The Truth About Alice by Jennifer Mathieu Page A

around the school involving him and the gorgeous Alice Franklin, and I thought otherwise. So, perhaps emboldened by the beer, I said, “Well, what about Alice Franklin? I heard about the two of you and Elaine’s party. I wouldn’t mind getting to know her, in the Biblical sense.”
    Brandon didn’t say anything for a moment, then shook his head and chuckled just a bit to himself.
    â€œYou mean, you’d like to bang Alice?”
    â€œWell, I don’t know if I’d use the phrase bang , perhaps, but she’s quite a foxy young lady.”
    â€œMorelli, I think you’re buzzed,” Brandon said.
    â€œI think I am, too,” I said.
    It was quiet for a little while on the roof, and then, out of nowhere, Brandon burped loudly. Then he said, “I didn’t do her, you know.”
    I’d almost forgotten for a moment what we’d been talking about. Then I remembered. Alice Franklin.
    â€œYou mean,” I said, “You … did … I mean, people are saying—”
    â€œPeople are saying that I screwed her and then Tommy Cray screwed her. Yeah, man, I know what people are saying because I told them in the first place! Come on, Morelli. Catch up here.”
    â€œBut you didn’t, uh, bang her?”
    â€œNope,” he said. “Didn’t. Bang. Alice.”
    â€œDid Tommy?”
    â€œNope. Not him either.”
    â€œSo why…?” I was confused. At this point, people had already started treating Alice differently at school, in small but obvious ways. Like not sitting with her as often during lunch. Or laughing when she walked into class.
    â€œMorelli, I don’t know why the hell I do the things I do sometimes, if you want to know the truth,” Brandon said, and he burped again. “I wanted to get with her that night and she wouldn’t get with me. Led me on and then told me she didn’t want to fool around. Pissed me off. She should be happy to get with me. Most girls are. Take Maggie Daniels, right? She’s a little chunky for my tastes, but Maggie Daniels would give her left arm to be with me. Of course then I wouldn’t want to be with her because she wouldn’t have both arms, and I’m not some kind of pervert.” Brandon laughed at his own joke, but I didn’t.
    â€œIs Alice the first girl to refuse your advances?” I asked, and I felt a bit strange inside, like the house had suddenly tilted a bit.
    â€œYup,” Brandon said. “That’s the truth. I never had a girl say no before. And it made me angry. So I said I did her and Tommy did, too. Sort of to get her to see that she shouldn’t have said no.”
    â€œBut what about Tommy?” I asked.
    â€œI knew Tommy would be going back to college,” Brandon answered “He wouldn’t be around to deny it.”
    I thought of how to explain to Brandon in a way he would understand. “But she’s getting so much … shit for this. You’re aware of that, right? I mean, everyone thinks this is true.”
    Brandon rolled his eyes. “Elaine O’Dea and her whole crew, spreading it around to everyone in creation. But it’ll pass. This stuff always does. Give it a week or a month and everyone will forget about it.”
    I simply could not believe what I was hearing. Never did I think Brandon would have lied about something like that. But he had lied. And what was more, I could tell this utterance on the roof wasn’t meant as some revelation or even omission of guilt. I don’t think that Brandon had that level of depth. In his mind, he was merely entertaining me as he usually did with stories about what it was like to be Brandon Fitzsimmons.
    We finished our beers wordlessly, and then Brandon said he needed to go to bed.
    â€œMorelli, you’re not going to tell anyone about our little secret, right?” he asked, turning around to slide into his room. “I have a reputation to