The Duff: Designated Ugly Fat Friend Read Online Free PDF

like they were miles apart.
    All of my thoughts vanished, and I became a sort of physical being. Emotions disappeared. Nothing existed but our bodies,
     and our warring lips were at the center of everything. It was bliss! It was amazing not to think.
    Nothing! Nothing… until he screwed it up.
    His hand slid up from my waist, trailing along my torso, and came to a stop right on my boob.
    Everything flooded back, and I suddenly remembered exactly who I was kissing. I tore my hands out of his hair and shoved him
     away from me as hard as I could. Anger—fresh, hot anger—surged through me, completely replacing the anxious worry I’d been
     feeling a minute before. His hands dropped, one landing on my knee, as he pulled away. He looked surprised but distinctly
     pleased.
    “Wow, Duffy, that was—”
    And I slapped him. I slapped him so hard, my palm stung with the contact.
    The hand on my knee flew to his cheek. “What the hell?” he demanded. “Why did you do that?”
    “Asshole!” I yelled. I jumped off my stool and stormed onto the dance floor. I didn’t want to admit it, but I was madder at
     myself than at him.

4
    Casey’s queen-size bed was incredibly warm. The pillows were soft, and I felt like I could sink into the fluffy mattress and
     live there forever. But I couldn’t sleep. I tossed and turned on my side of the bed, trying not to wake Casey up. I counted
     sheep. I did that thing where you relax every part of your body from the big toe up. I even imagined one of Mr. Chaucer’s
     rambling lectures on public policy.
    Still wide awake.
    I was bottling again, but it had nothing to do with Dad this time. I’d gotten that off my chest after Casey and I had dropped
     Jessica off earlier that night.
    “I’m getting worried about Dad,” I’d told her. I’d waited until Jessica was out of the car to talk about it. I knew she wouldn’t
     have understood. Jessica was from a happy, healthy two-parent family. Casey, on the other hand, had already seen her parents’relationship crumble. “He’s so clueless. I mean, isn’t it obvious that it isn’t working? Shouldn’t they just get the fucking
     divorce and be done with it?”
    “Don’t say that, B,” she warned. “Seriously, don’t even think that way.”
    I shrugged.
    “It’ll all work out,” she said, reaching over and squeezing my hand as we sped toward her house. The snow hadn’t started falling
     yet, but I could see clouds moving across the stars in the dark sky overhead. “She’ll come home and they’ll talk it through
     and have makeup sex—”
    “God! Gross, Casey!”
    “—and everything will be back to normal.” She paused as I pulled into her driveway. “And in the meantime, I’m here for you.
     If you need to talk, you know I’ll listen.”
    “Yeah, I know.”
    It was the same Casey Saves the Day speech I’d been hearing for twelve years, any time the slightest problem appeared in my
     life. Not that I needed it that night, really. Honestly, since we’d left the Nest, Dad hadn’t been on my mind that much. I’d
     released all that stress when I’d kissed Wesley.
    And that was what kept me from sleeping. I couldn’t stop thinking about what I’d done at the Nest. My skin itched. My lips
     felt foreign. Plus, no matter how many times I’d brushed my teeth in Casey’s bathroom (after half an hour, she’d knocked on
     the door to make sure I was okay), the taste of disgusting, womanizing bastard was still in my mouth. Ugh! But the worst part
     was that I knew I’d done it to myself.
    I’d
kissed
him
. Yeah, he’d groped me, but what had I really expected? Wesley Rush didn’t exactly have a reputation for being a gentleman.
     He might have been a jackass, but I had to take the blame for this situation. That knowledge didn’t sit well with me.
    “Casey,” I whispered. Okay, so waking her up at three a.m. wasn’t very nice of me, but she was the one always telling me to
     share or vent or whatever. So,