Read Online An Off Year by Claire Zulkey - Free Book Online

little self-conscious about how greasy my dirty hair felt and the ink stain on my jeans. I crossed one leg under the other. I wished I had something to say that was better than “Well, my roommate has a car and cooks dinner every night” (but Kate already knew that about my dad).
    I ended up telling the truth instead of trying to be upbeat and act like things were great. “I don’t know what I’m doing, Kate. I don’t know what happened. I have no plan. This was not very well thought out. I’m sure that twenty years from now, I’ll wish I had learned to play the harmonium or written a book or gone backpacking, but I don’t have any desire to do anything. That’s what worries me.” While I was talking, she pulled a small white patent leather cosmetics case out of her bag and, from that, a white plastic box, which she opened up. She pushed a tiny blue pill through a foil blister pack. She and Germaine looked like they were on the same brand of pill.
    â€œSeeing anyone special?” I asked.
    â€œSorry,” she said. “I have to take these the same time every day and I’m never up early enough to take them in the morning.”
    â€œGotcha,” I said.
    â€œAnd no, not any one particular person,” she said.
    â€œCool,” I said. I really didn’t feel like talking about boys.
    â€œSo anyway, you’re too cool for school,” she said. “Literally. That’s what I think.”
    â€œI don’t think I’m too anything for school,” I said.
    â€œDon’t overthink it,” she said, looking me in the eye. “I think you’ll be fine.”
    â€œOh yeah?” I asked. “How do you know?”
    â€œI don’t know,” she said. “You should come visit me.”
    â€œI should.” That would be fun, although I got the impression she didn’t totally mean it. Usually when we made plans, it was “Let’s go to the House on the Rock next week , let’s meet at the coffeehouse tomorrow , let’s hang out in an hour. ”
    â€œYou’ll be fine,” she said again. “You seem fine to me.”
    â€œThanks,” I said. “I miss you.”
    â€œHey, remember that time we poured glitter on Hank Thedford’s car after he pushed me in the pool senior year?” she asked.
    â€œHe was so pissed.”
    â€œAnd his friends called it the FairyMobile.” We laughed, but something about this sudden reminiscing felt strange. That had only happened a year ago.
    â€œHey, that’s crazy about Mike, don’t you think?” she asked, after a second.
    â€œWhat are you talking about?” I asked.
    â€œI saw him a few nights ago.”
    â€œWhere?”
    â€œAt the Cellar.”
    â€œOh yeah?”
    â€œEveryone from high school was there the night before Thanksgiving,” she said. I looked hard at her.
    â€œEveryone?” Everyone used to describe a group of people was one of my pet peeves. Whenever anybody said Everyone is going or Everyone was there, I was not a part of that Everyone .
    â€œEveryone with a fake I.D.,” she said, taking a sip from her drink so she didn’t have to look at me. My face grew hot, but I guess I couldn’t really feel that left out. I wouldn’t have been able to get in the stupid bar even if I had wanted to. And I hadn’t. But why did Kate even want to go, let alone have an I.D.?
    â€œYou have one now?” I asked.
    â€œIt’s the worst ever. I think that the guys at the bar just let me in because they’d never seen me before.”
    â€œLet me see it.”
    â€œI lent it to Meg for the rest of the weekend,” she said. “Sorry.”
    One of the reasons I hadn’t talked to Meg since junior year was that she accused me of pathetically following Mike around like a puppy. I said, “At least I’m a puppy, not a cow,” and we never spoke again. Kate had thought