Read Online Freaks and Revelations by Davida Wills Hurwin - Free Book Online Page B

here.”
    “Oh, okay. I understand,” he says, but doesn’t shut the door. “Thanks anyway.” He looks sad. “You’re very nice.”
    On an impulse, I get in the car.
    “Go straight,” I say, pointing. I can feel my cheeks get warm. What the hell am I doing? What if my mother comes home, or one of our nosy neighbors sees me and tells? I don’t even know this boy. Why am I not scared?
    At 7-Eleven, we pull into a back space, away from other cars. He is soooo cute! Without saying a word, he helps me into the back. He’s got a twin mattress there and three huge red and black pillows, like something out of a ’60s movie. He kisses me. We fool around and when I stop him, it’s fine. He understands, leans back, smiles. It’s very romantic. His breath smells faintly of menthol and cigarettes.
    He kisses me again and this time, we go further.
    After, he lights a cigarette and offers me one. I take it but I don’t inhale; the smoke makes me cough.
    “You’re really beautiful,” he says and I smile. “How old are you?”
    “Almost fifteen.” I lie. I’ll be thirteen in August.
    “Can I see you again?”
    “I don’t know.”
    “Just in case, here’s my phone number,” he scribbles on the back of an envelope. “If you call, I’ll pick you up. Anywhere you say.” We kiss and he cups my face in his hand, just like Jonathan did. “I love your green eyes.”
    I smile as I walk home after. I wish I could tell Davy about him, or at least Marianne. “His name is Charles,” I’d say. “He just turned seventeen. Very handsome. He wants me to call him. You’d like him. He thinks I’m beautiful.”
    I get home just in time to climb into my bed before Mom and them get back. I really am flushed now and don’t have to pretend at all.
    I see Charles three more times. I tell Mom I’m working with a teacher after school, then meet him out back behind the field. We drive somewhere we can park without getting hassled. We don’t talk a lot, but it’s okay. He’s sweet. He makes me feel important.
    Usually, when he drops me back off, I scramble out of the van, but this time, I sneak one last kiss. My luck—it’s just as Hugo Leone and Fat Ralph are coming out of soccer practice. Charles drives off, but I can tell by their faces that they saw everything.
    “Sicko!” Hugo growls, him and Fat Ralph coming up close behind me as I hurry toward the street to get home. They can’t do anything—the coach and rest of the team are around—but still they surround me, keep me from moving.
    “Who should we tell first?” Ralph says. “Marianne?”
    “Hell, no, we got to tell Sister Mary Margaret. Or maybe Mother Superior.”
    “Leave me alone,” I mutter.
    “That’s a sin against God, you know,” Hugo says, and they both laugh. “You’ll be expelled.”
    “Maybe even tomorrow,” Ralph says, and they high-five each other, then abruptly turn the other way.
    I never call Charles again. I’m scared to. I watch Sister Mary Margaret. Nothing. Marianne doesn’t seem any different, either. Only me. Now I try get to school just as class starts and leave immediately after. Still, it feels like they’re always watching.
    *   *   *
    It’s late summer when I have my revelation. I’m finally thirteen. Mom makes me a birthday cake and fixes pot roast and potatoes for dinner, my favorite. She gives me a pullover sweater the exact same green as my eyes. And hers. I try it on. She smiles and leans in to give me a little kiss on my cheek.
    “Makes up for last year, huh?” she whispers.
    Last year Elvis Presley died—on my birthday. When Mom heard, she dropped my cake, then locked herself in her room and didn’t come out for three days. Nobody knew what to do, not even Dad.
    All of this rambles around my head as Davy and I ride BART home from class. I’m wearing my new sweater. It’s still light out even though we have late classes in summer. I think about last year, how weird it was that no one but Marianne told