Ann Martin - Stacey's Broken Heart

That Wednesday night I had my hand on the phone in the living room, about to try Robert's number, when it rang. "Hello?" I answered, hoping it would be Robert.

"Hi. It's me." It was Claudia. Oh, well. I was glad to hear from her. I settled in on the couch, cradling the phone under my chin, preparing for a good long chat with my best friend.

"How's it going?" she asked.

"Great/II told her enthusiastically. "The Walkers' place is a madhouse of people coming and going, but Grace and Henry are as cute as ever. Yesterday I took them to the Museum of Natural History. We had a ball. You should see the new dinosaur exhibit they have there. It is so cool! Henry and Grace have already seen it a billion times, of course, but Ethan and I hadn't, so we — "

"Ethan?" Claudia interrupted.

"Yes. He's this very, very cute guy who is working for the Walkers. He was going down in the elevator with us so we started talking about the museum and he came with us."

"Very cute, huh?" Claudia said, interested.

"Very," I repeated. She asked me a few more questions about him — how tall, how old, what color eyes — and I filled her in. "But it's no big deal," I added. "He's just this really nice guy who is around a lot. You should have seen him when we went skating with the kids in Central Park today."

"Isn't it a little warm for skating?" Claudia asked.

"In-line, silly." I laughed. "Man, can he Rollerblade! He can do spins and jumps and everything. I felt like a snail compared to him. But, you know, he wasn't a show-off at all. He was only doing those tricks because Henry asked him to. He was so good with Henry. So

patient. He taught him how to Rollerblade. At first Henry was afraid, but by the end of the afternoon he could do it. Ethan was a big help because Henry felt proud of himself, and I was free to help Grace who is still on training roller skates."

"He sounds great," Claudia commented.

"Oh, he is," I agreed. "What's happening in Stoneybrook?"

"The Mexican festival, mostly," she told me. , "How's that going?"

"Don't ask!"

"Bad?"

"Muchobad. Abby is just moving way too fast on this. Nothing is planned right. She keeps hitting us up for money to pay for her little projects. Out of the blue, she decided we had to give out fliers. I was up until midnight last night drawing sombreros. She's having them copied today and the festival is this Saturday."

"Kristy would laugh if she heard all this," I said.

"She'd laugh or she'd have a fit," Claudia said. "This reminds me of the time we went to California and saw how disorganized the We Love Kids Club was. Remember how that nearly drove Kristy insane?"

I laughed, remembering how out of hand

things can get when events and schedules aren't properly organized.

"This is going to be more of a fiasco than a festival if you ask me," Claudia said.

"Good luck,” I told her. "I bet Abby pulls through at the end."

"I sure hope so."

There was a slight pause in our conversation. I was going to tell Claud about my plans to take the Circle Line boat tour around Manhattan the next day, when she started talking.

"Tomorrow, I'm — "

"Stacey, I — " Our voices overlapped and we laughed.

"You go first," I said.

Claudia sighed miserably. "Stacey, I ... I have some bad news."

I straightened up, sitting forward on the couch. "What?"

"It's about Robert."

My heart slammed into my chest. "Is he all right?" I asked urgently.

"Fine. He's fine," Claudia assured me. Then what could it be? I waited. "I think ... I mean, I'm pretty sure . . . I'm positive, really . . . Stacey, Robert has been seeing Andi Gentile."

I heard her words . . . but I didn't.

"Stacey?" Claudia spoke into the phone. "Stacey, are you there?"

"Yeah."

"I wouldn't tell you if I wasn't sure," Claudia went on. "But people have been seeing them together all week. Emily Bernstein saw them at Casa Grande again. Mal and Jessi spotted them playing tennis. All the while I kept telling myself it might be nothing but then I saw them myself today. They were downtown and . . . and . . . it's not nothing."

"What do you mean?" I asked quietly. Claudia mumbled something so fast I couldn't hear it. "What?"

She spoke quickly again, but this time I caught the words. "I said he kissed her."

"On the lips?" I hated to ask but I needed to know.

"Yeah."

"You saw it yourself?"

"Yeah. I did."

We were both quiet then, just hanging on the line. "Thanks for telling me," I said finally.

"Are you all right, Stacey?"

"I think so. I'm not sure. It doesn't seem real yet."

"I guess you were right to feel suspicious of him."

I ??? over the phone, which shows you the kind of shape I was in. Dazed, I suppose. Although I'd worried about this, somehow

now that my fears were confirmed, I didn't want to even think about it. I guess I really am nonconfrontational. I sure didn't want to face this. "I'm going to hang up now. Okay?" I said.

"Okay. I'll call you tomorrow to make sure you're all right."

"Thanks, Claudia. 'Bye." For a moment, I sat on the couch, just staring. How could this be? For the last several months, since I'd started seeing Robert, part of being me was being Stacey and Robert.

Stacey and Robert 2-gether 4-ever. At least that's what I'd scribbled on my school notebooks. That's what I'd thought. Or, maybe I simply hadn't thought. I'd just assumed we'd keep going along and going along. I hadn't really thought about the future, not seriously. Yet I'd expected that Robert would always be there with me. Weren't we close? Didn't we care for and look out for one another? Didn't we enjoy spending time together? Wasn't that the way it was?

How had this happened?

A tear ran down my cheek. Andi couldn't . take Robert away from me. She couldn't! I wouldn't let her! Who did she think she was? Robert was my boyfriend. Mine.

Now tears gushed from my eyes. I jammed

the palms of my hands into them. I didn't want to cry. But I couldn't help it. The tears kept coming.

I heard Dad's keys in the lock and jumped up from the couch. If he saw me crying he'd want to talk and I couldn't stand to talk about that just then. Blinded by tears I ran to my room.

"Stacey, are you here?" Dad called as he stepped into the apartment.

"In my room!" I shouted back, making my voice as steady as I could.

I could tell from his voice that he was outside my bedroom door. "Samantha and I want to take you out to eat," he said.

"You go," I shouted through the closed door. "I'm pooped."

"Stacey, open up, please." There was no getting out of it. Drying my eyes on the bedsheet, I opened the door. "You've been crying!" Dad gasped. "What happened?"

"Robert is seeing someone else!" I blurted out, tears flooding me once again. Dad put his arms around me and I sobbed into his white work shirt. I cried for several minutes before looking up.

Dad asked if I was sure and I told him what Claudia told me. "Why don't you call Robert yourself?" he suggested.

Call Robert? The idea horrified me. I

couldn't. What would I say? What would he say? "I can't, Dad. I can't," I sobbed.