Fingerprints of You by Kristen-Paige Madonia

Author:Kristen-Paige Madonia
Language: eng
Format: mobi, epub
Tags: General Fiction
ISBN: 1442429208
Publisher: Simon & Schuster
Published: 2012-08-01T06:00:00+00:00

Emmy rolled over around two in the afternoon, checked the clock, and announced, “We are the laziest freaking vacationers ever,” before reaching for the glass of water on the nightstand. “Jesus, what happened? My breath tastes like shit.” She took a long gulp and flipped onto her back to look at the ceiling tiles shadowed with stains. “Seriously. It’s like a little man climbed into my mouth while I was sleeping and took a dump. God,” she said, “gross.”

“I met my dad,” I told her, “and you met a boy with a blue Vespa,” and she smiled at the thought of Aiden, which I didn’t blame her for. “But then you fell asleep, so I went to breakfast with the boy before I came to bed.”

“Big night,” she said, mulling it over. “No wonder we’re so tired.”

I’d been awake for an hour or so trying to decide how to tell Emmy I didn’t have a bus ticket back for Sunday like she did. It was time. It was past time, really, and I felt terrible about planning to stick her on a Greyhound by herself even though I knew she would have done the same to me if we’d been in opposite places, if it’d been the other way around. I knew Emmy would forgive me, but it didn’t make me feel any better when I imagined her in those crappy leather seats, using the liquid hand sanitizer, fending off the crazies on her own while she traveled back to West Virginia. But she would love me anyway, even after I told her I wasn’t going back when she was. It’s a wondrous and rare thing to have a friend who knows about the skeletons—the tattoo shops and the wreckage of your family—and who likes you anyway. Emmy was my first, and I was feeling pretty awful about lying to her for that long.

“I want to hear about Ryan, but I won’t be able to concentrate until I feel less filthy,” she said, and then she was in the bathroom taking a shower.

Afterward, I threw on some jeans, and we left for a little café near Van Ness Avenue, where we stopped for breakfast.

“It’s New Year’s Eve, you know.” I smeared cream cheese across my everything bagel and watched a woman in a blue cocktail dress and sweatpants push a grocery cart down the sidewalk. It was drizzling again, and I wondered if she was cold in those high heels and silk spaghetti straps.

“New Year’s is overrated,” Emmy said irritably, which was true, but I could tell she was just pissed about missing breakfast with Aiden, and about being hungover.

“Whatever, Buzz Kill,” I said. “You know you’re excited to spend New Year’s in a city. A real city, Emmy. Come on, don’t be an ass.”

“It’s inevitably disappointing, and you know it.” She dunked her spoon into a cup of yogurt topped with perfect red strawberries. “New Year’s is never as good as you want it to be. Over. Rated.”

“Not necessarily, not always.

Download

Copyright Disclaimer:
This site does not store any files on its server. We only index and link to content provided by other sites. Please contact the content providers to delete copyright contents if any and email us, we'll remove relevant links or contents immediately.