the Solitude Of Prime Numbers (2010) by Paolo Giordano Read Free Book Online Page B

had never even set foot. She was acting as if they were lifelong friends. She insisted they try on some clothes, which she picked out herself. She asked Alice her size, and Alice was ashamed to tell her. The shop assistants watched them suspiciously, but Viola paid no attention. They shared a dressing room and Alice surreptitiously compared her own body with her friend's. In the end they didn't buy anything.
    They went to a cafe and Viola ordered two coffees, without so much as asking Alice what she wanted. Alice hadn't a clue what was going on, but a new and unexpected happiness was filling her head. Slowly she forgot all about her father and school. She was sitting in a cafe with Viola Bai and that time seemed theirs alone.
    Viola smoked three cigarettes and insisted that Alice try one too. Viola laughed, showing her perfect teeth, every time her new friend exploded in a fit of coughing. She subjected her to a little quiz about the boys she hadn't had and the kisses she hadn't given. Alice replied with her eyes lowered. You want me to believe you've never had a boyfriend? Never ever ever? Alice shook her head. That's impossible. A tragedy, Viola exaggerated. We absolutely have to do something. You don't want to die a virgin!
    So the next day, at ten o'clock break, they roamed the school in search of the boyfriend for Alice. Viola had dismissed Giada and the others, saying we've got things to do, and they watched her leave the classroom hand in hand with her new friend.
    Viola had already organized everything. It would happen at her birthday party the following Saturday. They just had to find the right boy. As they walked down the corridor she pointed this and that out to Alice, saying look at the ass on that one, not bad at all, he certainly knows what to do.
    Alice smiled nervously but couldn't make her mind up. In her head she imagined with unsettling clarity the moment when a boy would slip his hands under her shirt. When he would discover that, underneath the clothes that fell so well, there was nothing but chubby flesh and flabby skin.
    Now they were leaning on the fire escape railing on the third floor, watching the boys play football in the courtyard with a yellow ball that seemed not to be blown up enough.
    "What about Trivero?" Viola asked.
    "I don't know who he is."
    "What do you mean you don't know who he is? He's in the fifth year. He used to row with my sister. They say some interesting things about him."
    "What sort of things?"
    Viola gestured with her hands, indicating something long, and then laughed loudly, enjoying the disconcerting effect of her allusions. Alice felt her face flush with shame, but she also felt a marvelous certainty that her loneliness was truly over.
    They went down to the ground floor and passed the snacks and drinks machines. Students had formed a chaotic line, chinking the coins in their jeans pockets.
    "Okay, but you've got to decide," said Viola.
    Alice spun on her heels. She looked around, disoriented.
    "That one looks cute," she said, pointing at two boys in the distance, near the window. They were standing close together, but they weren't talking or looking at each other.
    "Who?" Viola asked. "The one with the bandage or the other one?"
    "The one with the bandage."
    Viola stared at her. Her sparkling eyes were as wide as two oceans.
    "You're crazy," she said. "You know what he did?"
    Alice shook her head.
    "He stuck a knife in his hand, on purpose. Right here at school."
    Alice shrugged.
    "He looks interesting," she said.
    "Interesting? He's a psychopath. With a guy like that you'll end up chopped to pieces and stuffed in a freezer."
    Alice smiled, but went on looking at the boy with the bandaged hand. There was something in the way he kept his head tilted down that made her want to go over to him, lift his chin, and say to him look at me, I'm here.
    "Are you absolutely sure?" Viola asked her.
    "Yes," said Alice.
    Viola shrugged.
    "So let's go," she said.
    She took Alice by the