Landslide by Jenn Cooksey Read Free Book Online Page A

this Destiny chick pawing at me anymore, let alone making herself at home in my house, and she sure as shit isn’t sleeping here.
    Besides, Erica showed up here for a reason and I think I’m safe in guessing it was because she needs to be a train wreck with someone who won’t try to fix her or tell her that everything will be okay and that she’ll eventually find another guy who’ll love her just as much if not more than Holden did, even though that’s probably the truth. And the reason I think I’m safe in knowing why she came here is because even though we’ve never technically been BFFs, she and I have history.
    We basically grew up together. I spent most of my early childhood, school breaks, and summer vacations at her house being babysat by her grandma while my dad was at work. I didn’t really mind not being at a boy’s house, though. Her grandma liked to bake so their house always smelled like fresh bread or cookies, and plus, Erica was cool for a girl. She’d always ditch her Barbies to play with my little, plastic army men with me, and if she was awake when I showed up at her house bright and early with bed-head and morning breath, Erica always looked happy to see me, never once making a disgusted face after hugging me good morning and being simultaneously blasted with what I can only assume were fumes that smelled similar to gasoline coming from my mouth. My dad and Erica’s grandparents never harassed me about my slovenly appearance either because they knew it was all I could do at that age to just drag my sleepy butt out of bed at five in the morning and exchange my warm pajamas for a pair of Tough Skins and a t-shirt. Although after being fed a well-rounded breakfast that often included things like biscuits and gravy made from scratch, I was always bustled off to the bathroom with Erica to comb out the tangles in my hair and clean my chompers with the toothbrush her grandma kept for me.
    Erica’s also been there to see me cry about my dad when I was still young enough for his dictatorship to produce my tears, and she’s heard me bitch and gripe about him I don’t even know how many times since the tears stopped falling. And of course, let’s not forget the two and a half years she’s spent dating my best friend and making him happy. So while we might’ve grown apart, and we really don’t hang out in the same circles anymore since Holden and I graduated, leaving alone the fact that she and I were never exactly the kind of friends who share as they happen news reports of every minute detail of our lives with one another, we are still good, reliable friends to each other when it matters. She knows she can fall apart on me and actually do some ugly, yet necessary grieving that can only be done with reckless abandon; something that if it were me, I probably wouldn’t feel comfortable doing in front of most everyone else. Essentially, she knows I can be her safety net if she needs me to be.
    Destiny stands up to leave and I stop measuring the distance of how far back Erica and I go just in time to catch what suspiciously appears to be a look of jealousy flash across the lost puppy’s face when her eyes go to my childhood buddy. I swallow hard, digesting my anger as much as humanly possible and try to not grind my teeth together too audibly. Looking back to Erica, though, I let out a breath, feeling even more sure about her reasons for being here and acting out the way she had.
    She’s slumped against the wall with one leg sort of bent underneath her and the other jutting out to the side, her black skirt shoved as far up her thighs as the fit will allow it to go with only one seam ripped a couple of inches; and the sight that produces knowledge of the fact that her dark gray nylons are really only thigh-highs held up by lace garters would be sexy as fuck…that is if the hose themselves weren’t torn and running, but they are and they’re also revealing a small scratch on her knee and a red welt