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self.
    “I think maybe you already have,” Abby said.
    Terry felt as if the air were fresher than it had been and he could breathe deeper. It was as if the fresh air went into every part of him. He didn’t know what to say. So he simply nodded. The waitress came down the counter and poured them more coffee. Terry put sugar and cream in his. Abby drank hers black. They both drank some coffee from the thick white diner-style mugs. Abby held hers in two hands.
    “Who do you suppose told on you?” Abby said when she had put her cup down.
    “Not that many kids knew I was interested in steroids,” Terry said.
    “Tank,” Abby said. “And Suzi and Bev, we were talking by the Wall that day. You talked with Nancy Fortin.”
    “Yeah.”
    “Anybody else?”
    “I don’t think so,” Terry said.
    “Then it must have been one of them,” Abby said.
    “Why would they tell Kip Carter?” Terry said.
    “To get in good with him,” Abby said. “The question is: Why would he care?”
    “Maybe he’s juicing,” Terry said. “And he’s afraid he’ll get caught.”
    “How are we going to find out?” Abby said.
    Love that “we, ” Terry thought.
    “I guess we’ll have to ask,” he said.

CHAPTER 14
    T hey were hanging on the Wall.
    “I never said anything to Carter,” Tank said.
    “You’re sure?” Terry said. “Maybe when you were asking around about steroids?”
    “I didn’t ask,” Tank said. “I just kinda looked and listened, you know.”
    “Is he one of the guys on ‘roids?” Terry said.
    Tank gave an elaborate shrug.
    “Look at him,” Tank said.
    Terry nodded.
    “And Nancy Fortin says she doesn’t even know who Kip Carter is,” he said.
    “Everybody knows who he is,” Tank said.
    “Nancy’s in her own world,” Terry said.
    “He was freakin’ all-state,” Tank said.
    Terry shrugged. Abby came across the common from the library and joined them on the Wall. She held out a package of Altoid mints, which she liked and no one else could stand.
    “Mint?” she said.
    Terry shook his head.
    “No thanks,” Tank said. “Take the enamel off your teeth, I think.”
    Abby smiled at him.
    “Sissy,” she said.
    “You talked to Suzi and Bev?” Terry said.
    Abby popped a mint into her mouth. She nodded.
    “Yes,” she said. “Neither of them said anything to Kip Carter All-American.”
    “You believe them?” Terry said. “Maybe they wanted to score some points with the big man on campus?”
    Abby laughed.
    “Terry,” she said, “most of the girls in school don’t like Kip Carter All-American. He’s always trying to cop a feel in the halls. You wear a loose top, he’s always trying to get a peek down your front.”
    “Doesn’t make him a bad person,” Tank said.
    “Oh Tank, oink!” Abby said. “Suzi’s got no interest in him. He’s creepy.”
    “How ‘bout Bev?” Terry said.
    “She says he’s never spoken to her.”
    “Lotta people ain’t spoken to Bev,” Tank said.
    “I know,” Abby said. “Poor Bev, she’s such a Goody Two-shoes.”
    “So how’d he know,” Terry said. “If nobody told him, how’d he know.”
    They were quiet, sitting three in a row on the Wall. Abby was between the two boys, swinging her legs, and Terry liked how her jeans tightened over her thighs as she moved. He liked the strong smell of mint on her breath when she spoke.
    “No kids told him,” Abby said.
    “That’s what we’re saying,” Tank said.
    “No,” Terry said. “We’re saying nobody told him.”
    “What’s the difference?”
    Terry looked at Abby.
    “Some adults knew,” Abby said.
    “Bullard knew,” Terry said.
    “And the secretary in the nurse’s office,” Abby said.
    Tank got it. He was excited. He wasn’t used to getting things quickly.
    “And the librarian,” Tank said. “You was asking her about some steroid stuff, I remember.”
    “Why would they tell Kip Carter All-American?” Abby said.
    “I don’t know,” Terry said.
    “Maybe if we found out,”