Read Leaving Fishers for Free Online

moreuncomfortable. Should she tell Angela she liked her, too?
    “There’s something else . . . This is a little embarrassing, but I don’t want you to be confused by anything.” Angela paused. The light changed. She turned onto a cloverleaf entrance ramp for 465. Dorry waited, suddenly unsure where the conversation was headed.
    “Kim said at the end of the party, when you were waiting for the bathroom, you might have overheard Lara and me talking,” Angela said, finally, glancing away from the curving road to watch Dorry.
    Dorry gulped. “I’m sorry. I didn’t mean to—I just—”
    Angela waved away Dorry’s apologies. “Oh, nobody’s blaming you. It’s not your fault.” Angela made it sound like someone else deserved blame, and plenty of it, but she was too kind to say so. Dorry was just relieved Angela wasn’t mad at her.
    Angela accelerated, pulling out onto the freeway. “The only reason I bring it up is that . . . I was thinking about what we said,” she continued. “And depending on what you heard, you could misunderstand. . . . What exactly did you hear?”
    “You . . . called Lara a thief,” Dorry said, hesitantly. She was glad it was darker inside the carnow and Angela couldn’t see her face. “Did she take something of yours? Then I heard her say something like, ‘It wasn’t like that. She needed it as soon as possible.’”
    Angela didn’t even try to look at Dorry now. She peered intently at the traffic around her, changing lanes with a practiced air. “And that’s all you heard?”
    “Yes,” Dorry said. “It’s none of my business. I’ll forget I heard anything.” Of course, she couldn’t forget. Already, she was thinking of Lara differently. And Angela, too. Maybe these Fishers people weren’t so perfect after all. She looked out the window, just wishing she were home and didn’t have to discuss this with Angela. It was the first time she’d ever longed to be at Northview.
    “No,” Angela said. “You deserve an explanation. Lara has a problem. Kleptomania, I guess it’s called. You’ve heard about people who can’t stop taking things, whether they really want them or not? We thought Lara had overcome it since she joined Fishers. I don’t think she’d stolen anything in months. But then at the party, I saw her take my necklace out of my purse. She did it right in front of me, like she wanted me to see. It was a cry for help.”
    Dorry frowned doubtfully, though she couldn’t think of any reason that Angela would lie. Whenhad Lara had time to take Angela’s necklace? Angela had been with Dorry practically the whole time. But Angela had left to go to the bathroom. Maybe it had happened then.
    “I don’t understand. Why was your necklace in your purse?” Dorry asked, then worried that Angela would take the question the wrong way. Dorry didn’t want Angela to think she didn’t believe her.
    “The clasp broke,” Angela said. She evidently didn’t mind questions. “I didn’t want to lose it. Look, I wouldn’t have told you about Lara, except I thought it would be worse not to. I hope this doesn’t make you think badly of her. She really needs our friendship. We—the Fishers—have been trying to help her.”
    Angela said “our friendship,” casually, and that made the phrase sound even more wonderful to Dorry. She liked it that Angela was treating her as a partner, someone who would help take care of Lara. She liked the thought that Lara needed help from her, Dorry.
    Angela glanced at Dorry again. “This is all a little . . . embarrassing for Lara. You won’t tell anyone else, will you?”
    “Of course not,” Dorry said.
    “I knew we could count on you,” Angela said.
    Angela pulled off 465 and Dorry begandirecting her to Northview. Dorry was glad it was dark and Angela couldn’t see much of the complex. They pulled up in front of Dorry’s apartment.
    “Thanks so much for coming,” Angela said, as if she herself had invited Dorry to the party.