Read Online Audacious by Gabrielle Prendergast - Free Book Online

think you planned
    To go all the way
    She wanted to; I didn’t
    I was very confused last year
    You’re still confused aren’t you?
    No, not about you; I love you.

BUT FIRST, MY LAWYER CALLS
    What a joke our justice system is
    When charges are traded
    Like baseball cards
    I’ll give you misdemeanor, suspended
    If you give me hate crime.
    Hate crime, it seems, is valuable
    It gets media, it gets cred
    Whereas pinning a sex crime
    On a sixteen-year-old girl
    Is starting to lose its gloss
    They think I know something
    And are willing to deal for information
    My Lawyer thinks public opinion
    Has turned in my favor
    But David’s father will be disappointed
    If he had only asked two hours ago
    I would have happily turned them both in
    And let God sort them out
    But boy tears and reflection
    Changed my mind.
    There is no anti-Semite thug
    Just a mixed-up girl
    Who one hour ago I might have hated
    But now I pity
    I know how it feels to love Samir.

HONESTY
    After all,
    Who am I to judge?
    Neither of us realized
    What we did
    Was considered criminal
    After all
    She and I
    Are not so different
    That’s just the sort of stupid thing
    I would do
    After all
    We both love the same boy
    But he only loves one of us back
    I think; he could have used us both
    After all.

SORRY GENIE
    Sorry Genie
    But I know it was you
    I recognized the way you write your e
    I read your journal
    And made copies of the files
    Sorry Genie
    It’s best if you don’t make a scene
    I’m telling you before anyone else
    Except Samir, he knows
    But I think he suspected all along
    Sorry Genie
    I lied to you about your laptop
    I needed to find out the truth
    Because I knew Samir was innocent
    You understand
    Sorry Genie
    If we hurt you
    I didn’t know you were ever with him
    He kept your secret like you asked
    That’s got to be worth something
    Sorry Genie
    But we’re both so deeply in trouble
    If someone asks, and they will
    If I know who wrote those words
    I have to tell them.

THE LOOK ON HER FACE
    Could launch a thousand ships
    Could cleave your heart in twain
    Could make a grown man cry
    Could raise the dead
    But nothing could prepare me
    For her reaction.
    When hell freezes over…
    To the ends of the earth…
    Until the day I die…
    And something about the end of the universe.

THE OFFICE
    Volatile
    The three of us
    (Because Samir witnessed the whole sorry scene)
    Are sitting in the office
    The principal wants our stories
    And, of course, Genie goes first
    Confident
    Samir takes my hand and whispers
    This is going to end badly
    Then we kiss, tenderly
    Until the secretary clears her throat
    Samir puts his arm around my shoulders
    Defiant
    I imagine noosing Genie
    And pulling the knot tight
    Because I know what she’s doing
    How she is twisting the truth
    To suit her situation
    Impassive
    The principal emerges
    And speaks in clipped tones
    To the shocked secretary
    Please ask security to escort these two out
    Behind him, Genie stares
    Triumphant.

ODE TO LAWYERS
    When you have a lawyer
    You can skip the nasty parts
    Like being arrested
    For stealing a laptop
    They can phone you
    When you’re on the bus
    And break the bad news
    They can explain the new charges
    Without sounding impatient
    That you’ve screwed up again
    You can say things like
    I didn’t steal it, she gave it to me
    And leave out the part about tricking her
    And when you say
    What if I just leave town?
    They can’t tell your parents
    They pretend to be on your side
    And charge $250 per hour
    To listen to you sob with frustration.
    You have someone who knows everything
    And who will maybe understand
    When you decide to run away.

SAMIR’S BROTHER
    My love
    Have I told you about my brother?
    My father likes to pretend
    He doesn’t exist
    My brother
    Is older than Hala
    By three years
    Ten years older than me
    My brother
    Remembers the shelling
    The house being torn down
    Things I can’t remember at all
    My