Take It Off by J. Minter Read Free Book Online

know what he was thinking. He put his hand on her head and played with her hair.
    â€œI don’t suppose Mickey mentioned Philippa Frady before he kissed you?”

You can’t keep a Pardo down
    As usual, the party was on in Cabin 101. It was Mickey Pardo’s room and, zero-tolerance policy be damned, the booze was flowing. Everyone seemed like they were having a great time except the host. None of his crew as there, and he sat cross-legged in the corner of the bed wearing a straw hat and swigging from a fifth of Cuervo. The six girls dancing at the center of the room were squealing, and everybody else was chain-smoking and sitting or falling into every available inch of floor space. This was one hell of a fire hazard; it was a miracle it hadn’t been broken up yet. Mickey couldn’t be bothered, though. When he heard the new The Streets album, he yelled, “Turn it up.”
    There was a knock at the door and for a minute everyone froze. Then Jonathan came in. Greta was with him.
    â€œWhat’s up?” Mickey said. Jonathan and Greta pushed over to him.
    â€œMickey, you
hate
Cuervo. What are you doing?”
    â€œWhere’ve
you
been?” He looked up blearily. “Hey, Greta.”
    â€œHey, Mickey.”
    â€œDo you know where Suki is?”
    Greta shook her head, and her cheeks reddened.
    Jonathan threw himself down on the bed next to Mickey. He was fidgeting with his fingernails, which Mickey recognized as an anxious twitch. “I just got an e-mail from David.”
    Mickey barely registered this. “Oh, yeah? That’s nice.”
    â€œYeah … He sounded … good. And I … still haven’t heard anything from Flan.”
    For whatever reason, that made Mickey laugh. “J, why are you tweaked about this? From what I can tell, you backed way out of that before the trip.”
    â€œDo you think so?”
    â€œWho’s Flan?” Greta asked.
    â€œNobody,” Jonathan said at the same time as Mickey said, “Patch’s pwitty wittle sistuh.”
    â€œAnyway,” Jonathan continued, “I’d just like to … hear how she’s doing.”
    â€œYeah, okay,” Mickey said. He was feeling more lively all of a sudden. “I’m sure you’ll … hear how she’s doing soon.”
    â€œThanks. So, what about David?”
    â€œWhat about him?”
    â€œYou know, because of Rob.”
    â€œYou stress too much,” Mickey said, jumping up and starting to dance with the girls. “He’ll be fine. We’ll be back in, like, ten days, anyway.”
    â€œI just feel like he’s trying to take over my life or something,” Jonathan said. He picked up the Cuervo, took a swig, and grimaced. He passed it to Greta. She took a deep breath, tossed her head back, and killed the bottle.
    â€œWhoa!” Mickey yelled from between two sun-bleached blondes. “Did you see that? That girl can
drink
.”
    Just then, Arno came through the door. He killed the radio.
    â€œYo,” he said, “Stephanie’s coming. You all gotta get
out
of here.”
    Suki darted in from behind him and grabbed Greta’s hand. She whispered something in her ear, and they disappeared.
    â€œYo, what are you doing?” Mickey yelled. “This is
my
party.”
    â€œYeah, well, looks like your party’s over,” Arno said. They glared at each other for a long moment as everyone filed out.
    They began to pick up beer cans and cigarette buttsand collect them in a trash bag. The place was starting to look better. Then Mickey said, “I kissed her first.”
    â€œYeah? Well, she’s into me now.”
    â€œYou sure about that?”
    â€œYou challenging me?”
    Jonathan took a bottle of cologne out of his canvas tote and sprayed the air. Arno, momentarily distracted, gave him a look of disbelief.
    â€œIt was a free gift from Barneys,” Jonathan said lamely, lowering the spray