Out of the Cold Read Free

skills and anger management. Nick had at least one friend there, a guy named Antoine, whom I’d met during the summer. Maybe he knew where Nick was.
    â€œSorry,” the woman who answered the door told me. “Antoine isn’t here anymore.”
    â€œDo you know where I can find him?”
    â€œI’m afraid I’m not at liberty to give out that information.”
    Judging by her somber expression, wherever Antoine was,
he
wasn’t at liberty. Otherwise she would have told me.
    For the next couple of days, I jumped every time my cell phone or the phone at my mom’s house rang. When my mother finally said, “For heaven’s sake, Robyn, relax,” I burst into tears. My mother gave me a sympathetic look. She said she was sorry that Nick had taken off without a word. She said she understood how I must feel. She was trying to be nice, but I couldn’t help thinking that she was relieved that Nick was out of my life. Then she said the very last thing that I wanted to hear. She said, “Maybe it’s for the best.”

    Â Â .    .    .

    â€œI still don’t understand,” I said. “Should I have done something different? Should I have snuck out to see him?” My mother would have grounded me for life if she’d found out I’d done that.
    â€œIt was only a few weeks, Robyn,” Morgan said. “It wasn’t exactly the end of the world. And you said you talked to him on the phone almost every day before the trip.”
    â€œI thought if we did what my mom wanted, she would see that he was okay. I was more worried about what she thought than about what Nick thought.”
    I didn’t mean to cry again, especially not in the school cafeteria where everyone could see me. But every time I thought about Nick, tears rose up all over again. Why had he taken off? Why hadn’t he told me where he was going?
    â€œWhat if something has happened to him? What if he’s met someone else? What if—?”
    Morgan pulled a wad of tissues out of her purse and handed them to me.
    â€œI like Nick,” she said. “You know I do.”
    In fact, I didn’t know that. I knew she thought he was good-looking, which he is—tall and lean, with jet-black hair and startling purple-blue eyes. I knew she thought he was exciting and kind of dangerous—mostly because of all the trouble he had been in and because of the hairline scar that runs from the bridge of his nose to the bottom of his right ear. It makes him look like the kind of person who doesn’t shy away from a fight. And it’s true. He doesn’t. I also knew that she respected the fact that I liked him, a
lot
. But I didn’t know that she actually liked him.
    â€œBut,” she said—the word I had been waiting for—“you haven’t known him for very long, which means that you may not know him as well as you think you do.”
    â€œWhat are you saying, Morgan?”
    â€œThere could be a dozen reasons he left. Till you hear from him, there’s nothing you can do. You just have to wait.”
    â€œFor how long?”
    â€œI don’t know.” She squeezed my hand. “But I do know that whatever happens, it’s not your fault. You didn’t do anything wrong. If he wasn’t prepared to wait a couple of weeks for you, that’s his problem, not yours. I also know that if worse comes to worst, you can’t keep crying over him. And don’t give me that look, Robyn. You know what I mean. It’s been almost a whole week since we got back.”
    â€œHey, guys,” a cheery male voice said. I looked up. It was Billy Royal, my other best friend in the whole world and, recently, Morgan’s boyfriend. He slipped an arm around Morgan and kissed her on the cheek before dropping into the empty chair beside her. “What’s up?”
    â€œRobyn is still beating herself up over Nick’s