Disconnected Read Online Free PDF

disapproval makes me not want to be there.
    â€œThen what was that weird text you sent?” she asks.
    At first a wave of shock runs through me. How in the world? Then my mind scrambles to remember the last time I had my phone. It was before the fire. I thought it was long gone. How could this be?
    â€œWhen did I text you?” I ask.
    â€œThe day before yesterday, Saturday I think it was, why?”
    I was home and doing nothing but unpacking all day Saturday from what I remember, and I most certainly remember I did not have my phone. I start to panic a little, like the world is closing in on me. I feel faint.
    â€œAre you okay?” Beth asks. “You don’t look so good, Mill.”
    I take a deep breath like I’m going to go under water, then exhale quickly. “Beth?”
    â€œWhat, what is it?”
    â€œWhat did I text you?” I urgently ask.
    At this point we are both running a little late and need to catch up if we’re going to make it to class. Beth starts to get impatient.
    â€œWhy don’t you just read it yourself?”
    â€œUmm…well, my phone’s…well I lost it.” Which isn’t really a lie. “So I don’t think the text could be from me.”
    â€œOh, wow. Okay. I’ll show it to you later,” she says, as she starts to walk in the opposite direction.
    The first period bell rings as I’m standing in the doorway of homeroom. I stagger a little, then look back down the hall and see that Beth has already gone. Whatever the case, it’s going to have to wait.
    My thoughts run wild as I try to figure out who could have my phone. Amelia’s voice interrupts. Milly, you don’t know anything. I texted her remember? Remember what I said?
    My upper lip starts to sweat as I take a seat in class. The teacher is already talking but Amelia’s thoughts override his words. I start arguing with her in my mind, but she won’t tell me what she supposedly texted. Neither will she tell me where my phone is. I ask her, did I lose it in the fire? For a while she’s silent. Then finally she answers me. You remember where you put it, don’t you?
    Great! So in other words, Amelia is talking to my best friend via texting and won’t tell me where she’s put my phone. Now I have to worry what she says about me? What if she’s already said something? Even though it’s late morning and the sun is bright, I feel so in the dark right now.
    ***
    The day drags on like a bum leg, but finally it’s over. Yay me! I get to ride the bus again with a bunch of weirdos.
    I stand here at the bus stop, wondering what happened to Beth. I look around the football field and then to Weenie’s Hot Dog Shop across the street where the high schoolers often go, but I don’t see her anywhere.
    As the wind picks up, ruffling my hair around my face, something catches my eye. Across the street there’s a girl about my age, all dressed in black, standing and waiting for the bus that goes in the opposite direction. It’s hard to make out her face. Her hair is strikingly similar to the hair of the girl I saw on the day of the fire, and the time before that at the mall. I don’t know, this odd feeling of having seen her years ago floods my thoughts. But how can that be? She’s the same age as she is in my memory.
    I watch the flecks of blue in her black flowing hair as it blows around. I wonder for a moment where she’s headed. She has nothing with her, which I find odd—no purse or bag or anything. At first I think she’s got shoes on, but when I look closer, bringing my eyes into focus, she has dirty bare feet. How could she go anywhere like that?
    I am drawn to her like an artist is to her sketch pad. Am I imagining all this? Is she even real? I want to cross the street and talk to her. Where is she going without anything? How could she just roam around like that? I just don’t understand.
    When the bus