Chasing Boys Read Online Free PDF Page A

assistant.
    “Oh, hi!” she says.
    She’s realized I’m someone on her social fringe. She doesn’t know my name. Then again, why should she? I wonder where all her friends are. Angelique usually has at least one or two fans wherever she goes. Maybe it is their day off.
    “El, can you take some of this stuff?” complains Desi.
    Half the store appears over her door. It takes me ages to put everything back on the hangers. During this time, Angelique stands in front of the mirror. Then she disappears into her fitting room and reappears in the blue top version. Finally she catches my eye in the mirror just as I glance at her.
    “I hate shopping by myself,” she says.
    “Which top do you like the best?” I ask.
    “I like the blue best,” she says. “But Eric says pink is my color.”
    “So buy the top that you want to wear,” I say. “I mean . . . you look good in anything.”
    Angelique gives me a nervous smile before disappearing back into her cubicle.
    Desi finally decides on a cream silk tank top that she can’t live without. Not surprisingly, it looks very similar to five other cream tops she has. As the cashier wraps the tank top, Angelique puts the blue top on the counter and takes out her wallet to pay for it.
    “Thanks for your help,” she says.
    Desi squeezes my arm as we leave the shop and whispers incredibly loudly into my ear, “Omigod, that was Angelique Mendez.”
    “I know.”
    “I didn’t know she knew you.”
    “She doesn’t,” I say.
    Part of me is celebrating a victory for girls everywhere who dress for someone else. Another part is pleased that Eric will miss out on seeing his girlfriend dressed the way he wants.
    Which is when I decide that I really am a horrible person. That I don’t deserve anything good to happen to me. And even if Eric Callahan threw himself at my feet right now, I would just have to walk away. I would give him one long embrace, and say, “No really, please go back to Angelique. You deserve someone better than me.”
    Then I turn on my heel and bump into someone outside the store.
    “Sorry,” I say.
    “Hey,” Eric says, gripping my arm gently to steady me. “Are you okay?”
    I swear violins begin playing right at that moment. The shopping mall lights glint off Eric’s blond hair like we’re in a shampoo commercial. I catch sight of his perfect teeth as his lips pull back in a slight smile. His breath is warm and minty in my face. I know I should be breathing but I’ve forgotten how. A puzzled look crosses his face, but is gone in an instant. Then he gives a little wave, so I wave back—until I realize he is waving to someone behind me. It is Angelique.
    Eric lets go of my arm and I nearly fall to the floor. I realize the violins are just the Muzak wafting through the mall’s speakers. I finally take a gulp of air.
    “See ya,” I say lamely, but he doesn’t hear me.
    “Omigod, that was Eric Callahan,” says Desi.
    I’d forgotten she was there.
    “Wait until I tell Margot that you touched Eric Callahan in the mall.”
    “How about something to drink?” I say. “I’ve got some coupons.”
    “Can we share a large mocha? I love the mocha,” says Desi.
    If there’s one thing I love about Desi, it’s that she is easily distracted.
    It’s much later, after I lose Desi in the bathrooms, that I go back to Delia’s and buy myself the pink top. I take the size 10. I don’t try it on. I pay for it as if I’m making a drug deal, looking over my shoulder every three seconds like I’m about to be arrested, then I push it to the bottom of my bag. And it’s like I’m two people in one body. There’s the weird-acting me, who’s just bought a pink frothy top that she actually doesn’t like, and there’s the other me watching the weird-acting me, thinking, “Hello, what’s going on here?”
    The two me’s only get together when Desi tells me a joke as she leaves me at my front door. I feel a jolt as I snap back to reality and wonder how on