Lookaway, Lookaway Read Online Free PDF

buttons and an autographed picture of Daddy standing beside President Reagan. And then there was her Uncle Gaston, Gaston Jarvis! He was even more famous, the bestselling author of March Into a Southern Dawn, all those Civil War romance and battle series that everyone reads. “Though,” she added, “I’ve never finished one of them yet!” occasioning good-natured laughter.
    “I’ve read all of them!” cried a gorgeous blonde named Tiffany. “You tell your uncle I should play Cordelia in the movie versions! I sometimes put the books down and give her speeches to my mirror—I am so obsessed!”
    Squeals, some hugs, more laughter.
    Jerilyn: “I’m hoping, since he’s a gazillionaire, he’ll kick in big for my debut next year.” Oh she’d done it. She’d dropped every clue of class and privilege and money, and made it seem like they pulled it out of her. It was, without compare, the greatest sustained social performance of her whole life. Of course, Layla would expect Jerilyn to do everyone’s homework and get Layla’s sorry lazy butt across the graduation line. Layla was a user, but Jerilyn was rolling up her sleeves and getting ready to use Sigma Kappa Nu as well.
    She would turn the page on decorum-blighted Jerilyn Johnston. She knew that the PG-13 summer-movie sorority stereotype of the wild, hot girls, barely contained in clothes for all the suds and water that came their way, and the male-model-hot fraternity stud, beer in one hand, cell phone in the other, hooking up with the girls like a harem—she knew all that was a cartoon image of sorority life, but it was precisely the movie stereotype she was curious about; she now wanted to immerse herself in this too shallow pool. And if a frat brother was a cad, two-timing her with another sister, if there was face-slapping and tears and throwing herself into his frat brother roommate’s arms … wasn’t that all Life? Excitement, drama, action? For once, someone should say, That Jerilyn Johnston! Back at Carolina, she was a wild one! And everyone knows these frat boys eventually knuckle under, pass the bar, say yes to being in their dad’s law firm, partner in eight years. God, it was all going according to plan!
    Her chance to be Wild Jerilyn Johnston came up fast:
    “Here’s the thing, okay?” Layla had pulled Jerilyn aside after the pinning ceremony. “How life was back at MCD was one thing. How we live our adult lives here is another. I mean, you’re gonna find out anyway about the cocaine, so I wanted to feel you out on the topic.”
    Jerilyn looked especially blank.
    “Oh come upstairs, I’ll show you.”
    Layla led Jerilyn to her room where two older girls awaited, Brittanie and Taylorr.
    “Girls,” said Layla, “this is my old friend from our private school I was telling you about, Jerilyn Johnston.”
    Jerilyn smiled and looked at what the girls were looking at, a table with a baggie of white powder, and a few lines of coke arranged on the polished cherry tabletop.
    “You cannot keep the weight off without this, Jerilyn,” Brittanie said with authority.
    Taylorr: “Nope, won’t happen.”
    Brittanie: “Look, it’s not addictive, but it will spike that metabolism and let you have that extra ice-cream cone. The day I leave Sigma, I’ll never touch it again.”
    “Me neither. Because by that time, I’ll be engaged to future-governor-of-the-state Kevin Flaherty—or that’s the big goddam master plan!” Taylorr added, shrieking with laughter.
    Jerilyn cleared her throat. “I’m not sure if I…”
    Layla put her arm around her. “Now Jeri, you don’t have to do it, a lot of the girls don’t—”
    Taylorr coughed a disbelieving laugh.
    “Tay-lerrrr,” said Layla, exhaling a huff, shaking her head. “Okay, everyone does it, just not every night. Doesn’t matter one way or the other, but you cannot talk about it. Your mom knows my mom. It just cannot get out into the Charlotte gossip universe. And you know Skip Baylor,