Dead End Job Read Online Free PDF Page A

and said, “Oh, I understand all right.” I couldn’t tell if it was a mad laugh or a sad laugh.
    I touched his arm. “No hard feelings?”
    He said, “I’ve got nothing but goodfeelings for you, Frances.” He handed me the plastic bag he was holding.
    â€œHere. You can read all about them on the front page,” he said.
    I looked in the bag. It was a book. One of those big $80 coffee-table books on the history of art. I tried to give it back but he wouldn’t let me. When he left, I opened it to the front page.
    He’d written: “To Frances—and the beginning of our own long and beautiful history of art. With love always, Devin.”
    I felt sick. The poor guy. What could I do? I just hoped he’d get over it soon.

Chapter Eight
    I hid the book under my bed. I called Kyla and patched things up with her. I went out with Leo that night and fished for herring off the wharf. We didn’t catch anything. We never do. I didn’t care. We had fun. And I was just so glad to have my life back to normal.
    For a while anyway.
    I went to school early the next morning to get ready for a test. Thank God I got there when I did. That picture Devin took of us inthe store was taped to my locker. He’d blown it up to 8 × 10 and written across the top: “Thanks for some beautiful times together. XOXO Devin.”
    I tore it down and threw it into the bottom of my locker. All I needed was for Leo to see that. I didn’t want him getting jealous again and I didn’t want him getting mad at Devin either. The guy’s life seemed bad enough as it was.
    The whole morning I was totally freaked out by the picture. We barely knew each other. Why was Devin making such a big deal of this? And how did he find my locker?
    But then as the day went on, I relaxed about it a bit. He gave me a picture. So what? It’s not like he wrote “I love you madly” on it. He just said we had a nice time together. How terrible was that? I thought it might even have been Devin’s way of saying goodbye. You know, “Thanks for the memories…”
    Finding my locker wouldn’t have been that hard either. He didn’t have to do anything underhanded. He just had to ask around. Somebody would have known where it was.
    Once I got my head around that, the whole thing didn’t seem so creepy anymore. It just seemed kind of sad. He was obviously lonely. Why else would our little “relationship” have meant so much to him? It made me wonder if he’d ever gotten up the courage to call his father.
    I bumped into Devin later that day when I took a shortcut home across the baseball field. He seemed fine. He smiled when he saw me and complimented me on my sweater, but he wasn’t all over me or anything. It was just like friends talking.
    Well, more like acquaintances talking.
    I thanked him for the picture. He said he thought I might like it. We both nodded and wondered what to say next.
    There was this awkward pause. I almost said goodbye, but I didn’t want to look too anxious to get out of there. I didn’t want to act like I hated him.
    So I said, “Have you called your dad yet?”
    â€œMy dad?” he said. “Oh, yeah. I did.”
    â€œGreat! How’d it go?”
    â€œTom’s an amazing guy,” he said and smiled.
    I smiled too. Maybe this was all he needed to get back on track.
    â€œAmazing? What do you mean?” I asked.
    â€œHe’s so honest!” Devin sort of laughed. “You know, he came right out and said he never wanted to see me again! What a guy, eh?”
    He smiled and shook his head like it was the best joke ever.
    â€œI’m really sorry,” I said, and I meant it. Devin brushed it off.
    â€œHey, don’t worry about it,” he said. “I’m getting used to it. That’s two people in one week who say they don’t want to see me.”
    Ask me how terrible I felt