Stalker Girl by Rosemary Graham Page B

rusted bicycle wheel on the floor next to Nick. Various random metal things had been soldered to it: a fork, a spoon, a shiny sheriff’s badge.
    “Look at my sculpture!”
    With a weak smile Isabelle said, “Nice, honey,” and headed for the door to the living part of the loft.
    Nick didn’t turn off the blowtorch or lift his goggles. He just waved in their general direction as they walked through the studio. Isabelle made a motion with her hand that somewhat resembled a wave back.
    As they walked, Carly told her mother about her plan to work at SJNY for the summer and volunteer at the dig in Brooklyn.
    “And stay where?”
    “Can’t I stay here?”
    Isabelle shook her head.
    “Why not? Nick isn’t kicking us out, is he?”
    “No. No. I’m sure it would be fine with him. It’s just—not a good idea.” Isabelle tossed her keys into the bowl on the counter between the kitchen and dining room, then continued down the hall to her and Nick’s bedroom.
    “Why not?”
    “I need a clean break. Or as clean as possible considering we have Jess. If you stay here while I’m away, it’ll just complicate things further.” She opened her closet door, kicked off her shoes, and stepped into her slippers.
    “How? I don’t understand.”
    Groan-sigh. “Because if you’re here, and I’m there, it’ll mean that Nick and I will have to talk about you and what you’re doing and I—I’m just not up for that right now. I want to work on healing, and I won’t be able to do that if I have to talk to him all the time.”
    “Yeah, but aren’t you guys going to have to talk about Jess anyway?”
    “We’ve already worked out the summer, so not really. He’ll come up to see Jess during the parents’ weekends. I don’t need to add you to the mix.”
    “What does that mean, ‘add me to the mix’? What would you even need to talk about? I’m responsible; I can take care of myself. I totally do take care of myself now.”
    “Carly, this isn’t open for discussion. You’re not eighteen yet, and I’m not going to let you run wild around the city. I’ve seen enough of that with the girls at Bellwin. You can go to your father’s, or, if you want I can probably get you a job at Stony Hollow. Though I’m not sure what jobs are left at this late date.”
    “But—”
    “Carly. I can’t talk about this right now. Can you understand? I’m just—I’m just exhausted. And I feel a migraine coming on. I need to get in bed.”
    “What about dinner?”
    “Could you order pizza? And see that Jess gets to bed at a decent hour? Nick’s in one of those oblivious-to-time-and-responsibility states.”
    “I guess.”
    “And please make sure she has a clean uniform for tomorrow?”
    Carly let out a groan-sigh of her own. “Okay.”
    “Thanks, honey. Really. I appreciate your help. I know this is has all got to be a shock. First your father flakes on you—”
    “Mom—he’s having a baby. I wouldn’t exactly call that flaking.”
    “No. Of course not. I just mean that’s how it must feel. It’s something you’ve been looking forward to for so long.”
    Like losing the only home she’d known for the past twelve years was nothing, just an incidental change of scene.

7
    “WHY’S EVERYBODY so crabby?” Jess was gouging a piece of spinach out of her pizza with her finger. Her paper plate was dotted with dark green blobs of oily spinach she’d extracted, one by one.
    The question hung there in the air above the worktable in Nick’s studio. Carly looked across at Nick, who looked down at his pizza. It was a veggie special from Salvatore’s. Nick and Carly’s favorite.
    The two of them became vegetarians together one boiling hot day in the summer after she and her mother moved into the loft. They were walking by a warehouse just as a truck full of carcasses was being unloaded. Even though they were headless and hoofless and cut in half, they still looked more like animals than food as they hung from those giant