Goodbye Stranger by Rebecca Stead Page A

to babysit. My brothers. But I never got paid.”
    “Oh. That sucks.”
    “I’m Adrienne,” she says, and sticks her hand out.
    You have to get up and walk over to her to shake. Her grip is slightly painful. She shoves her bag back underneath the counter and then starts hopping from foot to foot. You are not about to ask why.
    “So.” She glances around. “Do you really know the Barsamians, or was that just something to say?”
    “No, I do. Our families are friends. I remember when Mr. Barsamian bought this place, after Bridge—that’s his daughter—”
    Adrienne nodded. “I know Bridge.”
    “Well, she got hit by a car, about five years ago.”
    Adrienne blinked, stopped jumping. “Huh. I didn’t know that. Was it bad?”
    “Really bad. She was in the hospital a lot, having these surgeries. Anyway, that’s when her dad opened this place. Before that, he had a different job—he traveled a lot, I think.”
    “What about the brother?”
    “Jamie?”

    “Yeah.”
    “Jamie’s great. I mean, we don’t hang out much or anything. He’s a year ahead of me, and we don’t go to the same high school.”
    “I don’t miss high school.”
    “Yeah.”
    “I left early.”
    “You did?”
    Adrienne nodded. “I’m doing this boxing thing. And working.”
    “Wow. My parents would flip.”
    Adrienne smiled. “Mine definitely flipped. They want me to be a marine biologist. I’m thinking about it.”
    “Wouldn’t you have to finish high school for that?”
    “Oh, I did finish. Got my last credits at summer school and skipped senior year. Who needs the drama, right?”
    “Yeah.”
    “So now I’m into boxing. Maybe I’ll go to college next year, maybe I’ll wait. You can have it all, but you can’t have it all at once.”
    You look at her. “How old are you?”
    She laughs. “How old are you ?”
    “Almost fifteen,” you admit.
    She nods, then points at herself. “Eighteen.”
    “You look older.”
    “You don’t. You sure you don’t want to use my phone?”
    “No thanks. I should go. I guess my friend isn’t coming.”
    But you just sit there.
    “Keep me company for a while,” Adrienne says. “I get bored.”

SUITS
    What Emily had decided to do was take a picture of herself in her new jeans, with no shirt on.
    “But wearing a bra, which is basically the same as a bathing suit,” she told Bridge. “And I’ll do one of those photo filters, so it’s kind of fuzzy? You know, artsy.”
    “Tell me again why you’re doing this?” Bridge said. “One more time.”
    “What if my boyfriend asked for a picture of me in my bathing suit?”
    “I’d say he was creepy. Is Patrick even your boyfriend?”
    “You promised not to be judgy. People walk around the city in less than a bathing suit!”
    “I’m not being judgy,” Bridge said. “I’m being—asky.”
    Em started brushing her hair out in front of the mirror. “We want to, like—show ourselves. Be real. Do things for each other we wouldn’t do for anyone else.”
    “Why don’t you just talk to each other? Isn’t that more real, more you, than a fuzzy picture of your bra?”
    “I think,” Em said, “that you’re, like, just not there yet. With Sherm.”
    “Sherm! What are you talking about?”
    “And Tab…Tab has no idea at all. ”

    “She turned you down, didn’t she? You asked her for help and she said no. Right?”
    Em mimicked: “ ‘You know I love you, but I can’t be part of this.’ ”
    “She does love you.”
    “I know. I love her too.”
    But suddenly the air felt different. Tab wasn’t here with them, on purpose. That had never happened before.
    “Let’s get this over with,” Bridge said.
    Em put her brush down, crossed her arms, and pulled her T-shirt over her head in one quick motion. Underneath, she was wearing a lacy black bra.
    “Wow, fancy,” Bridge said. “Where’d you get that?”
    “My mom’s drawer. Can you believe it? She has, like, ten of these.”
    “You can wear your mom’s