Beauty by Patria L. Dunn (Patria Dunn-Rowe) Read Free Book Online Page B

wasn’t my friend Michael standing in front of me. This guy had the same curly brown hair, bulging gut, and double chin, but the way he was staring he obviously didn’t know me, and I didn’t know him.
    “Excuse me…” I murmured, already knowing that he wouldn’t hear me over the music, but I stood anyway bringing me almost chest to chest with him for an instant.
    I side stepped and his beefy fingers caught my wrists, surprising me.
    “ You’re beautiful…” he slurred as he leaned forward so that I could hear him, the smell of beer and something sour turning my stomach. “Wanna go in the back…?”
    In the back…? What was in the back…? Wait…I’m getting hit on by a coke bottle glasses wearing fattie… ! Eeeeeew! WWJD…what would June do…?! THINK!
    “In your dreams,” I smirked before he could lean away, my perfectly glossed lips pursing and turning upward against the tip of my nose.
    That was wrong… You were just as fat…maybe fatter yesterday…
    I pushed the thought out of my mind and my body past him, making my way towards the kitchen to find Jeremy. He wasn’t there, and so I continued down the narrow hallway, smacking away a set of hands that tried to grab my ass as I passed. There was a door ahead of me that was closed and another door to my right that was partially cracked. I tried that one first, my heels skidding on the cracked bathroom linoleum as I came to a complete stop.
    White smoke c urled so thick in here the room was a complete haze. In the middle of the floor sat a bong that stood at least three fe et high, the liquid in its globed bottom bubbling as a girl sucked on the round opening at the top. Four other people were in the bathroom besides her, two of them passed out in the tub, half naked. Jer emy sat perched on the top of the toilet, two red solo cups in his hand.
    “You left me…” I accused, my voice barely above a whisper.
    His eyes had changed… They were rimmed red now, his face serene as he looked at me, but didn’t acknowledge my accusation. It was n’t like I was his girl, but I hadn’t expected to be left sitting in a crowded room full of people I didn’t know.
    “Shut the door,” the girl sucking on the bong managed in between tokes, a fresh white cloud of smoke filling the room, choking me.
    I coughed once, my eyes burning as I tried to hold back the fit that was threatening to erupt from my lungs. Jeremy’s hand reached out and I took the cup he offered me, shifting uncomfortably in the heels I wore. My full bladder wouldn’t be able to wait much longer, but I wasn’t about to ask them to leave so that I could go. I took another step into the bathroom, pushing the door closed behind me as the girl had asked.
    “Becca…” she smiled as she switched spots with Jeremy, long red hair falling in waves around her shoulders now that she was upright.
    “Eve…” I murmured, taking a sip from the red Solo cup before clearing my throat as hard as I could.
    The urg e to cough was gone, but my urgent need to pee had caused my legs to start trembling.
    “Is there another bathroom?”
    I directed the question at Becca, trying to keep from staring as Jeremy fl icked a lighter I hadn’t seen, holding it to the wad of green stuck in the glass pipe at the bottom of the bong. Weed… Drugs… Illegal… Bad… Oh no….
    I hadn’t even done anything, yet I subconsciously wrapped my newly thin arms protectively around my body, the liquid in the cup sloshing and spilling over my fingers.
    “No, but you can use this one,” Jeremy blew out on a billowing puff of smoke, smacking the lighter in to my palm . “Your turn…” he smiled, following Becca from the bathroom out into the hall.
    “Wait!” I cried, pointing at the occupied bathtub. “What about them…I can’t just…”
    “X…the pure shit…not tho se disco biscuits you get at campus parties . They won’t be up anytime soon, ” Jeremy smiled and nodded when my mouth fell open into a large