Red Queen Read Online Free PDF

me,” Alex said. “And the panties didn’t stay on.”
    â€œI really am grateful for all you’ve done for us,” I told Ted.
    â€œFor us?” he snapped, beginning to sober up.
    I searched inside for the perfect remark that would completely repair the damage I had caused. The only problem was I was working with an IQ of around fifty.
    â€œFor all of us,” I told Ted. “For me, for Alex, and especially for Debbie. You may not know this but Debbie has a major crush on you. She’s had it for years but she’s too much of a coward to tell you. So I’m telling you now.”
    My words didn’t go over as well as I hoped. Debbie threw down her napkin and got up and ran from the restaurant. Ted watched her go, then turned to me, probably hoping I would clarify my remark. The best I could do was belch, which sent Alex into an uncontrollable fit of laughter. Ted had finally hadenough. He shook his head and stood and handed me two tickets.
    â€œI got you great seats,” he said in a bitter voice. “Enjoy the show.”
    He left, chasing after Debbie, or so we assumed. The rest of our long table fell silent and stared at me, making me feel like a total ass. But Alex was quick to reassure me.
    â€œAlthough your drunken stupor is obvious to all,” she told me, “your words were positively brilliant. Your remarks may even change the course of those two mediocre lives.”
    â€œDon’t call them mediocre,” I said.
    â€œTheir lives will be if they get married two years from now. All because of what you said here tonight.”
    I sighed, and studied the tickets in my hand. “I just hope we’re not sitting beside them during the show.”
    â€œWhen does it start?” Alex asked.
    My eyes slowly focused on the tiny print on the tickets.
    I gasped. “In ten minutes!”
    We paid our share of the bill, in theory, although we probably cheated our classmates since we were the only ones who had ordered wine. But we didn’t have time to hang around and haggle over an exact figure.
    We were lucky O took place in the Bellagio. A hotel employee was kind enough to lead us to the appropriate hall. He could tell we were stinking drunk. We kept giggling and bumping into each other.
    I had read so much about the show, I worried my high expectations could never be met. But the truth was, it blew me away. The stage was supposed to have cost fifty million to build. The money had not been wasted. It kept changing shape. One minute it was filled with water, like a small lake, and the next it had shallow streams running down the center. Then all the water would disappear and it would be covered with gravel.
    The performers were close to superhuman. They could bend and twist their bodies into positions that would have challenged Gumby. Several times Alex and I gasped and grabbed hands. One of the leads did high-wire stunts a hundred feet above the stage and then dived into a square pond less than three feet across. What nerve! The exotic colors, the brilliant lighting, the hypnotic music, the songs, the dancing—I felt like I’d been transported into another dimension.
    For a time I forgot about Jimmy and the others. It was a relief, in a way, we didn’t see another person from our school.
    Alex and I were sober by the time the show finished, but neither of us had any desire to return to our suite. Alex wanted to gamble. She was keen to play twenty-one, blackjack. But I was worried we’d lose too much money and suffer for it the rest of the weekend. I pointed to the small signs on the sides of the tables.
    â€œLook, the minimum bet’s twenty bucks! We can’t afford that!”
    â€œThe Bellagio’s for high rollers,” Alex said. “Come on, we’ll find a place with a five-buck minimum.”
    â€œWhere?”
    Alex nodded toward the hotel exit. “Let’s hit the Strip, there’s a hundred hotels out