I Know What You Did Last Summer Read Online Free PDF Page A

Golden
Girl was the culmination of almost every dream she had ever
had.
    Helen's looks were the best thing she had going for her, and she
was born realistic enough to have recognized the fact early. At the
age of twelve she had sat down one day and examined herself in the
mirror.
    What she had seen there had been pleasing, but not pleasing
enough. Cold-bloodedly she had analyzed her attributes-good
bones, even teeth, fine features. She had a good bust for her age
but too much weight in the hips. Her coloring was too pale, her
hair rather ordinary, but thick and healthy. Her hands were not
particularly small, but they were long-fingered and
artistic-looking, despite bitten fingernails.
    She broke the fingernail habit immediately through sheer
willpower. The rest took more time, especially the weight loss.
Helen liked to eat, and the food that was served in her home was
usually of the inexpensive and starchy variety. A strenuous
diet had brought her figure under control, and
experimentation with rinses and make-up had brought out the
honey highlights in her hair and fringed her deep violet eyes, her
most unusual feature, with long, blue-black lashes.
    "What do you think you are, a fairy princess?" Elsa had jibed at
her.
    Helen had ignored her. It would have been nice, she had admitted
to herself, if such had been the case. As the second daughter in a
large family, she had no illusions about magic and fairy
godmothers. She had only to look at her own mother, haggard from
years of housework and budget-stretching and childbearing, and her
father, sweating out his days at construction work, to know that
her chances for a luxurious future were slim.
    Still, she was pretty, and that could serve for something. It
would have to, she told herself, because she certainly had no
academic talents. Dropping out of school to accept the offer
of the Golden Girl job had been more of a relief than a sacrifice.
She had stuck through school that far for one reason only-she had
fallen in love.
    She had loved Barry Cox from the first moment she had seen him.
Big and broad-shouldered, handsome and popular, he was as
close to perfect as any guy she could ever have imagined. As
captain of the city's winning high school football team, he could
have had his pick of any girl he wanted. His choosing her was
the surprising thing, the actual miracle.
    It had happened so suddenly that she had never been able to
figure out the exact circumstances. She had been walking home from
school, when a bright red sports car had pulled up beside her, and
Barry had been in it.
    "Hi, there," he had said. "Climb in and I'll drive you
home."
    When he let her off, he had asked her for a date. It had
happened that simply, and her world had never been the same
again.
    Now, stretched in the deck chair, letting the warmth of the
morning sun sink into her body, she thought, I shouldn't have
called him.
    Barry didn't like to be pressured. She had learned that from his
mother. One time soon after they had started dating she had called
him at home to check on what time he was coming to pick her up.
    Mrs. Cox had answered the phone.
    "Let me give you some advice, dear," she had said in her cool,
sharp voice. "Barry is a boy who doesn't react well to being
chased. If he wants to talk with you, he will do the calling. Your
little affair will last longer that way, believe me."
    Since then she had called him only when absolutely
necessary. Yesterday's call had seemed at the time to fall into
that category, but in retrospect she realized that it had not Barry
had been irritated; he did have exams to study for. Dragging him
away from his books to confront him with mat silly note had been
ridiculous. His explanation had been so reasonable that it now
seemed incredible that she and Julie could not have thought of it
themselves.
    "Excuse me. Would it be all right if I sat down here?"
    The voice came from directly beside her, startling her so that
she jumped. Her eyes flew open and for a moment