Fall to Pieces by Vahini Naidoo Read Free Book Online Page B

lowest form of wit.”
    “Well, at least I’m witty,” E returns.
    And then Mark’s moving toward E, his lollipop held aloft like some kind of sword, and I want to laugh so fucking hard. Instead, I put myself between them before my best friend perpetrates an act of lollipop violence. “Whoa, whoa, whoa, ladies. Too much testosterone.”
    Their laughs crack the air at the same time.
    Ice breaks.
    “Hey, man,” E says. “I’m Tristan.”
    “We’re all calling you E,” I tell him.
    “I don’t—”
    “You’re E. Get the hell over it already.”
    E looks at Mark, trying his best to pull off a lost-puppy-please-help-me look. It doesn’t work too well. E’s ember hair is burning up against the white sky. He may be a grenade and a Kid Whisperer at the same time, but he’s sure as hell no puppy dog.
    “Don’t look at me.” Mark pops the lollipop back into his mouth, resumes his smoker act. “I still don’t like you.”
    “What the
fuck
are you doing here, anyway?” Petal glares at Explosive Boy.
    The broken ice freezes back over.
    “I don’t know,” he says. “Ella just dragged me along.”
    Spotlight on me.
    “Fresh meat, shaking things up,” I say, rattling off the same excuses I gave Mark. Pet doesn’t look convinced, and the glare she shoots me is so frosty it stings. Well, I can be a frigid bitch, too. “How about I fucking wanted to, Petal, okay? How about this is exactly like us wanting to start Pick Me Ups in the first place? Like you wanting to join in.”
    And just like that Petal looks as if I’ve snapped her in two. My words might sound inane on the surface, but if you dig a little deeper, the barbs will bite into your skin.
    ’Cause Mark and I invented Pick Me Ups without Petal.
    We invented Pick Me Ups without Petal because she wasn’t there. When she came out of her room, though, she saw things differently. She thought we’d spent the time bonding or something instead of just jumping off shit.
    Now she feels like she’s the outsider, the one on theedge, even though it’s she and Mark who are trying to drug me with their sideways words. Even though it’s Mark and Pet who are holding back on me.
    And now she’s looking at me, and I want to tell her I don’t mean it, any of it; but I won’t. I can’t.
    I have to make her think it’s real. Because I can’t stand being the outsider, either.
    “Okay,” Petal says eventually. She pulls herself together, stretches a smile across her face. Runs her tongue across her front teeth, up over the edge of her lip. “So, what are we going to do with him?”
    What
am
I going to do with him? Send him spiraling into a Pick Me Up, yes. But how?
    “Yeah, what are you going to do to me?” E asks.
    I ignore him.
    My hands are moving now. Fingers threading their way through Mark’s hair, disentangling today’s hippie scarf. It’s a lurid pink.
Snap. Snap. Snap
. I pull it taut between my fingers, grin at Explosive Boy.
    He bends backward. “No,” he says.
    I step forward. Back he goes again.
    “Come on, E,” I say. And then, because lying is my favorite hobby, I add, “Pink’s really your color.”
    “Where are you taking me?”
    He’s still tilted away from me.
    “The b—”
    “—nowhere important,” I say, cutting off Mark. “You don’t know until you get there, okay?”
    “Not okay.”
    “Please. Your curious-bitch act is starting to annoy me.”
    “Your bitchy-bitch act is starting to annoy
me
,” he says, but he stoops so I can wind the scarf over his eyes. Around, around, around. His nose and eyes vanish beneath the pink gauze.
    When he’s properly blindfolded, Mark opens Cherry Bomb’s back door. Her familiar smell drifts to me. Boozy breath and late nights. Weirdly comforting.
    “Ladies first,” Mark says, gesturing to the door.
    And Petal, without being told, immediately gets it and shoves E headfirst into the car. Our teamwork. It’s a thing of beauty.
    At least it would be if I didn’t know they were