All the Days of Her Life Read Online Free PDF

have to take a shot when she arrived home after eleven o’clock. “I have to hit the bathroom again,” she said to Terri.
    “Again?”
    Lacey shrugged. “Nature calls.”
    “I’d say she was shouting at you, girl.”
    “Save my place,” Lacey called over her shoulder as she dashed away. She found her purse where she’d stashed it in the prop room and hurried off to a bathroom in the farthest, darkest recesses of the theater.
    Once inside a stall, she rummaged in her purse for her diabetic supplies. Her fingers fumbled with the syringe as she squinted in order to see the tiny demarcations along the barrel of the needle that aided in measuring out her correct dosage of insulin. She automatically backed off the dose by ten units and slid the sharp needle into her flesh.
    She was putting things away in her purse whenshe heard the bathroom door open. Lacey froze. She gripped the syringe tightly in her hand and pressed herself against the cold metal side of the stall. She heard someone go in the stall next to her. Lacey held her breath and felt sweat dripping down her back.
    All at once it occurred to her that she had every right to be there in the bathroom, but she also realized that by making an appearance now after she’d been so quiet might seem weird to the other person.
Stay put
, she told herself.
Don’t make any noise, and sneak out
.
    Lacey heard the latch close on the adjacent stall and waited for the girl to make some noise so that she could escape undetected. What she heard next was the sounds of someone throwing up. She eased open the lock on her stall and crept out.
    Now what am I supposed to do?
Lacey wondered. From the sound of things, the girl was really sick. Maybe she should go and tell someone. Trembling, unable to decide whether to flee or help, Lacey stood in front of the locked stall door trying to make up her mind. Before she knew it, the awful sounds of retching stopped and the next thing she heard was the sound of the toilet being flushed. In a panic, Lacey stepped backward, but not before the stall door opened and Monet stepped out.
    The two girls locked gazes, each shocked at seeing the other. Monet recovered first. “Well, what are you staring at? And why did you follow me in here?”
    Monet’s accusation angered Lacey. “Excuse me, but it’s a public facility, isn’t it? Who died and left you in charge of planet earth?”
    Monet brushed past her. At the sink, she bent her head and rinsed her mouth under the faucet. Monet was shaking visibly. Her skin was the color of paste and covered with perspiration.
    Watching her made Lacey remorseful over her cutting words and she asked, “Are you sick? Do you need some help?”
    Monet straightened and caught Lacey’s gaze in the mirror. “I’m perfectly fine.”
    “But I heard you being sick. You look ill.”
    Monet spun. “Oh, Lacey, grow up! I was purging.”
    “Purging?” The truth dawned on her slowly. “You mean you were forcing yourself to vomit? Why?”
    Monet crossed her arms and leaned against the sink. “Because I ate pizza and drank beer. I can’t eat that stuff day after day and stay thin. Who can?”
    “Yeah. Who can?”
So that was Monet’s secret!
She’d have never known if she hadn’t caught her. Lacey found the truth unsettling.
    “Everybody does it,” Monet said. “It’s the best way I know of to eat exactly what you want but never have it settle around the waist.” She managed a tight smile that made her eyes look like bright, hard marbles. “But you’re not going out there and blab it all over the set now, are you?”
    “I’m not a gossip, Monet. I don’t care what you do with your dinner.”
    Monet’s expression reminded Lacey of a cornered cat. Suddenly, her eyes narrowed, then she arched one delicate brow and asked, “What’s that in your hand? From here, it looks like a needle. Tell me, Lacey, are you doing drugs?”

Six

    L ACEY FELT COLOR drain from her face. She clutched the syringe so