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Maggie. I’ve got to get to Maggie.
I hurry to the end of the locker room and scoot out the door that leads to the hallway, then skittle across the hall and through an entrance to the outside. It’s freezing and I’m barefoot, but so far, no one has seen me. I scurry around the building to the back wall and slip through a door that opens right under the bleachers. I creep under the tangle of legs and grab Maggie’s foot. She jumps and looks around.
“Mags,” I hiss.
“Carrie?” she says, peering down through the slats. “What are you doing here? And where are your clothes?”
“Give me your coat,” I implore.
“Why?”
“Maggie, please.”
I tug her coat off the seat next to her. “Don’t ask. Meet me in the locker room and I’ll explain.”
I grab the coat and make a run for it.
“Carrie?” she says, a few minutes later, her voice echoing through the empty locker room.
“Over here.” I’m searching through the dirty towel bin, thinking maybe Donna dumped my clothes. I find a gross pair of gym shorts, a dirty sock, and a yellow bandanna. “Donna LaDonna took my clothes,” I say, giving up.
Maggie’s eyes narrow. “How do you know?”
“Come on, Mags.” I wrap her coat around my shoulders. I’m still cold from my run outside. “Who else would do it?”
She plops down on a bench. “This has to stop.”
“Tell me about it.”
“No. Really, Carrie. It has to stop.”
“What am I supposed to do?”
“You’re not supposed to do anything. Make Sebastian do something. Make him tell her to end it.”
“It’s not really his fault.”
“Actually, it is. Have you forgotten how Sebastian led Donna LaDonna on and then dumped her for you?”
“He told her he wasn’t serious and he’d just moved back and was going to see other people.”
“Well, obviously. After all, he got what he wanted.”
“Right,” I say. My hatred for Donna LaDonna feels like a physical object—round and hard—lodged in my belly.
“And he should be defending you. Against her.”
“What if he won’t?”
“Then you should break up with him.”
“But I don’t want to break up with him.”
“All I know is that Peter would defend me,” Maggie says vehemently.
Is Maggie doing this on purpose? Trying to get me to break up with Sebastian? Is there some kind of conspiracy going on that I don’t know about? “Having to have a guy defend you—it’s so old-fashioned,” I say sharply. “Shouldn’t we be able to defend ourselves?”
“I want a guy who will stick up for me,” Maggie says stubbornly. “It’s like a friend. Would you put up with a friend who wouldn’t stick up for you?”
