Beautiful by Amy Reed Read Free Book Online Page B

disbelief. “Are you serious?”
    â€œYeah. Pretty cool, huh?”
    No,
I am thinking.
That is the least cool thing I have ever heard.
    â€œWhen?” I ask because I don’t know what else to say.
    â€œI don’t know,” she says, kicking a broken skateboard. “A couple years ago.”
    â€œThat’s when your brother left?”
    â€œYeah. He just left him up there and packed up his shit and was gone. The funniest part is he left a note right next tothe suicide note. It said, ‘Dad’s hanging in the basement. I’m leaving. Bye.’ What a weirdo.”
    â€œWhat’d the note say?”
    â€œI just told you.”
    â€œNo, the suicide note.”
    â€œOh, that. I don’t know. I never read it.”
    Alex keeps kicking the skateboard and I want to grab her and make her stop. I want to grab the skateboard and hit her with it. But she would probably just laugh. Even if her jaw were broken and she was covered in blood, she’d just smile at me with her big crazy eyes and make me feel like there is nothing I can do to hurt her.
    â€œDid you really do that with the cats?” I finally say.
    â€œWhat do you think?” she says, smiling.
    If I say no, she’ll laugh at me. If I say yes, she’ll do something worse. So instead I say, “Let’s get ready to go,” and she smiles like she knows exactly what I was thinking.
    The bathroom smells like mildew and old piss and there are strands of green hair stuck everywhere. A box of tampons is spilled on the floor and the towels look like they haven’t been washed in months. I am tracing the outline of my lips with bloodred pencil and I can see Alex behind me in the reflection. She is sitting on the toilet, peeing, and her thighs are covered with bruises.
    â€œWhat happened?” I ask her.
    â€œTo what?” she says, wiping herself.
    â€œTo your legs?”
    She laughs at me like I’m a stupid child. “Wes just likes it rough.”
    â€œLikes what rough?”
    â€œSex, stupid,” she says. “But you wouldn’t know anything about that, would you? Not Cassie, the sweet little virgin.”
    I don’t say anything. I turn around and start curling my eyelashes.
    â€œHow much money did you steal?” she says as she gets up and flushes the toilet. She grabs a pair of fishnets that were hanging on the doorknob.
    â€œHuh?” I say.
    â€œFor Portland, dummy. So we can move to Portland.”
    â€œOh,” I say. “I didn’t think you were serious about that.”
    â€œOf course I’m fucking serious,” she says, her voice hard. She’s looking at me like she wants to kill me. “Are
you
serious? Or are you a fucking chicken?”
    â€œI’m serious,” I say.
    â€œBecause I can find someone else to come with me.”
    â€œNo,” I say. “I’m serious.”
    â€œThen start getting some money. And have a bag packed so you’re ready whenever it’s time.”
    â€œHow will we know it’s time?”
    â€œI’ll figure that out,” she says. She sprays some hair spray and it makes my eyes burn.
    â€œWe’re ready,” she says, and it’s time to go.
    Lenora is passed out when we leave, so Alex steals a pack of her cigarettes and a bottle of vodka, just puts them in her backpack like it’s no big deal, like she’s not even afraid of getting caught. We walk to the lake and it’s freezing. I drink fast so I’ll get warm, so I don’t have to think about that house and the things that happened in it, so I won’t be scared of where we’re going.
    â€œMy half sister’s moving in next week,” Alex says, her voice torn by the shot she just drank.
    â€œHow old is she?”
    â€œEighth grade.”
    â€œIs she cool?”
    â€œShe’s all right.”
    â€œWhy’s she moving here?”
    â€œHer dad’s fucking her,” she