Drain You Read Online Free Page B

running last year. Stiles and Libby were on and off, sleeping together casually and then pretending not to care when they ran intoeach other accidentally at concerts or parties—which they did more and more often these days. She was tight-lipped about their time alone together, even to me, and I knew some house party crowded with other possible suitors and cling-ons wasn’t a likely place for her to dish new heartfelt confessions. Still, it seemed unfair to make Sanders a witness. But whatever. Libby didn’t approve of my holdout from Morgan, and I was in no position to challenge her motives with the twins.
    “How’s that going to work?” I said.
    “Like butter, dude. It’s cool beans.”
    “I’m sure.”
    “So you’ll be there?”
    “Yeah, I’m there.” Party on.
    “What about you, Morgan?” Libby asked.
    “I’ve got that shift off,” he said.
    “Sweet. It’s, like, hat themed. You have to wear a hat; it’s mandatory. Crucial to your entrance.”
    “That’s pretty weak on the theme tip,” I said.
    “Last minute. Live with it.” She shrugged. “Just wear that thing you got that one time for my Last of the Mohicans party. And Morgan, you’ll figure something out, right?”
    “I think I can handle it.”
    “Cool beans,” she said again, making it stick. “Well, I totally can’t stay, my mom’s still out there freaking.”
    Stella Block looked asleep, her head lolled back on the driver’s-seat neck rest. I walked with Libby to the door and seized her by the elbow. She winced at my grip.
    “Way to go. Now Morgan’s going to take me and I’ll have to be his date all night. He’ll be bragging till graduation.”
    She tried to jerk her arm away, but I held steady. “Invite Naomi then, chill out.”
    I loosened in surprise at the name.
    “Invite her brother too, I don’t care.”
    I let her go.
    “God, Quinn.”
    Then I noticed as Libby glared at me and rubbed her forearm that her wrist was covered in a stack of silver bangle bracelets, thirty, maybe forty of them. Underneath the bracelets her skin was blotched and purplish-blue, the hue of a bad bruise. She saw me staring at the jewelry and raised her arm closer.
    “Stiles gave them to me. They’re, like, antiques. Stella says they’re Mexican silver or something. Totally eighties, but still…” Libby pulled her hand away as her voice trailed off.
    After a pause Libby flipped her hair, smiled weakly, and said, “Well, I better go, you’re at work.” Then she leaned in and kissed my cheek.
    I watched her through the glass as she model-walkedaway. Then, remembering something, she turned around and mimed a big halo around her head and mouthed the words Wear a hat , slowly and deliberately. She threw up a peace sign, jumped in the car, and was gone.
    Morgan was crouched over in the game aisle, reorganizing the section. I walked straight past, pretending not to hear him ask, “Need a ride to the party…or what?”
     
    By ten the store was banging. I probably walked past her six times without realizing she was waiting for me to notice her. Finally, by the Disney section, I spotted the sunflower dress and my eyes focused.
    “Naomi, hi.”
    “Which Hayley Mills movie should I get? Pollyanna or The Parent Trap ?” she asked, without making eye contact. She wore lacy cream-colored socks rolled down over peach ballet slippers, and her thin, dirty-blond hair was swept to one side with a crocheted clip. She clutched a small Coach bag that looked expensive and adult-y.
    “You…are…Pollyanna,” I joked.
    She looked up at me blankly, then back to the videos.
    “Never mind,” I said.
    “Look,” she said, “I just want to explain myself for what happened Wednesday night. James and I got in a dumb fight, and he left in the middle of it, so I ran after him and fell on some rocks and scraped my hands up.That’s it. I was just being an idiot. He felt bad about the whole thing. He didn’t want you to be upset or think he’d pushed me