Killing Britney by Sean Olin Read Free Book Online Page A

mother’s death.
    After another long silence, he tried again. “When is the funeral, honey?”
    “On Wednesday. They’re canceling school.”
    “Well, that’s good, at least,” said her father.
    She couldn’t bear it anymore.
    “No. No, it’s not good,” she said. “Nothing’s good.
    “ He reached his long bulky fingers out to touch her arm, but she pulled away from him and he instead patted the table. He couldn’t comfort her. No one could comfort her.
    Jumping up, she ran from the kitchen and took the stairs two at a time toward her bedroom.
    This seemed to be where she always ended up. Shut tight in her room all alone. She remembered what it had been like before her life was transformed by Ricky and the hockey wives. So many nights of watching Law & Order reruns. So many weekends spent sitting in her bedroom, telling her stuffed frog about her problems. Her father had brought the frog home as a present after his three-week business trip to New York City when she was six. She called the frog Wart, and she often felt like he was her only friend.
    How many secrets had she shared with Wart because she couldn’t tell anyone else on earth? Wart knew all about her relationship with her mother. He’d comforted her after her mother’d slapped her face when, at eight years old, she’d poured chopped onions into the vanilla ice cream—she’d been just a kid; she hadn’t known any better! He knew how much they had fought as she grew into a teenager, but he also knew how much she missed her mother, how bad she felt about the strife that had existed between them now that she was dead.
    Where had Wart disappeared to? He’d been a great comfort. Maybe he could console her over Ricky like he had back then over her mother.
    She hadn’t seen him in months. He had to be in her room somewhere. She rummaged under the bed, pushing aside the shoe box full of photos from her childhood, the rolled-up posters that had plastered her walls when she was on that Hanson kick—she’d been such a kid then. She couldn’t find him anywhere.
    Finally, giving up, she turned on her i-Mac and fired up her Yahoo Messenger account. Maybe Erin or Jodi or someone would be there.
    A pop-up box told her she had four “friends” connected, and she immediately felt a little bit better. That’s right, she thought, she had a whole network of friends to comfort her. She didn’t need a stupid stuffed frog.
    They were talking about Ricky, giving little testimonials:
    Sunshine52 [Cindy]: He wasn’t like your average jock because underneath the muscles, he could be real tender. I always had sort of a crush on him. (no offense, Britney) ☺
    Sweet’n’Sassy [Erin]: Don’t tell Troy, but-me too! But I had a crush on him BECAUSE of the muscles.
    Sunshine52: He was dreamy.
    LittleOne [Jodi]: I remember one time I was helping him with trig and he said, “The thing is, I actually want to learn this stuff, you know?” That said a lot about him, I thought.
    Britney typed in, You don’t know how much hearing all this is helping me! Thanx. I couldn’t ask for better friends!
    DaffyD [Daphney]: Hey, did you guys hear the rumor?
    Sunshine52: What rumor?
    Sweet’n’Sassy: There’s a rumor going around that I didn’t start?
    DaffyD: Digger told me that right before the game on Friday, Ricky told him he thought someone wanted to kill him.
    Sunshine52: You’re joking.
    DaffyD: No.
    Britney felt like she was about to throw up. Did he say who? she typed.
    DaffyD: Digger said he wouldn’t tell him. He said Ricky told him he could take care of it by himself. They sort of argued about it, I think. Ricky told Digger to keep it a secret. He said he was just telling him in case something happened—he wanted someone to know.
    Sweet’n’Sassy: Then it wasn’t an accident.
    DaffyD: That’s what I’m thinking.
    It was all too much for Britney. She turned off her computer and sat in the dark, gripped by a fear she hadn’t felt since the months immediately