" she murmured.

"Well, I owe him money ...," she said.

"Is that it?" Gaia asked.

Mary frowned. "Well, yeah, but--"

"Don't worry," Gaia said soothingly. "He won't try anything. That guy is
useless
. In case you've forgotten, I kicked his ass in the span of about five seconds."

Mary didn't look convinced.

"Besides," Gaia added, "I'm sure he's heard that you're clean now. So you're of no use to him, you know?"

"Maybe," Mary said dubiously. "But Skizz doesn't forget about things like money."

Gaia was silent for a moment. "How much do you owe him?" she finally asked.