Breene, K F - Growing Pains 01 Read Online Free PDF Page B

something else taking your concentration.”
    “Well…” Strangely perplexed, even
though this was more than just a bit illogical, Krista leaned in to look at the
assortment of reds. “My job is taking its toll.”
    Ben shook his head.
    “Well… Oh! I just made up with a
guy that originally asked me out and I turned down. I was a bitch about it—I
didn’t mean to be. He kind of sur--”
    Ben threw his hands up in
exasperation. “Ben! How could you miss that?” He turned to Krista with an
expression that said he thought himself the stupidest person on the face of the
plant. “A man! I didn’t even think of that! You definitely tend to spend a lot
of your time in sexual overtones.”
    “Are you calling me a slut?” Krista
asked with a cackle.
    “Not the time for hysterics,” Ben
said, waving away her jest.
    Hysterics? She thought sourly.
    “Hmmmm.” Ben took on a look of
inward contemplation. He turned back to the easel. Krista followed his gaze and
still saw the same random brush strokes of red.
    “Anyway,” Krista started to wander
away. “Not much on the man front, I’m afraid. I do need to start dating again,
though.”
    “Uh huh. Hmm. I might have to use
my imagination on that one.”
    “Okay, then. Let me know if you
ever figure me out. I’ll pass the code along.”
    If Ben heard her, he didn’t show
it.
    As she was halfway to the kitchen
she heard the front door open.
    Oh shit! Abbey’s home!
    Krista ran back to Ben. “Ben,
Abbey’s home! You need to cart this off to your room!”
    Ben shook his head, still staring
at the canvas. “Not this time, Krista. I need space for this one. This is
finals material.”
    “But Ben—“
    “I’ll handle her, Krista. It is a
buyer’s market out there. Past school starting. There is no one to take my
place. She won’t kick me out. Not this time of year. She is insane, but when it
comes to roommates, she’s been in the city too long to be stupid about it.”
    “What the f**k has happened to my
living room!”
    Krista turned around slowly. Sure
enough, Abbey the Horrible had shown up on scene. She was a Goth girl back in
her distant youth, but hadn’t quite given it up completely. She was
thirty-eight, often wore black clothes, but stopped with the black lipstick and
nail polish when she hit thirty. She always looked like she was sniffing poo,
and that was a thing she probably wouldn’t grow out of.
    Ben turned to Abbey, looked her
straight in the face, and said, “Abbey, I appreciate your territorialism, and I
wouldn’t dare upset your balance, but I need all the space and concentration I
can get to work on this piece. It is extremely important to me. If I mess anything
up, I will be happy to pay for it. Now please, go away.”
    Ben, who usually bowed his head and
found somewhere else to be, standing up to Abbey, who was definitely a bully
growing up who stole lunch money from kids like Ben, was so foreign, so totally
absurd, that both Krista and Abbey stood speechless.
    Ben turned back to his painting.
“Now, if you two will excuse me, I have a masterpiece to put together.”
    Krista hightailed it to her room.
If Abbey exploded, she wanted to be somewhere else. If Abbey didn’t, she’d
probably perch at the dining room table and watch Ben, making sure he didn’t
mess anything up. Krista didn’t want to be an ingredient in that mixing bowl.
    The next day, Krista got to her
desk at one minute to eight. The stupid Muni had broken down in the tunnel and
she had to nearly run in. As she dropped her handbag in the usual spot she
froze. Her lucky mug sat in the middle of the clean desk, somehow back in one
piece!
    Tentatively, not believing her
eyes, she leaned closer. It was then that she saw the cracks, small pock marks
and fissure lines where it’d broken.
    Next to the mug was a note. A neat
but lazy hand scrawled,
      to buy a new one. –Sean.” à “It
was the best I could do. Please use this
    The arrow was pointing toward a
Starbucks gift