Nothing to Lose by Norah McClintock Page A

holding it in my hand and, I don’t know, it gave me the creeps. I started shaking all over. I don’t like dead things, Robyn. So then I thought, okay, maybe the smaller birds would be less creepy.”
    The look of horror on her face told me that she had discovered otherwise. “But the smaller they are, the faster they thaw out. And when they thaw, they start to smell. After a while it gets to you. I’ve spent the past half hour trying not to throw up. Then there was this one bird—it looked like it had been partly eaten by bugs or something. I had to run to the bathroom. Now I don’t know what to do. I can’t touch another one of those things. But if I don’t go back, Billy’s going to be disappointed in me.”
    Morgan isn’t normally the kind of person who worries about what other people think of her. She sees herself as above that. Above everything and everyone, in fact. If you consider yourself better and smarter than everyone else, why worry about what they’re thinking? But apparently Morgan cared what Billy thought of her.
    â€œSome people faint at the sight of blood,” I said. “Some can’t handle heights. It’s no big deal. Just tell him the truth.”
    â€œI can’t,” she said. “I just can’t.”
    â€œMorgan, you either have to tell him the truth or you have to hold your breath, fight back the nausea, and touch more dead birds. You have no other choice.”
    She looked down at her feet.
Here it comes
, I thought.
She has a plan, and it involves me.
    â€œThing is, Robyn, I told Billy that you called me.”
    â€œBut
you
called
me
.”
    She looked up at me. “I know. But that’s not what I told Billy. I told him that you called me and that you were crying hysterically—”
    â€œHysterically?”
    â€œWell—”
    â€œ
Hysterically
, Morgan?”
    At least she had the decency to look embarrassed. “I’m sorry,” she said. “But I couldn’t tell him the truth. I love him. I don’t want him to think I’m a wuss.”
    â€œThere’s nothing like an open and honest relationship.”
    â€œBilly founded DARC. He believes in it one hundred percent. He thinks it’s making a difference. It
is
making a difference. Some of the office buildings down here are actually trying to keep most of their lights off at night. I can’t tell him that the thing he’s most proud of makes me want to throw up.”
    â€œAnd your solution is?”
    â€œI was going to tell him that you need someone to talk to right now. You know, girl talk. Billy will understand.”
    â€œYou realize that he’ll be
understanding
a lie, right?”
    â€œI have to get out of here, Robyn. I’d do the same for you.”
    I knew she would. Morgan could be self-centered. She could also be annoyingly superior. But she was also a loyal friend.
    â€œOkay,” I said. “But you owe me.”
    Morgan turned out to be right. Billy said he understood how I felt, that it must have been awful to see Nick actually get hit by a car. He said that Nick had been incredibly lucky and that he was going to be just fine. Then he pulled Morgan aside. He was still wearing his rubber gloves. Morgan cringed, but she managed to hide most of her revulsion. Billy said something to her in a soft voice. Then he kissed her.
    Suddenly Morgan didn’t seem to care about the gloves. In fact, I don’t think that she would have cared if Billy were covered head to toe in dead bird residue. She wrapped her arms around him. I thought they were never going to come up for air. Some of the other DARC members glanced at them. A middle-aged man with a salt-and-pepper beard smiled wistfully. Finally they parted, and Billy said he would call Morgan later. As we got into the elevator, Morgan wiped a tear from her eye.
    â€œDo you know what he said?” she said. “Billy said I was the