Dedication Read Online Free PDF

“How?” Stephanie stares intently at Jen’s bent head. “What was the sign?”
    “Separate beds?” Laura asks, leaning in. “Separate rooms?”
    Ignoring her, JenniferTwo resumes packing the colored foam rods. But Stephanie steps intently over to her. “Did they fight?” The pink band of fabric slips out of her hair. “Did they? Just tell me, Jenny.”
    “All the time.”
    Sucking in her cheeks, Stephanie nods to herself as she retrieves the band from the floor, wrapping it twice around her wrist. The only sound is the burble of the refilling tank. JenniferTwo clears her throat, “You guys better not tell Michelle I said anything.” She stands up and bores her eyes into each of ours as she goes to open the door. For the first time all night, the sound of bell-bottom-wearing teens mid-slaughter does not bounce off the veneered walls and into our hair-sprayed refuge. Instead, in its place, come the hushed tones of tense negotiation. Stumbling over each other to get out, we follow JenniferTwo across the mess of sleeping bags littering the orange carpet. She steps over the snoring Dunkman twins to where the birthday party is in some kind of standoff in front of the sliding door to the yard. Fully dressed in their identical acid-washed perfection, Kristi and her friends have their backs to the glass.
    “So are you staying?” Kristi asks matter-of-factly as she swipes on a coat of iridescent lipgloss and passes it to her friends. Jeanine opens her mouth, but is at a terrified loss. She looks from Kristi to Michelle.
    “Spaz,” one of Kristi’s minions gets haughty. “We’re just meeting the boys at the falls to have a smoke, it’s not like we’re having an orgy.”
    Kristi cracks up.
    “Seriously, guys, you have to be back really soon,” Michelle pleads. “If my mom wakes up—”
    “Yeah, sure.” Kristi tugs the door open, letting in the chilly fall night. “Make sure Jeanine has her Pampers on when you tuck her in.”
    “Don’t get an ulcer.” Her other minion slides it shut, sealing us in.
    As we watch the It Girls disappear outside the arc of the flood-light there is a moment filled only by the snoring behind us. Michelle turns, wild eyed. “I’m so screwed! I’m so totally screwed! It’s my goddamn birthday! And now I’m screwed!”
    “You’re the one who had to invite Kristi,” Laura mutters.
    “Thanks!” Michelle spits at her. “Thanks a lot, wench!” She pushes between us, trying to run through the mess of sleeping bags toward the bathroom, but she trips over a Dunkman and we all watch as she flails in slow motion, limbs like a runaway marionette, before hitting the carpet with a slamming thud. Frozen, we stand with our hands over our mouths—is she dead? Dana Dunkman makes a kind of gargle half-snore before rolling over, still out cold. Dazed, Michelle sits up. Laura clamps her hand tightly on her mouth, but her shoulders start to shake as she fights it. I instantly start to giggle. Laura grabs her stomach and drops into a crouch she’s laughing so hard. “Sorry. I know…it’s…not…funny. It’s not.”
    JenniferTwo runs to Michelle, helping her up as she clutches her nose, her eyes still wide in surprise. “Ohmygod, she’s bleeding,” JenniferTwo announces. “I bet she has a concussion.”
    “Ice,” I manage to get out.
    “Get her ice.” Laura wipes her palm across her eyes and stands up.
    “You’ll wake my mom if you go up there!” Michelle wails in alarm as a patrol breaks out for the stairs. Someone grabs a pair of ruffled pink socks to stuff against the blood trickling from her left nostril.
    “Let’s get her into the bathroom.” JenniferOne helps to lift her up and the group half-carries half-drops Michelle to the other side of the basement.
    “Laura,” Jeanine’s voice comes from behind us.
    We spin around to see her still facing the black glass, her eyes fixed on the illuminated wedge of leaf-strewn grass. “Let’s go,” she says.
    “Duh. We