Inferno Read Online Free PDF Page B

now. “Hey.”
    â€œI loved what you told Mr. Lawson yesterday. About your name? That was awesome.” She giggles. “The look on his face. Classic.”
    â€œI can’t stand him.”
    â€œMe neither.” Linnea flicks the ash from her cigarette and shifts her weight from one foot to the other. “So, I heard Beth moved away this summer. That’s a drag for you, huh?”
    â€œYeah. Kind of.”
    â€œYou two were pretty close, weren’t you?”
    There’s something about her tone that suddenly makes me feel cautious. I shrug. “Well, we used to run together most days.”
    â€œUh-huh.” Linnea drops her smoke and grinds it under the heel of her boot. She is looking down, and her dark hair hangs forward, hiding her face so I can’t see her expression. “I heard you guys were real close.”
    Mind your own business
. “Are you getting at something, Linnea?”
    She looks up at me, blue eyes wide and innocent, red lipstick dark against her pale freckled skin. “No. Just, you know. I guess you must miss her.”
    â€œSure,” I say flatly. “I miss her.”
    Linnea drops her eyes. She’s too polite or too chicken to ask directly, but I guess she’s heard the rumors too. The stupid thing is that there’s no way anyone should know that me and Beth were more than friends. We never told anyone. It’s just because we hung around together all the time and neither of us had a boyfriend. Then one day last spring, I passed her a note in class—nothing important; I can’t even remember what it said—and that bastard Lawson intercepted it. “A love note?” he asked, sarcastically. Everyone laughed. That’s all it took to get a rumor started.
    I figure that’s why Beth never wrote to me. She couldn’t handle anyone knowing about us. She wanted to leave all that behind.
    By Thursday, the sign from the juvenile detention center still hasn’t appeared. I start to wonder if Parker and her friends have picked another school. There’s no particular reason for them to bring it to GRSS. When I get home, I check the local paper, reading through carefully in case there are any reports of vandalism or theft on Tuesday or Wednesday evening. There’s nothing.
    Maybe it wouldn’t be in the paper anyway.
    I check for messages. None. Beth’s updated her status again.
Beth has joined a running group
.
    It figures. She was always more of a joiner than I am. Most people are. I liked running with Beth, but for me the idea of a group takes all the appeal out of running. To be honest, much as I miss Beth, I actually prefer running on my own. I kind of like to let my mind wander when I run.
    Glad you’re still running
, I write.
GRSS still sucks. The teachers suck, the kids suck and the school feels like a prison
. I remember Parker’s lime green papers:
School. Jail. Can you spot the difference
? I wonder what Beth would think of Parker. Probably she’d think she was crazy. Then, since I’m not sending the e-mail anyway, I let it all spill out.
I miss you so much. We were together almost a year— don’t you miss me at all? How come you just disappeared? You could have written and told me it was over instead of letting me keep writing and waiting. I feel like an idiot, still thinking about you all the time. It’s been three months now, so I guess I should get over it. I just don’t understand though
.There’s still rumors about us at school, but it’s old news now. No one really cares anyway, except you. Is that why you never wrote to me? Are you trying to pretend nothing ever happened between us?
    I stop writing and stare at my words on the screen, imagining actually sending her this message. I wonder if she’d even read it or if she’d just delete it unopened. My fists clench, nails digging into my palms, and everything inside me feels clenched tight too;