The Dream Where the Losers Go by Beth Goobie Read Free Book Online

made her feel.
    “Skey.” Scrambling out after her, Jigger grabbed Skey’s wrist. As his arms closed around her, she scratched and clawed, screaming into the hand that covered her mouth. Suddenly a glare of light lit up all around her. Closing her eyes, Skey stopped struggling and slipped into the tunnel of light in her mind, where the very air throbbed with fear.Sobs broke out of her and she reached for the nearest wall, fumbling for a carving. Calm down , she thought, stroking the cold stone. Calm down, calm down. Quiet.
    The tunnel of light faded. Opening her eyes, Skey found Jigger still holding her. She was standing, turned away from him, one hand outstretched and reaching toward nothing. In the lengthening silence, they breathed heavily.
    “What’s with you?” asked Jigger. “You always wanted to before.”
    “I can’t get pregnant,” she mumbled, not looking at him.
    “My sister will get a prescription,” Jigger said quietly. “She isn’t seeing anyone. You can use hers. Just keep it in your locker and take it at school.”
    Some of the fear left Skey. She let Jigger pull her in against the warmth of his body.
    “Will you take it if I get it for you?” he asked softly, nuzzling her neck. A deep sigh sifted through Skey. She turned to him, and they began kissing, talking with their lips.
    “I just can’t get pregnant,” she murmured.
    “It’s 4:25,” he said. “I have to get you back to the iron gate.”
    “The gate to Hell,” she said.
    “Open wide,” he teased.
    O NE BLOCK FROM the gate, he let her out of the car and put a squeal on the tires as he drove off. Raising a hand to wave, Skey noticed an ache in her wrist. As she flexed it, she winced. Jigger must have twisted her arm when he grabbed it. Already the skin was beginning to discolor. And her mouth, she realized, touching it. Where Jigger hadcovered it to silence her screaming—the skin was chafed. She touched it again, longer this time. Was her face going to bruise too?
    T HE UNIT WAS changing. Schoolbooks deposited on her bed, Skey stood in her doorway, surveying the large room in front of her. Girls were scattered everywhere, eating an after-school snack in the kitchen or playing a game of pool. The largest group had gathered in a tight clump in front of the TV, with Viv in the middle. Only here three weeks, Skey realized, and already the new girl was taking charge.
    There had been tough girls in the unit before, but over the summer they had gone AWOL. Their beds had been held for twenty-one days, and then each runner had been discharged. That had left the rest of the girls, the ones who had acted tough on the outside but collapsed into a whimper once they were admitted. Which meant that September and the first half of October had been peaceful—peaceful, that is, for a bunch of losers in a lockup.
    But now Viv was here, and it was difficult for Skey to track the shifting hierarchy in the group when she was away all day. Things changed while she was gone; girls paired off differently, arranged in new formations. Battle formations—girls against staff, girls against each other. This week, every girl in the unit was realigning around Viv, giving her jokes the loudest laughs, automatically passing her the channel changer when she sat down to watch TV. Some stuck to her like glue, others stayed far away. Staff kept their eyes constantly on her. No matter what she was doing, Viv was everyone’s business.
    “Group,” called a voice from the office doorway, and groans went up around the TV, Viv’s the loudest.
    “C’mon,” insisted the staff. “All of you.” It was Drew, one of the unit’s two male staff.
    “What do I get if I’m a good girl, Drew?” Viv asked, arcing her voice suggestively. Giggles exploded around her, but Drew kept his face expressionless as he sat down at a kitchen table. Gradually everyone wandered over and chose a seat. Settling into the chair furthest from Viv, Skey went into watching mode. Penny, the