Just You Read Online Free PDF

saying—he was perpetually
distracted—but my face burned anyway.
    “Uh huh,” I said, seizing Robin’s arm and
skittering away like a cockroach that had been exposed to
light.
    “Midnight!” Dad called after me.
    On the porch, Robin and I burst into
giggles. “That was so embarrassing,” I said as we walked the short
distance to Robin’s house.
    “Don’t worry.” She fished in her purse for a
cigarette. “It probably never even occurred to him that you have boobs. Fathers always see their daughters as little
girls, right?” She said this as if she were asking for
clarification on a totally foreign subject, which I guess it was,
for her.
    The same silver car that had slid to a halt
across the street a couple of weekends ago did the same thing again
now. We started toward it. I had a passing thought of memorizing
the license plate number in case Devon turned out to be a serial
rapist, but I calmed down when I opened the door to the backseat to
find two extra passengers sitting there. Unless they all planned to
kill us collectively, I figured we were safe enough.
    Robin made the introductions. Devon was
pretty cute, with golden blond hair and nice teeth. The other two
were Ethan and Jenna, a couple. They laughed amongst themselves—at
what, I didn’t know—the entire seven minute drive to Redwood Hills,
basically ignoring me in the process. I felt like a complete idiot
already and the night hadn’t even begun.
    Devon pulled up to a house that I knew must
have cost at least five times what Mom had paid for ours.
Expensive-looking cars lined the long, paved driveway. I tried to
look cool and indifferent as we all walked up to the door. How did
Robin think I could possibly fit in here? How did she think she could fit in here? Like me, she was fifteen, a lowly
tenth-grader, and boringly average middle-class. Then again, Robin
was anything but boring or average. She was a chameleon, able to
blend in anywhere. I realized this as soon as we walked into that
huge, fancy house.
    Me? I felt like I had a sign that read
IMPOSTER on my forehead.
    Robin seemed to know everyone . By the
time we’d made our way though the modern rooms to the gigantic
finished basement where most people had gathered, drinking and
circling the pool table in the corner, she’d been stopped at least
six times to say hello to so-and-so. She introduced me each time
but the music was so loud and I felt so uneasy, I never did catch
the names.
    “Come on,” she shouted to me over the
pounding beat of the music. “Let’s get a drink.”
    She towed me toward the bar—yes, there was a bar in there, with stools and everything—where a cute,
clean-cut guy lined up bottles on the shiny surface.
    “Hey, R.J.,” Robin greeted him.
    R.J. flashed her a boyish grin as he dug
around underneath the bar. “How’s it going, Robin?”
    “Great,” she said with her flirting face on.
She didn’t seem to mind that Devon had disappeared. “Will you pour
us some shots?”
    “Sure. What can I get you?”
    Robin looked at me. “Vodka?” I nodded and
R.J. turned his grin on me, making me blush. He grabbed a bottle
and two shot glasses, filling both to the rim. Robin tilted her
head and smiled coyly at him. “Thanks, bartender.”
    “My pleasure,” he drawled, and I wondered if
this was his house and he raided his parents’ liquor cabinet every
weekend or if tonight was a special occasion.
    Robin handed me my shot. “Let’s go together.
On the count of three.”
    I’d never had a shot before. Just a couple
of beer at a party once. I peered down at the clear liquid and then
sniffed it.
    “One…two…three,” Robin counted. On three we
both poured the vodka down our throats. Robin barely flinched while
I made a fool of myself almost choking to death. “You okay?”
    “Uh huh,” I said, coughing.
    “Want to do another?”
    I cleared my throat and swallowed, trying to
get the nasty taste out of my mouth. “Not right now,” I said,
meaning not