Dedication Read Online Free PDF Page B

can’t,” I remind her.
    Jeanine turns, her face hard. “I wasn’t talking to you. I was talking to Laura. Wipe that stuff off and let’s go meet up with them.”
    I look over to Laura, psyched to see her tell Jeanine to screw herself. But she doesn’t. Jeanine tugs off her pajama pants, pulls up her jeans, and pushes her feet into her loafers. “Rick Swartz is going to be there. He’s friends with Jason after soccer camp this summer.” She pulls off her top, her worn training bra, probably her sister’s hand-me-down still on underneath, and, embarrassed, quickly shoves her head through the neck of her sweater. “So come on.”
    “Why don’t you just stay, Jeanine?” The uncertainty in her voice makes my chest tight. “You know your mom’ll kill you.”
    “I have to.” Jeanine pulls a Kissing Cooler from her pocket and swipes it on, rubbing her lips together.
    “No you don’t. That’s only four girls out there. There are, like, thirteen still here.”
    “Thirteen who’ll be playing makeup for the rest of seventh grade.” Jeanine’s eyes narrow.
    “So, why do you have to do everything Kristi says?” Laura finally asks what she’s wanted to for so long. “She’s not even funny or…I mean, she sat here all night making bored faces in the corner. She’s just…I don’t know. So her mom’s a manager at the mall and she gets to wear designer clothes—”
    “She’s fun. A lot of fun. And I don’t want to sit around with a bunch of babies who don’t even talk to boys on the phone playing nurse to Michelle Walker all night. So are you coming or not?”
    Laura looks at the floor. “Not,” she says softly.
    Jeanine’s face turns the ember color of her hair. “I hope you two will be really happy together. Be sure not to invite me to the wedding.”
    “Fuck you,” I say, surprising myself.
    “Fuck you both.” She seals the sliding door soundlessly behind her.
    Laura holds my stare, her expression stunned. “Wait,” she says. And I ready myself for the moment I have known was coming since the day Laura told me about Jeanine: when Jeanine would realize she’d made the biggest mistake of her life throwing over the best best friend a girl could hope for and she’d want Laura back. The moment Laura would go. Because they have history. They have lower school. They have learning to read and all sorts of things I will never—“Who am I?”
    And she face plants onto the nearest sleeping bag.

    “Stop,” Laura mouths sternly, tipping me past the point of being able to contain my laughter.
    Overtaken, I slam the receiver back down. “Oh, God, I’m gonna pee.” I roll on the raspberry carpet in the doorway of Laura’s parents’ bedroom, where I’ve stretched their phone cord to its limit.
    “Katie!” she moans from the opposite end of the hall, where she’s stretched her brother’s phone to its limit so that we can see each other for the First Call.
    “I’m…I’m sorry.” I gasp for air. “I don’t know what’s so funny.”
    Laura sits cross-legged in her prairie dress as she broods. “Okay, maybe this isn’t a good idea, you being able to see me. Maybe you should go inside the door.”
    “Maybe I shouldn’t be on the line at all. I mean, why am I on?”
    “So you can tell me what I sounded like. And what he sounded like. Like a witness.”
    “Witness,” I sigh. “Let’s call Harrison Ford.” I break into another fit of giggles.
    “You’re such a dork; I don’t know why I recruited you for this job.”
    I take a deep breath and sit up. “Okay. Okay, I can do this. You can do this. Today we call the boys. Go.” I wave at her, putting the receiver back to my ear. “Dial.”
    Laura exhales slowly, pointing sternly at me before dialing Rick Swartz’s number. As the line rings my heart speeds.
    “Hello? Who’s on the phone?” suddenly Mrs. Heller’s confused voice breaks in.
    “HANG UP!” Laura drops the phone, shouting down the stairs. “OH MY GOD! MOM! HANG