Kiss Her Goodbye Read Online Free PDF Page A

who introduced her around, and Erin who got the coach to bend some rules and let Jen try out for the town’s dive team after the registration deadline last spring.
    But Jen won the MVP medal entirely on her own. She was even on Eyewitness News —only for a few seconds, but a camera crew and reporter were there, covering the regional meet. It must have been a slow news day in Buffalo.
    â€œJen?” Erin prods. “You want my mom to—”
    â€œNo, don’t say anything to your mom.” Jen dips the brush back into the bottle of polish. “I’m totally used to my mother. And anyway, she’s not going to change. She says she wants to keep me from making the kinds of mistakes she made when she was a kid. She said nobody ever cared where she went or when she got home.”
    â€œLucky her,” Erin mutters.
    â€œOh, like you’ve got it so tough.” Jen shakes her head. “Your mom lets you do whatever you want.”
    â€œShe won’t let me go out with Robby.”
    â€œWell, duh. That’s because he’s a delinquent.”
    â€œHe is not!”
    â€œHe does drugs.”
    â€œNot drugs. Weed. And everyone smokes it, so—”
    â€œ I don’t. You don’t.” Or does she? Sometimes, Jen gets the sense that Erin is a couple of giant steps ahead of her.
    â€œThat’s different. Robby’s a senior. That’s, like, practically an adult. And I don’t see why everyone had to make such a big deal about him getting high.”
    â€œHe wasn’t just getting high, Erin. He got caught selling.”
    Erin rolls her eyes. “Well, I don’t know how my mother even found out about it. You didn’t tell your mother, did you?”
    â€œI told you I didn’t.” Jen shakes her head. “It was probably in the paper.”
    â€œNot his name. They don’t put your name in if you’re not eighteen.”
    â€œWell, it’s not like people don’t gossip around here. Things get around. Like, the other day, I heard . . .”
    No. Jen shouldn’t say that. It wouldn’t be nice.
    After all, she really, really likes Mrs. Gattinski. She always gives Jen extra money and makes a point to buy special snacks whenever she’s babysitting.
    â€œWhat?” Erin asks, a cuticle stick poised in her hand like a cigarette. “You heard what?”
    â€œNothing.”
    It’s probably not even true, anyway, Jen tells herself, reaching for a cotton ball and the plastic bottle of nail polish remover to wipe away the red smear on her hand.
    A red, she finds herself thinking with a shudder, that is precisely the shade of fresh blood.
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    â€œDo you think she’s babysitting too much?” Matt asks as the front door closes behind Jen Saturday night as she heads out to Kurt Gattinksi’s car at the curb. “She’s too young.”
    â€œShe’ll be fourteen in a few weeks.”
    â€œThat’s too young. She’s never home anymore.”
    â€œShe was home all afternoon,” Kathleen points out, looking up from the latest issue of People . “Riley’s the one who was out at a play date.”
    â€œFor that matter, I think he has too many of these play date things for a little kid.”
    â€œHe’s popular.” Kathleen shrugs, smiling. “And like I said, Jen was home, so I don’t know why you’re—”
    â€œShe was home, yeah—but in her room with Erin, and the door closed.”
    â€œTeenaged girls need privacy.”
    â€œWhat do you think they were doing in there?”
    â€œTheir nails. Their hair.”
    â€œIs the object to look like twins? Because when I saw Jen coming around the corner earlier, I swear I thought she was Erin. She was wearing the same outfit and her hair was parted in the middle in the same exact style.”
    â€œThat’s what teenaged girls do, Matt,” Kathleen assures him with a laugh.