The Truth About Alice by Jennifer Mathieu Read Free Book Online

anything. Best friends aren’t supposed to lie to each other. Not about boys.
    That next week I ran into Maggie Daniels—Elaine O’Dea’s second in command—in an aisle at Seller Brothers when I went to pick up some toilet paper and a couple of other things my mom had asked me to get. We were talking about how we didn’t want to start back at school and catching up on the all the gossip when Maggie said, “So what do you think about Mark Lopez and Alice?” she said.
    â€œWhat are you talking about?” I asked.
    â€œSeriously? You don’t know? I thought you guys were best friends.”
    â€œWell, yeah, we are, but I don’t know what you’re talking about,” I said, nervous about seeming totally out of it.
    â€œJust ask her about Mark Lopez,” she said, “because he’s telling everyone.” She was laughing like she was in on a joke I wasn’t. Which I guess she was.
    I marched home, clutching the groceries, my candy cane–striped flip-flops flip-flopping on the sidewalk the whole way. I’d barely put the groceries away in the cupboard before I was texting Alice.
    ran into maggie. what happened with mark l.?
    Not two seconds later:
    it was stupid.
    what?
    u can’t tell anyone.
    Just like always in Healy, everyone already knew, but I answered back:
    u know i won’t tell.
    i’ll be over in 2 sec.
    â€œWhat?” I asked, yanking open the front door.
    Alice’s eyes darted around behind me.
    â€œI’m home by myself,” I said. “My dad’s at work and my mom and sister are at some church thing.”
    Alice collapsed onto the family room couch and pulled her knees up to her chest.
    â€œIt was so dumb,” she said. “I don’t know why I did it.”
    â€œWhat?” I said, totally annoyed and envious at the same time.
    Her voice dropped down low to a whisper.
    â€œI gave him a blow job,” she said.
    â€œIn the bathroom?” I said, whispering, too.
    Alice nodded. I remember she tucked her hair behind her ears and gave me this look like she’d been caught cheating on a test she hadn’t studied for. Half apologetic and half irritated with herself.
    â€œIt was just dumb,” she said. “That’s why I didn’t tell you anything that night. It was just … it just happened. And we were drunk. I don’t know. I mean, he wasn’t my boyfriend or anything. And it’s just … not that I’m saying that it was totally wrong or whatever. It was just … stupid.”
    â€œDidn’t you do that with Tucker?” I asked, thinking of Alice losing her virginity freshman year. Alice slowly shook her head no and she looked down for a minute, staring at her hands. I wasn’t sure how Alice felt, but there was a part of me that thought giving a blow job seemed like an even bigger deal than having sex. But if Alice felt that way, why did she give one to Mark when they weren’t even dating? I wanted to ask, but I got the feeling Alice didn’t want to keep talking about it.
    â€œSo, are you, like, hanging out with him now or something?” I said. I couldn’t believe how jealous I felt. I knew what Alice had done was stupid and sort of slutty even, but I was jealous she had a story to tell and, once again, I didn’t.
    And I was mad. I was mad she had lied to me.
    â€œHe hasn’t called me or anything since that night,” Alice said, finally looking up. “And now he’s left for UT.”
    That made me feel better. I know it sounds crappy to say, but it did.
    â€œWell why’d you lie to me?” I asked.
    Alice took a deep breath. She looked like she was picking out her words really carefully. She got the same look when she was trying to figure out a math problem. “Kelsie, it’s just … you know … you haven’t, like … been with anyone … in that way. And