The Undesirable (Undesirable Series) Read Online Free PDF Page B

could she be so callous? How could she not realize the whole world had changed?
    I picked up the glass next to her nightstand table. I smelled the remainder of last night’s alcohol binge and saw it swirl in the bottom of the glass. My right hand launched it against the wooden wall above the bed’s headboard. The beveled glass split into a million pieces that all fell in the space between the bed and the wall. We both heard the pieces scatter on the wood floor.
    “There, right there, is your vodka.”
    My mother gaped at me. I turned on my heel and stormed out of her bedroom.
    “Fifteen minutes until The Count,” I reminded her over my shoulder.  I tapped the new watch on my wrist. “You coming?”
    She pulled on her loafers and followed me without a word.
    *
    We were not late to the square, but we were not early.
    When we got there, the faceless soldiers had already arrived too, this time with four sexless women in white nursing uniforms who sat at a long table in front of the steps to Harrison Corners City Hall. As I walked up with the rest of my neighbors, I saw a huge bin full of electronics on my left. A few people walked over to it and tossed electronics in as they took their places in line. I had nothing to add.
    Two soldiers held megaphones on either side of the table and they used them in unison. “Women to the left!” they yelled. “Men to the right!”
    Four other soldiers on the left hand side directed us to a single file line. We marched forward one at a time, inching our way to the women in the white nursing uniforms, triangle caps, red lips and faces painted in white makeup. Two women worked each line. One asked questions while the other pointed left or right, ordering the formation of what appeared to be four groups.
    “No talking!” the soldiers with the megaphones exclaimed every three minutes or so. “Silence in line!”
    I scanned the crowd and searched for Fostino. While I searched for him, I caught the eyes of men and women I had known my whole life, people I grew up with and admired. They looked scared, and so did my hung-over mother. I found Fostino ten people behind me. He stood in a clump with the other members of the Homeland Guard; still dressed in the same uniform I’d seen him in hours before in the cornfield. They would not go through The Count. When I twisted my head toward him, I saw his eyes already on me. No smiles now, no smirks, just obvious concern all over his face.
    How long had he watched me?
    I took a mental photograph of his lips, his green eyes, and his skin that reminded me of melted brown sugar. His jaw seemed tight and strained. One of his hands balled into a fist. Meanwhile, I could only think about last night.
    And that kiss.
    My cheeks blushed a little at the memory, unsettled and confused by the memory of it. It had been by no means my first one — that happened the summer I turned 13; a boy who later told everyone I had lizard lips. I kissed two others since then, but this was the first kiss I ever had from someone who both attracted and repelled me. Up until last night, he stood for the unattainable in my life; he had been a mystery boy I never had the guts to speak to at school. Now, we shared a stolen moment in time that I hoped would not be the last.
    Then as my thoughts swirled, I remembered Fostino’s words.
    Just do whatever you can to make sure they select you.
    I inhaled; my eyes still held his gaze. Then, he nodded and pulled his eyes to the women at the table. My head followed him and spun around to the front.
    My turn.

CHAPTER SIX

    “What is your name?” the woman behind the white makeup asked. She had the same clipped, sharp, mechanic voice as most everyone in The Party, and didn’t look up from the enormous stack of paperwork in front of her. Someone piled it almost as high as the woman’s chin. The manila file folders resembled stacked playing cards out of a Lewis Carroll novel.
    “Well, it’s...,” I fumbled with the hem of my blue