White Lines by Banash Jennifer

Author:Banash, Jennifer [Banash, Jennifer]
Language: eng
Format: epub, mobi
Publisher: Penguin Group US
Published: 2013-04-03T16:00:00+00:00

EIGHTEEN

I’M STANDING OUTSIDE the bio lab at break on Monday morning when I see Alexa moving down the hall as if in slow motion, her body wrapped in an enormous black sweater that makes her look more delicate and breakable than usual. She’s alone for once, and without her usual entourage she seems smaller, less powerful. When she gets closer, I notice the circles beneath her eyes she can’t hide with powder and paint, lavender hollows that hint at just how she spent the rest of her weekend. Even though she’s clearly exhausted, a rosy flush decorates her cheeks, her sleepless eyes glittering.

I spent the rest of the weekend at Sara’s, safe beside her in the bed, watching movies and stuffing our faces with pizza and the Little Debbie snacks her mother always keeps in the well-stocked kitchen cupboard along with the other junk she buys for Sara but her trainer won’t allow her to consume. I wasn’t scheduled to work on Saturday, but when I got home late Sunday afternoon, the answering machine showed three hang-ups, the sound of breathing filling the tape with a whooshing sound before it clicked off. As I stood there, Christoph’s face filled my mind, making me dizzy, and I had to sit down on the bed and close my eyes, skin mottled with goose bumps that prickled my flesh.

“Hey.” Alexa’s voice is as breezy as if we’re at a garden party in the Hamptons instead of loitering in a vaguely antiseptic hallway outside a stuffy classroom.

“Where’d you end up the other night?” I ask, knowing the answer well before the words even leave her lips.

She smiles. “Oh, you know. Here and there.”

I nod, playing it cool. No matter how hard I try, though, I’ll never be as unflappable as Alexa Forte. It’s just not in my DNA.

“You like him.” I say this as a statement, flatly, because it’s obvious. If it weren’t so amusing, it would almost be sad. I’ve been clubbing for about a year and I’m like an incurable disease. Alexa goes out for one night and guys are throwing themselves at her feet. All things considered, she could probably do a lot worse. Ethan’s gorgeous, and from what I’ve heard, which admittedly isn’t much, he’s also pretty smart. The only drawback being that he’s also at least twenty-four and working as a barback at a nightclub—something I’m pretty sure Alexa’s mother wouldn’t find desirable in any sense of the word.

“What’s not to like?” She crinkles her brow as if I’m the dumbest human to ever walk the face of the earth, and as far as Alexa Forte is concerned, I probably am. “He’s totally hot.”

“True,” I say with a sheepish smile. I can’t even pretend I know what she’s talking about. I have no idea what it would be like to roll around in bed with someone you were completely into for an entire weekend, climbing out of each other’s arms only to eat bits of stale toast and lick flat champagne off each other’s naked bodies.

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