Beige by Cecil Castellucci Read Free Book Online Page A

The boy’s name is Leo.
    “He can’t dive from up there. He’d hit his head on the bottom of the pool,” the woman in the orange hat says, still not looking up from her magazine.
    Trixie looks at me and rolls her eyes. I roll my eyes right back. We both smile.
    I dive into the pool and let the water slide over me. Trixie hangs out by the steps with Auggie as he splashes the water and squeals with pleasure. Little kids are so easily amused.
    After a couple of laps, I swim over to Trixie.
    “I’m glad you were out here. I was going to come over and say hello. Beau had mentioned you were visiting,” she says. “I’m his girlfriend.”
    “Oh.” He seems to be so open with everything else, I wonder why he didn’t mention a girlfriend. I thought he was a loner. I never heard him ever mention any woman except for my mother. I try to picture him attempting to woo someone. I can’t.
    I must look surprised, because Trixie shrugs and laughs again. “He’s probably still working up the courage to talk to you about it. Men. They are so strange.”
    “I wouldn’t know.”
    “Don’t you have boyfriends?” Trixie asks.
    “No.”
    “What about your mom? She must have boyfriends.”
    “No,” I say.
    “Not ever?”
    I wonder if she’s fishing for information. I want to tell her to mind her own business. I want to tell her to talk to the hand.
    “No,” I say.
    “Hmm,” Trixie says. “That’s a shame.”
    No, it’s not,
I think. My mom doesn’t need a man to make her happy. She’s happy by herself, with me.
    Auggie slaps the water with his hand and squints his little eyes and smiles. Then he reaches for me.
    “He likes you!” Trixie says. “I think that means we’re going to be great friends.”
    I look at her. She’s not even like a real person. She’s like a person who’s stepped out of a 1950s movie. I wonder if she dresses like that all the time.
    “Anyway, Auggie’s a good judge of character. Aren’t you, Auggie? Aren’t you?” Trixie grabs Auggie’s little body and blows a raspberry on his stomach, which sends Auggie right over the moon.
    Watching Trixie with Auggie makes me hurt for Mom. I wonder what she’s doing today. I wonder if the site is everything she’d hoped. I wonder if she’s missing me. I dive back under the water so that even I don’t know if my face is just wet or if I’m actually crying.
    I pull myself out of the pool and grab my towel and head upstairs. I don’t want to hang out here.
    “See you,” I say, not looking her in the eyes.
    “Welcome to Grunge Estates, Katy,” she calls after me.

Someone is leaning on the unbearably loud buzzer at the door.
    “Katy, can you get that?” The Rat says. He’s in the bathroom. Taking a long time. Stinking it up. Reading magazines. The Rat poops more than anyone I know.
    “Who is it?” I say through the door.
    “It’s Lake,” I hear that cartoon-voice say. It still makes me want to laugh.
    Lake’s hair is greasy and glinting in the sun. Her eyes are covered by too-big Gina Lollobrigida sunglasses. Despite the heat, she is wearing all black.
    “Hey, Beige.”
    “My name is Katy,” I say.
    “Right,” Lake says. “But you’re still
Beige.
”
    She just doesn’t want to use my name.
    She’s calling me Beige for a reason.
    It’s an insult.
    I can’t imagine that she is visiting me because I was such a great companion at the Fourth of July party. It’s more than obvious that she doesn’t think I’m cool.
    In my mind, I slam the door in her face, go back to my bedroom, pick up my book, and continue reading.
    But I don’t kick her out. I open the door wider. I let her in.
    “What are you doing here?” I ask.
    “According to the deal I have with The Rat, I’m supposed to take you ‘under my wing,’” she says, coming into the apartment and scanning the place. She sits down on the couch and kicks her long legs on the table.
    She’s not interested in me. I’m just part of the “deal.”
    “And what