I Was Here by Forman Gayle

Author:Forman, Gayle [Forman, Gayle]
Language: eng
Format: mobi, epub
Publisher: Penguin Group, USA
Published: 2014-12-18T08:00:00+00:00

21

Tricia’s in a good mood. The weekend I lost big in Seattle, she won big at the Indian casino, so even after paying for the expenses of food, hotel, and gas, she comes home two hundred dollars richer. She fans out the twenties that night at dinner and says we should splurge on something. For Tricia, this usually means something expensive and useless that she sees on the Home Shopping Network, like an ice-cream maker that she’ll use twice and then turn into a receptacle for more junk.

“What do you think we should get?” she asks me.

“A year’s worth of Internet.”

“Why do you keep going on about that?”

I don’t say anything.

“There is a guy.” She smirks at me. “I knew it all along. You’d better not get pregnant!”

If there is one thing Tricia has pounded into me over the years, it’s not to make the same mistake she did.

“You’ve been to Tacoma, what, three times now? And you want an Internet connection so you can go into chat rooms and do what you do. Don’t tell me it’s not a guy.”

After the kiss, Ben tried to get me to calm down, but I grabbed my stuff and started walking toward the bus station, and he was forced to give me a ride. In the car he said, “It’s okay, Cody.” And I said, “How can you say that? I don’t know if she can see us. If she’s up there or down there, watching us. But if she is, she’s disgusted. You know that, right?”

He shrugged. “Maybe. Who knows?”

“I know. And it doesn’t matter anyway because I’m disgusted.”

He didn’t say anything else after that. At the station, I asked him to forward me all those long emails Meg had sent him and, after that, never to contact me again.

“It’s not a guy,” I tell Tricia now.

“If you say so.”

In the end, she buys a decorative fire pit.

x x x

I have read every post I can find written by All_BS. He doesn’t post that much. But he posts enough that it’s clear he’s there, paying attention. And the name? All_BS? What’s that all about? Is it short for “All Bullshit”? As in, “These boards are all bullshit”? Or as in, “Life is”?

x x x

One day, on the way home from the library, I see Sue driving out of the parking lot of the fried chicken fast-food restaurant. My impulse is to duck out of the way.

“Need a ride?” she asks, pulling up alongside me.

I peer into the car. There’s no Joe, no Scottie, just a big bag, already seeping with grease. Sue moves the chicken to the backseat and opens the door for me.

“Where you headed?” she asks, as if there are multiple possible destinations.

“Home,” I say, which is true. “Tricia’s waiting for me,” I add, which is not, but I’m worried she’s going to invite me over and I can’t face that, especially right now, with the folder full of Final Solution printouts in my hand.

“We haven’t seen much of you,” Sue says.

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.