The Carrie Diaries (The Carrie Diaries 1)

“Jesus Christ!” The Mouse exclaims, clutching onto the front seat as Maggie makes a sharp turn to the left. In seconds, we’re two cars behind Walt’s orange hatchback.

“Not too obvious, Mags,” I remark drily.

“Oh, Walt will never notice,” she says obliquely. “Walt never notices anything when he’s driving.”

Poor Walt. Why did I ever agree to Maggie’s harebrained scheme to follow him? For the same reason I took her to get the birth control pills. I can’t say no to anyone. Not to Maggie, not to Sebastian, and not to Lali, either.

Lali got those damn tickets for Aztec Two-Step, and now we’re all set to go the weekend after Christmas vacation.

But that’s still weeks away. And besides, I have to admit I’m dying to know where Walt is sneaking off to after school.

“I’ll bet he has a new girlfriend,” Maggie says. “And I’ll bet she’s older. Like Mrs. Robinson. She’s probably somebody’s mother. That’s why he’s being so sneaky.”

“Maybe he really is studying.”

Maggie gives me a look. “Come on. You know how smart Walt is. He’s never had to study. Even when he says he’s studying, he’s always doing something else. Like reading about eighteenth-century chamber pots.”

“Walt is into antiques?” The Mouse asks, surprised.

“He knows everything about them,” Maggie says proudly. “We used to have this plan: We were going to move to Vermont. Walt was going to have an antique store and I was going to raise sheep and spin th

e fleece into wool and knit sweaters.”

“How…quaint,” The Mouse says, catching my eye.

“I was going to grow vegetables, too,” Maggie adds. “And have a farm stand in the summer. We were going to become vegetarians.”

And look at what happened to that scheme, I think, as we pass through town in pursuit of Walt.

He drives past the Fox Run Mall and continues down Main Street. At one of the two lights in town, his car makes a left and heads toward the river.

“I knew it,” Maggie says, gripping the steering wheel. “He has a secret assignation.”

“In the woods?” The Mouse scoffs. “There’s nothing down there but trees and empty fields.”

“Maybe he killed someone accidentally. And he’s buried the body and now he’s going back to make sure it hasn’t risen to the surface.” I light up a cigarette and sit back, wondering how far this can possibly go.

The road leads straight to the river, but instead of continuing on the dirt track, Walt makes another sharp turn under the highway. “He’s heading for East Milton,” Maggie shouts, stating the obvious.

“What’s in East Milton?” The Mouse asks.

“A doctor’s office.”

“Carrie!” Maggie exclaims.

“Maybe he has a job as a male nurse,” I say innocently.

“Carrie, will you please shut up?” Maggie snaps. “This is serious.”

“He could be a male nurse. It’s going to be a very chic profession in the next ten years.”

“All the doctors will be women, and all the nurses will be men,” The Mouse says.

“I would not want a male nurse.” Maggie shudders. “I would not want any man I did not know touching my body.”

“What about a one-night stand?” I ask, razzing her. “I mean, what if you went out and you met a guy and you thought you were madly in love with him and you had sex with him like three hours later?”

“I’m crazy about Peter, okay?”