One Broke Girl Read Online Free PDF Page A

parents’ separation, how we were on a tight budget, but like I’d done with everyone else, she didn’t know the full truth.
    “I’m all right,” I said with a sigh and squeezed her fingers. “Thanks for asking. Just trying to get by every day, yanno?”
    “If I can do anything, let me know, okay?” Natalie released my hand and drank from her coffee.
    “Me too.” The sincerity in Bianca’s eyes struck me. “I know we just met, but any friend of Natalie’s is a friend of mine.”
    “Thank you,” I told them, touched. I pressed a hand to my chest and blinked away the sting of tears hitting my eyes.
    “I have an idea,” Bianca said. “We need a night out.”
    “Oh God, yes!” Natalie exclaimed. She leaned back in her seat. “We’re taking you out, Anna. No arguments. Are you busy tomorrow night?”
    “Let me check my busy social calendar,” I said drolly as I tugged my phone out and pulled up the calendar app. From here until eternity was blank except for my two hours of work every weekday. “I think I can pencil you in.”
    “Awesome. There’s a local bar that’s a ton of fun, and the drinks are super cheap.” Natalie clapped and beamed at both of us. “Wear something hot, Anna. We’re going to take your mind off all your woes.”

Chapter Four
    I sipped my beer and eyed the dimly lit bar as I shifted in my stool. For a Thursday night, it was packed. Probably because it was the only bar in Edgewood Falls, from what Natalie had told me. A bright white light flashing Tino’s Bar rested above the glass mirror behind the wood-trimmed bar, and the hum of conversation floated over the music playing from the digital jukebox.
    After a few minutes, I saw Bianca and Natalie edging through the crowd toward me. Bianca looked like her skin-tight hot pink jeans had been spray-painted on, and her faded white T-shirt was ripped at the neckline to hang off her shoulder. I would have looked stupid trying to rock that look, but it worked on her. Natalie had on a black microskirt and a black sleeveless top.
    I was glad I’d worn my cutest outfit—faded jeans that hugged my legs like a second skin paired with a sparkling tank top and my favorite black high-heeled boots. Though Dad and I had hawked a lot of our stuff—clothes, electronics, furniture, my car—I’d stubbornly held on to a few of my favorite items.
    We might be broke as hell, but I couldn’t lose everything of myself.
    I smiled and hugged both girls, and they took the two seats I’d saved for them on either side of me. The first few minutes were filled with compliments, catching up on our day and then ordering beers.
    “Add a round of shots, please,” Bianca said to the bartender, an attractive older man with salt-and-pepper hair who was eyeing her with open interest. “Buttery nipples.”
    Natalie blanched. “Those are grossly sweet.”
    “You’ll drink your buttery nipple and you’ll like it, lady,” Bianca declared as the bartender lined up shot glasses and made the shots.
    “Ugh. I guess. But I get to pick the next round,” Natalie said.
    We counted to three then drank, and the warm, rich taste slid down my throat and seeped into my limbs within seconds. The light headiness of a good buzz hit my head.
    “Oh man,” I said with a laugh. “I so needed that.”
    Bianca shot Natalie a smug grin that said, See?
    “Fine, fine.” Natalie rolled her eyes and spun in her stool to face the crowd. “So, Anna. You have a boyfriend, right? Are you missing him like crazy? Tell me all about him.”
    My muscles tensed, and I sighed, dropping my hands in my lap. Truth was, I’d been so busy trying to get my life together that I hadn’t had much time to miss him as intensely as I should have. When I wasn’t working at the school, I was pounding the pavement and filling out applications everywhere to find a supplemental job. Nothing had cropped up yet, to my dismay.
    I bit my lip and struggled to find the right words. “I do miss him, of