Gone Too Far Read Online Free

so I can get over it.
    I flip the cover to find the pictures have shifted in my bag. One corner of Anna’s photo is visible, vacant eyeholes changing her smile into something sinister. I push them back into the folder. I don’t think the pictures are going to tell me anything. Or maybe I just don’t want to look at them anymore.
    Either way, there are other things to focus on. Like all those stupid names. Or the Latin, which I could ask Hadley about.
    I flip to November 2nd to get Shane’s nickname from the accident entry. RJG. I know jack all about him, so it could mean anything. I’ve got to find something else.
    I flip through the pages, looking for another mention. The only other mention of RJG/Shane is an ass smack in the middle of the hallway, but I wasn’t there for that. And it’s hardly newsworthy. But there are other, scarier things in here. Like the cretin sending crotch shots to freshmen, or whoever Tricky is and whatever goods he’s dealing.
    I’m guessing Tucker Smith for that one. Most of the kids around here are content to get drunk in someone’s hot tub or maybe pass around an occasional joint. Dealing pharmaceuticals on school property is a bit big city for us.
    I thumb through a couple more pages but stop on October 12th.
    LQ says he’ll beat the shit out of Shutter if she doesn’t shut her piehole
    My arms tighten with goose bumps. That’s me. Me and Manny. I’d given him a ride that day. It was a crap morning. Manny wasn’t ready when I got to his place, and then on the way to school, he’d dropped the bomb on me that he was bailing on his post-graduation community college plans for at least a year. Told me not everyone had a fat education fund waiting for them like I did.
    I was so shocked that I almost missed Hemlock Street. Spilled my coffee all over both of us to make the turn.
    We fought the rest of the six blocks to school over the college thing and the money thing, even over the stupid coffee. And halfway down the main hallway, he said this. These exact words.
    I can still see him shaking his blond head, coffee spatter staining the hem of his ancient Green Day T-shirt. I was sporting a matching stain on my jeans.
    â€œI don’t get why you can’t just take a loan like you planned,” I said. “It’s like you want me to nag.”
    â€œReally don’t.”
    â€œThen don’t give up on college, Manny.”
    â€œYou sound like a public service announcement.”
    â€œIf you’d prefer, I could try a jaunty song about the merits of higher education.”
    He’d finally grinned. “I’m gonna beat the shit out of you if you don’t shut your piehole.”
    It was a joke. That comment was the end of the fight, not the beginning. And anyone who knows anything about us would know that. Manny wouldn’t hurt me. Not ever. He’d pound anyone else who tried.
    We’ve been friends since before the beginning of time. We even dated briefly—a disastrous error in judgment for both of us—during sophomore year. If whoever wrote this thought what he said that morning was some sort of legitimate threat… I don’t know, maybe the whole book is crap like this, stuff blown way out of proportion.
    Maybe.
    A quick scan of the pages reveals that I’m only listed once. Unless I’ve got more than one nickname. I search again, this time for Manny, who, for reasons I can’t fathom, is LQ.
    I find his nickname three more times. Once propositioning Candace for sex. No surprise there. Two other times in October.
    I spot the first one on October 7th.
    IB paying LQ to clear some record up
    And then on October 23rd.
    LQ blackmailing Reese, possibly over attendance corrections?
    A breathless laugh spurts from my mouth. I read the entries again. Manny. Blackmailing someone. Sure.
    The idea’s so ridiculous I throw the book back in my bag and close the flap. I laugh again.