Our Chemical Hearts Read Online Free PDF

volume a little and hummed along to the tune as I logged into my email (thinking about how I should really rewatch
The Devil Wears Prada
now that I was editor, get some tips) until I caught a tiny movement in the corner of my eye. I looked up to find Grace Town mouthing the words.
If you go, I will surely die,
she mimed absentmindedly, scrolling through the newspaper’s thirty-page policy and procedures document about topics we weren’t allowed to cover (no sex, no drugs, no rock ’n’ roll, nothing relevant to real-life teens in general, etc.).
    â€œYou know the Pixies?” I asked her after the first chorus. Grace looked up and over her shoulder at me but didn’t speak right away.
    â€œâ€˜You met me at a very strange time in my life,’” she said eventually. When I said nothing, she cocked her head slightly and said, “
Fight Club
? ‘Where Is My Mind?’?”
    â€œI know. I got it.
Fight Club
is, like, one of my favorite movies.”
    â€œMe too.”
    â€œReally?”
    â€œYeah. Why are you so surprised?”
    â€œMost girls—” I began. Lola snapped up her hand.
    â€œBe
very
careful what you say next, Henry Page,” she said. “Very few good things come out of sentences that begin with ‘Most girls.’”
    â€œThis is true,” Grace agreed.
    â€œUh. Well. I was
going
to say that a lot—not most, but a lot—of the girls I know don’t like
Fight Club
.”
    â€œI like
Fight Club
, you bigot,” Lola said.
    â€œMost girls don’t like intelligent films?” Grace said. “Or girls that
do
like
Fight Club
are special snowflakes and therefore better than the rest of the womenfolk?”
    â€œOh God, no, that’s not what I meant. The girls here—they probably haven’t even seen
Fight Club
, you know? They’ve never even watched it.”
    â€œI am a female and I have seen
Fight Club
,” Lola said.
    â€œThere you go. Of the two women in the room, one hundred percent of them have seen
Fight Club
. Your ‘most girls’ statistics might need some reevaluating.”
    â€œI’m going to stop talking now,” I said, “lest more of the patriarchy vomits out of my mouth.”
    Grace grinned. “We’re teasing you, Henry.”
    There was a beat of silence—these would become a constant fixture in our conversations—in which I tried desperately to keep the conversation going beyond its natural point of death.
    â€œWhy’d you change your mind?” I said quickly.
    Grace stared at me, the remnants of her smile fading. “I don’t know,” she said finally. Right at that moment, the bell for first period rang, and—even though we technically didn’t have to go to it because it was designated newspaper time—Grace Town stood up and packed her things and left the room.
    â€œDid you hear that?” I said to La after Grace was gone. “She likes the Pixies
and Fight Club
.”
    â€œPretty sure I like the Pixies and
Fight Club
, you giant bag of dickweed.”
    â€œYeah, but you’re a devious lesbian who steals boys’ first kisses and then forever emasculates them by coming out of the closet two weeks later.”
    â€œSpeaking of, I forgot to tell you something. Madison Carlson legit asked me the other day how bad a kisser you must be to turn a girl off mankind forever.”
    â€œI hope you politely explained that sexual orientation is predetermined and that you were already a lesbian when you kissed me.”
    â€œOh no, I told her you have a crooked penis and that after I saw it I could never contemplate seeing another.”
    â€œThanks, bro.”
    â€œAnytime,” Lola said as she, too, stood and packed up her things. At the doorway she stopped and glanced back at me, her head cocked in the direction Grace Town had left in. “I like her, Henry. There’s, I don’t kno