Wherever Nina Lies Read Online Free PDF

liquid. She’s wearing silver lamé boy shorts and a silver bikini top. Swirling silver dragon wings rise up out of her back and point toward the sky.
    The other girl is leaning over, looking for something in the backseat, her face obscured by the mass of black hair that’s piled on top of her head. She’s wearing what looks like a black rubber tank top that stops right below her butt, a pair of fishnets, and giant black boots.
    “Come on, Freshie,” says the white-haired one. Her voice is clear and sweet. It’s easy to imagine what she would sound like singing. “My psychic powers are telling me your boyfriend is this close”—she holds her thumb and first finger up, pressed together even though Freshie can’t see her—“to hooking up with some other girl. If you don’t hurry up, you’re going to find someone else attached to the end of his tongue when we get there.”
    “Well, use your psychic powers to tell him he can attachhis tongue to whatever he wants!” Freshie laughs. “His tongue is his business. And my business is…THIS!” She stands up, a sledgehammer clutched in her right hand, its gnarled wooden handle is as thick as her skinny arm. “Smashing time, baby. Let’s go!”
    “Wait!” The white-haired one reaches down and fishes a tiny digital camera out of her boot. “Excuse me!” She’s looking right at me. “Would you mind taking a picture of me and Freshie?” Her head is tipped to the side. Her bright green eyes are lined in black and silver. She’s holding out her camera.
    “Sure,” I say. I take it. I can feel myself blushing in the dark, embarrassed to be caught staring. But they don’t seem to mind.
    Freshie comes over and they put their arms around each other.
    “Smile,” I say. Their smiles are dazzling. They’re exactly the type of people Nina would have been friends with. The flash goes off. At the last second, Freshie opens her mouth wide and licks her friend’s cheek. Her friend bursts out laughing.
    I hand the white-haired girl back her camera.
    My heart is pounding.
    “Hey,” I say. “Can I ask you guys something?”
    I take the photograph out of my pocket, the one I always carry with me. It’s this snapshot of Nina that I found in herroom shortly after she disappeared. It might be my favorite picture of her. I don’t know who took the photo, but the way she’s looking at the camera, her green eyes twinkling, her enormous sunny smile taking over half her face, it’s as though she’s sharing ajoke with whoever’s behind it. Sometimes when I look at the picture, I pretend that person is me.
    I hold the picture out to Freshie and her friend.
    “Have you seen this girl here before? Maybe at another party or something?” Freshie looks at me, and takes the picture from my hand. She leans down so she can see it by the car’s interior light. Her friend leans over her shoulder. They look at it for about five seconds, during which time I do not breathe. Then they stand back up.
    “Sorry,” Freshie says, shaking her head. “Never seen her.”
    Her friend shrugs. “Yeah, sorry,” and then, “but I like her hair!” As though that’s a consolation.
    “Well thanks for looking,” I say. I feel Amanda reach out and squeeze my arm.
    “Thanks for taking our picture,” Freshie says. And then Freshie slams the car door shut with her hip and the girls walk hand in hand down the hill.
    We follow them silently, our eyes slowly adjusting to the light. The back of my neck starts tingling. I look around. It’s so deserted out here.
    “Hey,” I say quietly. Amanda looks over at me, I can see her eyes shining in the dark.
    “Yeah?”
    “Thanks for coming,” I say. She nods and links her arm through mine, and we walk, the sounds of the party getting louder with every step. A few minutes later, we round a corner, walk past a clump of bushes, and then, there we are.
    Up ahead is an enormous, eerily beautiful mansion out of another era, the sort of place where there