Read Online fml by Shaun David Hutchinson - Free Book Online Page B

to ask Cassie when I was interrupted by a crash from the room to my left.
    â€œContact Scrabble,” Cassie explained, as if that was somehow supposed to make sense. “The debate team started a Scrabble game in the library, but Jody got the lacrosse guys involved and, well . . . Contact Scrabble.”
    â€œShould I break it up?” I asked, as if there was any way that I could do such a thing. Jody Johnson was a beast of a guy who spoke exclusively in grunts and wedgies.
    Cassie shrugged. “Why bother?” She moved as if we were touring the Louvre rather than an illicit, underage party. “Over there is the beer pong table,” she said, pointing to the room across from the library. I took a peek. All the furniture had been pushed up against the walls and a green Ping-Pong table sat in the center of the room, under a crystal chandelier that was begging for some drunk dick to swing from it. Dean Kowalcyk and his harem of girls were the sole occupants of the room, which was fine by me. Dean and I had briefly been mortal enemies in seventh grade, and I’d avoided him religiously since.
    â€œYou invited Dean?”
    â€œHe invited himself,” Cassie said. She stood in the foyer and looked down the hall toward what appeared to be the kitchen. “They all did. I don’t know half of these people.” For a second, I thought Cassie was going to lose it. Maybe I was being melodramatic—it had sort of been that kind of night for me—but I felt like I could see her standing on the precipice of some kind of emotional breakdown. She stood at the edge, looking over, thinking about jumping, and then used her own smile to tether herself to the now.
    I wasn’t just imagining it—there was something wrong with Cassie. It was so obvious that even blind Falcor could have seen it. And a better man would have put aside his ownselfish desires and tried to help Cassie. But I was not a better man. Not at that moment. I was still wearing blinders forged from the feelings of the more-than-a-crush I’d been harboring for Cassie since the first time I saw her. And I couldn’t help but hope that whatever was going on with Cassie might make her willing to kiss me. I’m not making excuses, but sometimes guys don’t always think with the brain that they ought to.
    â€œWhatever,” Cassie said. “It’s a party. Drink?”
    Without waiting for my answer, she took off down the hallway toward the kitchen, seemingly unconcerned with whether or not I followed. I tried to trail her wake, but where she had sliced like a knife through the hordes mingling in the narrow hall, I felt like a salmon struggling upstream, petrified that even if I made it to my destination, a motherfucking bear was going to rip me out of the water and eat my head off.
    Ben Kwon isn’t a bear, but when he grabbed me by the collar and pulled me into the dining room, I jumped.
    â€œSimon!” Ben said. He was slick with sweat and his eyes were bloodshot. “Got a condom? Tell me you have one in your wallet for that just-in-case that never comes. Unless you’ve managed to dip your fries in ketchup girl? Did you? Do you? Don’t toy with me, Simon.”
    I ducked out of Ben’s grasp and clapped my hand over his mouth. I needed to get my bearings. I wanted out of this room; I wanted to get to Cassie before the party swallowed her up.
    But Ben was staring at me like we were trapped on the moon and I have the only oxygen on the whole bloody rock.
    â€œWhy do you need a condom?” I asked, regretting my question immediately.
    Ben tossed his arm around my shoulder and tried to wrap me up in a sloppy hug. I could smell the same tequila on him that I’d smelled on Cassie. “Simon, buddy, bro. Got a condom or not?”
    â€œNo.”
    â€œUseless,” Ben said, and he let me go.
    I tried to leave, but Ben yanked me back. I fell into him and he stumbled into the