"He told you that?"
"Surprised he told?" Janet asked.
"He described how you begged him not to, and promised him something good if he didn't," Betty added.
"Is that what you did back in coal country, bribed boys with your body?" Lorraine asked.
I tried to speak, but the words choked in my throat. I shook my head instead. Out of the corner of my eye, I saw Cary watching with concern. He looked as if he was about to get up. Panic nailed my feet to the floor, but I knew I had to do something and fast, otherwise there would be a terrible scene in front of the whole student body.
"Those are lies," I finally said. "The real truth is he's just angry at me for not doing what he wanted me to do on the beach last night. Really!"
"Really?" Betty quipped. "Is that why you and Grandpa are like two peas in a pod today? Practically holding hands? If he were any closer to you, he'd be under your dress."
"It's disgusting," Janet followed. "You're first cousins, aren't you?"
"The Logans give the Cape a bad name," Lorraine declared. The other two nodded.
"What are you waiting for?" Betty said, shifting her eyes toward Cary. "He's waiting for you. The two of you can hold hands under the table. Or do whatever else you do."
The three laughed and moved ahead to get their food. The moment they did, other girls gathered around them to feed on the-gossip like chickens in a pen.
I felt my heart pounding. Everyone was looking at me, waiting to see what I was going to do. Cary was still watching from the table where he sat with his two friends, an expression of deep concern on his face. I hesitated. If I went to him, all these tongues would surely cluck, but sitting with the girls today was like putting myself in a Roman Coliseum. They would eat me alive.
"Aren't you going to sit with him?" Janet asked nodding in Cary's direction as she carried her tray past me.
Theresa was walking by with her friends.
"I promised Theresa I would sit with her today," I said loud enough for her to hear. She turned with a look of surprise, but lost it quickly when she saw the expression on my face and the three witches from Macbeth closing in. She waited for me to join her.
"Thanks," I whispered. "I especially don't want to sit with them today. All they want to do is make fun of Cary and me," I explained.
"Oh." She wore a knowing look.
When we were at the table and had taken our sandwiches from our bags, I leaned closer to her. "Why did you say 'oh,' like that?" I asked. "Did you hear dirty gossip, too?"
"There's never a bad day's catch when it comes to dirty gossip around here," she said, "especially when it's about Cary Logan. He and Laura were often the hot topic around here."
"Why?"
"There are other brothers and sisters here, dozens," she continued gesturing at the students in the cafeteria, "but none of them behaved as if they had invisible handcuffs tying them together. Anyone will tell you, so it's not like I'm letting a two-pound lobster out of the trap. If Cary could have followed her into the girls' room, I think he would have."
"Wasn't that all just an exaggeration?"
"No. They came to school together, they sat next to each other in every class, they sat with each other at lunch time, they sat with each other in the library, they left school together. The first time I saw Laura at a school party, she came with Cary," Theresa added, "and even danced with him. She danced with a couple of other boys, but she danced with her brother first."
"Maybe he thought she was too shy and just wanted to make her comfortable, or maybe he was too shy," I said. There had to be a hundred other reasons besides the one she was suggesting.
Theresa snorted.
"Well, she did have a boyfriend, didn't she?" I pointed out.
She bit into her sandwich and then shook her head. "You really are like a stranger to your own family, aren't you?"
"Yes," I admitted.
"When Laura started to see Robert Royce, it was a comedy show for these gossips. Cary would sit by himself or with those nerdy friends across the cafeteria and glare at Laura and Robert. He plodded through the hallways with a chin down to his ankles. The other boys started teasing him and he got into a few fights."
I looked across the cafeteria at him and saw he was still staring at me with deep concern. My heart beat in triple time. Had he heard the stories about us?