Because I'm Disposable by Rosie Somers Read Free Book Online

the twenty-minute ride to Ridgecrest High.
    Gina didn’t disappoint. She sank deeper into her oversized sweater when I sat down, and pushed her ear buds deeper into her ears. I popped mine in and set my player for a random playlist. Gina was my new favorite person.
    I was intently aware of Link sitting three rows up and on the opposite side of the aisle. I tried hard not to notice him, but I couldn’t miss the fact that he kept looking back at me. So instead, I tried hard not to let on that I was hyper-focused on him.
    When we arrived at school, Link waited for me to pass him before standing and following me off the bus. He walked behind me the whole way to first period, and when I took a seat in the far back corner, he took the seat right next to me. But he never said a word. Maybe I was reading too much in to things—he probably wasn’t really watching me.
    I sank low in my desk and waited for the bell to ring. Then, I spent the next hour and ten minutes trying to drown out Mrs. Field’s warbly, creaky voice, with little success.
    * * * * *
    Calculus was going to be exponentially worse than English; I could feel it, and I hadn’t even made it to the math wing yet. At the last minute, when I was about to walk through the double doors leading into D Wing, I veered left and dipped into the women’s bathroom instead. It was blessedly quiet. Sure, the administrators might catch me skipping second period, but it was a risk I was going to take. I needed time to breathe, to be alone with my thoughts. To process my almost kiss with Link.
    I pulled myself onto the countertop and sat there staring at my shoelaces as I swung my feet. The minute bell rang, then sixty seconds later, the late bell. I was committed now.
    The door to the handicap stall in the back swung open, and a girl I didn’t know peeked out. She startled when she saw me, but relaxed a second later.
    “Phew! For a minute there I thought Ms. Faraday had caught me skippin’ again.” She approached and slid onto the counter a few feet away from me. “I’m Mona.” She used an unnaturally pale hand to flick a lock of black hair out of her eyes and nodded at my feet. “Nice kicks.”
    “Thanks.” My black combat boots were actually Corrine’s. She’d picked them up at the Army-Navy store for her costume last Halloween. She’d gone as a zombie slayer. “I’m Callie.”
    “Nice to meet, ya, Callie. Cig?” She produced a pack of Marlboroughs from her backpack and offered me one. I must have stared at the cigarettes a little too long, or looked a little too unsure, because she followed up with, “You ever smoked before?”
    I shook my head.
    She slid two out of the pack and stuck them both between her lips. With the flick of a gas-station-issue Bic, she lit them both, then passed one to me. “Here, try one. If it doesn’t make you sick, it’ll calm you down.”
    I didn’t see the correlation— and certainly didn’t think I needed calming down—but I took the cigarette anyway. Following Mona’s example, I lifted the cigarette to my lips and took a long pull. I lasted all of two seconds before my lungs exploded in a fit of smoky coughs and gags.
    Mona chuckled and patted me on the back. “It’ll get better.” She took a hard drag and blew graceful smoke rings into the air above her head.
    “Nice,” I croaked, motioning toward the dissipating O’s with my free hand.
    “Thanks.” Mona looked me over from head to toe. I got the impression she was sizing me up, appraising me. “My friends and I hang under the big oak tree in the quad at lunch. You should stop by. I’ll introduce you.”
    I must have passed inspection.
    “What class are you hiding from?” She pulled out a compact and checked her heavy makeup.
    “Math.” I took another, smaller drag from my cigarette, pretending to inhale. Really, I just held the smoke in my mouth for a few seconds before releasing it slowly. It climbed up my nose on the way out and made my eyes tear up, but