The Truth About Delilah Blue Read Online Free PDF Page A

behind her seat, her glossy white ponytail falling forward. Typical Danica, all fit and beach ready in Lycra shorts, a tight white T-shirt, and flip-flops.
    They’d started going to school together when Lila and Victor first moved in. Before her mother’s rejection hadwormed its way into her flesh, rendering her so broken that her cracks scared off the other children, Lila had looked to Dani as a possible replacement for her best friend back in Toronto. Dani had worn hand-knotted string bracelets on one tanned ankle and a faded navy T-shirt that read CRAIG’S SURF SHACK in cracked letters across the chest. Her teeth were so white they could have been made of sugar, and the other kids crowded around her on the first day of school because her dad, Craig Seldin, had won a skateboarding competition Labor Day weekend and had been interviewed on TV.
    Even to the newcomer with the fledgling name, it was clear Dani was the school’s reigning goddess and all the other kids followed her into class with the aim of sitting as close to her as possible. But the teacher had other ideas and assigned Lila the coveted seat next to Dani, then asked her to stand up and tell the other students where she was from.
    You’re not from Canada, Victor had informed her the night prior—the first of many “lessons” he would teach her. “Americans,” he explained, “love other Americans. They never fully accept northerners as one of them. If you really want to fit in, you’ll tell the kids you’re from Seattle.”
    So, tugging on her freshly cut bangs, she did. Turned out Victor’s advice worked. At recess, Dani sidled up to her and told her there was a famous skate park in Seattle. Said she was lucky to come from such a place and wondered if Lila had a skateboard. When Lila told her no, Dani offered to teach her to long board on the weekend. Lila didn’t know or care what a long board was—she had a friend.
    Or so she thought. On Saturday morning, when she was preparing to go to her new buddy’s by scrubbing her navy T-shirt against a rock so it would look as distressed asDani’s, Victor came out of the house, sat down beside her on the porch steps, and informed her it wasn’t safe to go off to the home of a strange family. Anything could happen. This wasn’t Toronto, he explained. This was America, and people had guns. In spite of his daughter’s insistence that Dani’s parents were neither armed nor dangerous, Victor said they couldn’t know for sure. He said it was best not to get too chummy because guns and molester-type habits wouldn’t be spread out on the dining-room table for her to examine. No, he said. She could see her new friends at school and that was enough.
    Lila begged to be allowed at least to run to Dani’s house and explain lest the girl think she was being stood up. But Victor said there was no time. He was taking her to Universal Studios and wanted to get there before the lines got too long and the day grew too hot.
    On Monday, she raced up to Dani at school to explain her father wouldn’t let her go, but the damage was already done. Dani, who had likely not experienced much in the way of rejection, refused to acknowledge Lila’s existence. And so, living in California became a never-ending string of paranoid declarations, arrested friendships, and conciliatory family outings.
    Now, with arms full, Dani caught sight of Lila and bumped the car door shut with her hip. She glanced quickly, hopefully, toward the house, before conceding that escape was not an option and forcing a smile. “Hi, Lila.”
    Lila wanted to slap her. “Hey. Haven’t seen you in, well, forever.” She felt herself square her shoulders in an effort to appear more substantial. Less flimsy.
    “You look good,” said Dani.
    Dani’s older brother, a surfer, had surfaced from thehouse, wearing nothing but faded plaid shorts, blond chest hair, and a leather necklace. Kyle pulled a couple of heavy paper bags from the trunk. They chinked as