Read Online 7 Souls by Barnabas Miller, Jordan Orlando - Free Book Online Page B

tried many times, over and over. Finally she’d given up.
    “That’s okay,” she said automatically. “I do look bad. I’m—I’m having a bad day.”
    Amy nodded sympathetically.
    That’s it? Mary found herself wondering. You’re just going to nod? No “Sorry to hear that”? No “Happy birthday”?
    But that was asking for the moon, she thought bitterly. For some reason, nobody was going to say it (except Ellen, at home this morning, she amended). She believed she would get through the entire day without a single birthday greeting. She’d stopped minding—honestly.
    Everyone’s against me today. The whole world’s against me .
    Rather than fishing for it, rather than playing word games and hoping Amy would come to her senses and say happy birthday (and apologize and turn red), Mary just reached for her friend and pulled her close, hugging her. She couldn’t help it; she just felt so helpless and alone.
    Amy stiffened. She always stiffened when Mary hugged her; Mary wasn’t sure why. Amy’s arms came up slowly and hugged back, her thumbs tracing the curves of Mary’s shoulder blades.
    “I’m having such a bad day,” Mary said into Amy’s cloud of Renaissance hair, a lump forming in her throat that she forced herself to ignore. “Patrick dumped me.”
    “What?” Amy pulled away, her eyes wide. “He did what?”
    “Broke up with me. This morning.”
    “What? What?” Amy stared at her. “Wait a second. You’re not messing with me?”
    Mary shook her head. “Not messing with you.”
    “Is he insane?” Amy wondered. “He broke up with you? That’s like …” Amy pushed her hair back from her face, groping for words. “That’s like, I don’t know, winning the lottery and then throwing the ticket away.”
    “Thanks,” Mary said hollowly. It was a nice thing to say, but somehow it didn’t help. “Look, Amy, can you just—can you just make sure you’ve got my back today? I don’t know what’s wrong with—”
    “Of course .” Amy squeezed her shoulder, her eyebrows climbing, yearningly. “I’ll do anything for you. You know that.”
    “Everything except miss your next class,” Mary said. She was starting to feel better—and she realized that the corridor’s population was thinning out. Amy had a couple of minutes to get to wherever she was going. “Thanks, Ame. Really.”
    “What about your next class?” Amy was checking her watch. “Didn’t you just have some big test or someth—”
    “I’m going to the nurse,” Mary told her. She’d made up her mind, just like that. “I’m not—There’s something wrong. I can’t explain; I just … I just don’t feel right.”
    “Well, you look great,” Amy said again, her eyes roving appreciatively up and down Mary’s figure. “You’ve got that going for you. Why do you always look so pretty, damn it? I’m such a cow.”
    Mary had stopped listening because she saw Scott Sanders at the other end of the corridor. Scott was walking briskly, hurrying to his next class, his overstuffed red book-bag bouncing behind him, his thick legs jiggling within his pleated khakis. “Hey!” she yelled, making Amy flinch and then turn to see whom she was yelling at. “Hey, Scott!”
    “Mary?” Scott squinted quizzically at her. “What in the Sam Hill is the matter with you, woman?”
    “What—” Mary couldn’t figure out what Scott meant. Scott always used corny phrases like What in the Sam Hill and How in blue blazes . “What do you mean, what’s the matter with me? I was about to ask you the same—”
    “I’m sorry,” Amy interrupted, squeezing Mary’s shoulder. “I’ve got to get to Art History—I’ll catch up with you.”
    Amy leaned to kiss Mary on the cheek and then sprinted away. Mary was barely listening—all her attention was on Scott.
    “You just skipped the test,” Scott marveled. “Brilliant; innovative. Did you actually think that would work? Shama even asked us where you were, since your name’s not