Diary of a Mad Fat Girl by Stephanie McAfee Read Free Book Online

go home and make.
    Ethan walks me out, helps me into his truck,
and we ride in silence back to my house. His cell phone rings and
when he hangs up, he tells me that Adriana Lane, Lilly’s cousin and
head nurse of the ICU, was just quietly escorted out the back door
of the Bugtussle Memorial with her all of her personal effects.
    Dr. Sebastian Rain and Mr. Richard Stacks
are big time golfing buddies and they had every intention of
sweeping this incident under the rug just like they have every
other time Chloe needed medical attention for wounds sustained
while trying to make her marriage work.
    I hope Adriana Lane sues the hell out of
Bugtussle Memorial Hospital and gets filthy rich and never has to
work again. Unless she just wants to.
    11
    Tuesday morning I call in sick to work for
ten thousand different reasons, not the least of which is my
pounding head and aching body. I sleep the entire day away in a
pain pill induced stupor.
    Wednesday morning when the alarm goes off
for the fifth time, I roll over and tell Buster Loo that I’d rather
be shot in the face as to go to work today. He snuggles down
further into the covers as if to rub it in my face that he can
spend all day in bed if he so desires. A dog’s life, indeed.
    I get to school ten minutes late and wish it
would’ve been twenty. Coach Hatter is in his usual spot between our
classrooms and I can tell by the look on his face that he’s heard
all about it.
    “ You alright?” he asks.
    “ Fine,” I mumble. I walk in my
classroom and plop down in my chair. Coach Hatter leans against the
door frame and raises his eyebrows at me.
    “ So what’d you hear?” I ask, not
really wanting to know.
    “ Well,” he says, smiling a big
mischievous smile, “I heard you had a tell-all session with Brother
Berkin at the hospital, then beat one of Rich Stacks’ eyes shut.”
He starts that ridiculous sniggering and I smile despite
myself.
    “ Well, Hatt, I guess that’d be one way
to put it,” I say and suddenly realize how lucky I am that Logan
Hatter’s classroom is right next door to mine. In this school, I
could do a lot worse.
    “ Been a long time comin’,” he says,
shaking his head, “just didn’t think you’d be the one dolin’ it out
on him.”
    “ Fuck him,” I whisper and Coach Hatter
cracks up again.
    “ How’s Chloe?” he asks, looking down
at his shoes.
    “ Oh God, Logan,” I say and squeeze my
eyes shut. “Oh, you don’t even want to know.”
    “ She should leave him and go out with
the Sheriff,” he says.
    “ Yeah, she should. Right after she
blows Richard’s worthless brains out.”
    He continues to look at the floor and we
don’t say anything for a few minutes.
    “ Let’s go to Ethan Allen’s tonight,
Ace, I wanna be the man on your elbow when you walk in down there.”
He pauses and looks at me sideways, “You know Ethan is just dyin’
for you to come down there and tell everybody your side of the
story. Says he can only say so much until you come in to verify the
details. I swear, he’s worse than a woman.”
    “ What’s that supposed to mean, Hatt?”
I ask with mock sarcasm just as the bell rings.
    “ Saved by the bell,” he chirps. “Pick
you up at eight?”
    “ Maybe.”
    Just before lunch, I check my email and, lo
and behold, there’s a message from the Queen of Hate herself
summoning me to her nasty little office. During lunch. Great.
Hatter will just have to tough it out again today with Coach Wills.
Ha.
    When the time comes, I reluctantly
make my way up the hallway and through the commons area to the
office. When I walk into the lobby, I notice a hand-written note on
Chloe’s door and go over to inspect it. Mrs. Stacks will be out of the office until further notice.
Please see Mrs. Marshall for all counseling issues.
    Until now, the most time Chloe has ever
taken off work due to domestic violence was five consecutive days.
I think about her swollen, bruised-up face and wonder if she’ll be
back before