The Awesome by Eva Darrows Read Free Book Online

shared reflection. He stared at my back, looking lost and sad, and though I liked to play at being a hard-hearted bitch from Hell, the truth was...
    The truth was nothing. I am a hard-hearted bitch from Hell, damn it. Ian... well, he sparked something different in me. For seven whole seconds he exposed my creamy, nougat center.
    “Look, why don’t you give me your number? We just moved, so I can call you when I get set up.”
    Another one of Janice’s spectacular life lessons: lying is fine as long as A) you don’t get caught and B) when you do get caught you’re a big enough person to admit it. I’d worry about the consequences of my lies if and only if I ventured into B territory. Until then, all bets were off.
    “Cool. Okay cool. We can hang or whatevs.”
    He scribbled a number onto the back of a receipt and held it out. I snatched it without looking at him, stuffing my feet into my shoes and double-timing it for the door.
    “Fun party,” I said before disappearing down the hall.
    “Yeah, thanks for... “
    I didn’t hear the end of that sentence. I was too busy running away.
     
     
    D OWNSTAIRS WAS A post-apocalyptic war zone, complete with bodies littering the ground and a weird funk on the air. I picked my way around the carnage to find Julie, who slept on top of some guy I’d never seen before. At least she’d gotten couch space; squishy furniture was prime real estate when there were thirty-something kids clamoring for a place to crash.
    I poked her in the shoulder to wake her. She lifted her head and smiled, sweeping her hair out of her eyes. I hated her for how good she already looked, no effort required, like being gorgeous was something she did for fun on Saturdays. I wasn’t hung up on my appearance for the most part, but there was something about Julie that made me feel ‘less’, like she was the embodiment of feminine charm while all I had to show for my girl-hood was a pair of boobs and a year’s supply of Tampax in my linen closet. Of course, my answer to feeling sub-par was to hit something, which wasn’t exactly girly either, so I couldn’t win for losing.
    Julie extricated herself from the man-mattress beneath her to wander to the bathroom, taking her sweet time re-emerging. At least the wait was worth it; she had her purse in hand and looked ready to leave. I’d been ready for that for about ten hours.
    “How’d things go with Ian?”
    “He’s uhh. He’s nice.”
    She peered at me like I was supposed to elaborate, but that was all I could muster. “Yeah, thanks for letting me near-boff your cousin” didn’t sound right, and I wasn’t one to spew my private life stuff all over the place. Not unless I had to.
    When she figured out I had zero intention of spilling, she headed for the stairs. “He is. A nice guy I mean. I knew you’d like him. I dunno, it seems a good fit. I’m gonna go say bye then we can hit the road, ’kay?”
    I watched her take the steps two at a time, idly hoping Ian had thought to put on some pants after I left. If not, she’d jump to a whole slew of conclusions right off the bat. None of them would be wrong conclusions, but it was the principle of the thing. I didn’t want to kiss and tell.
    Or quasi-hump and tell. Whatever.
    A chorus of dry heaves echoed around me as teenagers tore themselves from their drunken reveries. One girl combatant crawled across the floor towards the bathroom, positively green. I put my back against the wall to keep myself out of frontal-cone spew range. A kid in the kitchen moved some dishes aside so he could puke in the sink. I hadn’t had more than a sip to drink, but I felt sick by association. I slunk outside and sat on the front step, glad Julie’d been smart enough to park on the street instead of in the driveway. This way we wouldn’t have to do the call out of WHOEVER DRIVES THE BLACK TRUCK AND THE WHITE CONVERTIBLE, CAN YOU MOVE? Those people were barely capable of amoeba-scale function. The driveway shuffle