Suck It Up and Die by Brian Meehl Read Free Book Online

teenager in a pec-hugging tee.
    “Hey, Sister Flora,” Portia said, gesturing at her friend. “This is Cody, my cinematographer.”
    Cody’s Jake Gyllenhaal eyes rose from behind the camcorder as he flashed a charming smile. “Hiya, Sister.”
    Morning shot him a scornful look. Besides his ongoing jealousy of Cody’s swimmer’s body, Morning envied the man-hours Cody got to spend with Portia. Not only did they both attend LaGuardia Arts, they had teamed up on the same senior film project, Portia’s next doc. “I thought you were gonna walk with me, not shoot,” Morning said to her.
    “Don’t worry,” Portia assured him, “we can do both. I’m gonna march, do a little directing on the side, and Cody’s gonna do all the shooting. But here’s the problem.”
    Cody dodged around his camera and finished her thought as he got a shot of himself and Portia. “We don’t know what kinda doc we’re making yet. Is it about a couple of high school movie geeks and vampire groupies hangin’ in the wings of the Leaguer rights struggle, like a vampire version of
Almost Famous
?” He swung back behind the camera and framed Morning and Portia. “Is it a tragic portrait of chronology-crossed lovers—she’s aging, he’s not!—like
The Curious Case of Benjamin Button
with fangs?” He turned the camcorder on the paraders streaming by. “What we wanna make is a Ken Burns–worthy doc on the vampire rights movement called
Fangs on the Prize
—not easy when you’re shooting on a high school budget.”
    “Cody keeps forgetting we have something more valuable than a megabudget,” Portia said as she took Morning’s arm. “Inside access.” Her eyes darted to Morning’s neck, and the leather cord above his T-shirt collar. “Speaking of ‘inside’ ”—she fingered the cord and liftedthe wooden pendant from under his shirt—“pride parades are all about not just wearin’ it, but flauntin’ it.”
    Morning’s only resistance was an eye roll.
    She patted the wood disk. “Now you’re ready to march.”
    Cody turned the camera back on himself as he offered his muscled arm to Sister Flora. “What do ya say, Sister? I hate to march alone.”
    Flora took his arm with a laugh. “Absolutely, but it seems we’ve missed the front of the parade.”
    “Don’t worry,” Morning said. “I know a shortcut.”

11

The Parade
    Morning led Portia, Sister Flora, and Cody up a side street toward First Avenue, where they could meet the parade. The sound of a roaring lion leaped out of Portia’s thigh pocket.
    As she dug out her cell, Morning gave her a curious look. “That’s a new ringtone.”
    “Cody found it for me,” she explained. “It’s the roaring lion that begins every MGM movie.”
    That was another thing that hit Morning’s jealousy button. Cody knew tons about Portia’s great love: movies. And when it came to electronics and making stuff, he was as tech-heady as
Iron Man
’s Tony Stark. Morning just hoped Cody didn’t know how to write code in Portia’s heart.
    Portia answered her phone. It was her mother, Penny, reporting that something had come up at work and she would be joining the parade when it passed by her office on First Avenue.
    As Portia hung up, the group beat the parade to where Allen Street became First Avenue. Because they were still downtown and it was a weekday, there were no parade watchers yet. Morning looked down the street and watched the phalanx of paraders moving toward them. A crimson banner stretched over their heads, proclaiming VAMPIRE PRIDE PARADE .
    As the parade came closer, Morning saw that the letters on the banner were formed with real olive branches, sprayed white. It was a touch Rachel had suggested to counteract the boldness of the banner’s lurid red.
    Rachel was front and center in her flowing dress. The front row was mostly Leaguers. The signs they carried ranged from prideful statements— BORN & MADE IN THE USA —to political messages: VOTE VRA and NO BITES =