The Julian Game Read Online Free PDF

insinuating.”
    “I was only kidding.” I felt bad, and a little scared. Ella could strike like a snake when she wanted. “I’m sorry.”
    Julian’s response was about a family trip he’d taken to Warsaw where he’d sat in the back of a truck and handed out oranges to children.
    Ella’s smile bloomed as we read. “Darling, I think he’s bought it.”
    Unbelievable. Hundreds of times I’d imagined a conversation with Julian Kilgarry, and here it was. Even if it was online. Even if it was Ella pretending to be Elizabeth who wasn’t real. I’d invented Elizabeth. Part of me was in there somewhere.
    But his next comment proved that Julian had some doubts.
    send real-time pic now of u drinking o.j.—proof yr not wanking me @
    “Uh-oh.” Ella slid back on the chair’s wheeled castors and leaned up for the Bailey’s bottle.
    “Now what?”
    “Now nothing. I did too fabs a job getting Jay-Kay to like Elizabeth. But unless you’ve got a candid of a girl who looks like that one, drinking juice so he knows that there’s a real-time face behind that text, we’re done.”
    “Oh.” A vertigo of disappointment spiraled through me.
    Ella didn’t notice. Her eyes had gone flinty as she stared at the screen. “But screw him anyway. That jerkoff put me in the most humiliating situation of my life when he left me to play tongue tag with Mia.”
    “It’s hard to believe any guy—even Julian—would just drop you like that.”
    “I know, it’s almost unbelievable, isn’t it? And if it was my nightmare night,” continued Ella, “it was Lindy’s dream come true. She loves Julian. I mean, we all do—but I’m the only one who makes sense with him. Except that apparently he prefers pitiful little skid marks like Mia. Some guys don’t want their equal.” Ella took a breath. Her fingertips tapped together. I counted off nine precise beats. “Whatevs, I’m so over that guy. It was fun to mess with him tonight, though.”
    “Except,” I noted, “that we didn’t really do anything.”
    “What do you mean? What could we do?”
    I shrugged. “Revenge is two wrongs that make a right. Julian did something wrong. What did you do wrong?” I sounded more relaxed than I was, since all I wanted was to stay in the game. For a moment, it was like Julian Kilgarry had been right here, in this den, chatting with us. But Ella had dominated the conversation. I hadn’t had a chance to send a single note of my own.
    “So what’s your genius strategy?” Ella was staring at me, her bottom lip hung in a pout. The same expression as when Filth (and I) corrected her Chinese.
    “Give me a minute,” I said. “I’ll be right back and you’ll see.”

eight
    Monday, Ella and I didn’t talk until midmorning break. She found me in the library window seat cramming for a possible quiz in Honors European History.
    “Did you get anything else?” Her voice startled me. My heartbeat quickened as I closed my book.
    “You mean after when he said thanks for sending the photo?”
    “Well, considering all the effort, I expected more from our boy.”
    I nodded. “There was.” I hadn’t wanted to tell Ella exactly what had happened after Noreen had picked her up. But now, face to face, I didn’t want to lie. I wanted to hold her attention.
    “Ooooh. Requestation to spill.” Ella hoisted herself up on the seat, swinging in her legs and leaning against the window glass. Outside was gray. Ghost sky and ghost trees. But the sun was shining inside, right on me, in the form of Ella’s seductive smile. “And by the way?” As she tapped a finger gently once, twice, three times on my wrist. “You didn’t give the right password to Elizabeth. I couldn’t log on.”
    “Oh, sorry! I’ll text it to you later.”
    “Whenever. I mean, it’s not like it’s the major event of my life, shì bú shì.” She lifted her arms to retie her ponytail scarf as she looked around. The library was mostly empty but she whispered anyway. “So?