Read Online Naked by Francine Pascal - Free Book Online

supposed to know someone else would see me and spread it all over school?”
    â€œYou shouldn’t have to know, Ed!” Heather shouted. “Because you should have been with
me,
not with
her.
”
    â€œWhat?”
    Heather slapped her hands down to her sides, and her entire body froze on the corner of Houston and Sullivan. And then her mouth took over. “Wake up, Ed! This isn’t just about betraying me. It’s about
whom
you betrayed me for. Note my correct usage of ‘whom.’ Because I’m not an idiot, Ed. I’m not a blind idiot. You’re in love with her. Do you think I’m so narcissistic that I haven’t seen that?”
    â€œHeather—”
    â€œAnd I don’t even know how you feel about me, Ed. I really don’t. I mean, you can’t really trust me if you still blame me.”
    Ed paused. He blinked several times rapidly, glaring at her in the fading sunlight. His face seemed to go pale. “For what?” he demanded.
    â€œThe
accident,
Ed,” she said. And until the words were out there, dangling between them like a wrecking ball, she hadn’t even realized she wasgoing to bring it up. But she had lost control. She was too upset to think rationally. “Don’t pretend you don’t know what I’m talking about. I know you still blame me; we just don’t talk about it. It’s just buried there, right under the surface, like this rotting corpse stinking up our entire relationship.” Her throat was so tight, she could barely finish. “If you don’t know that by now, that’s your problem, not mine.”
    She sniffed violently and wiped her face—and to her surprise, her hand came back wet. She hadn’t even realized she was crying. Maybe she should just quit while she was ahead and get the hell away from him. After all, she’d pretty much said everything she had to say. And a lot of things she hadn’t wanted to say. Now she just wanted to go home.
    Ed’s expression was oddly serious and resigned. “Nothing you just said was true,” he stated.
    â€œI’m out of here,” she said, nearly whispering—not for dramatic effect, only out of weakness.
    â€œI’ll take you.” Ed reached from his crutch to take Heather’s hand.
    â€œDon’t,” she said, shrinking away from him. And then, before she even knew it, she was sprinting east down Houston Street—toward the night that was fast approaching.
ED
    You’d
think after all these months, I would have figured out what the hell goes on in the mind of Gaia Moore, but this morning proved once again that I have absolutely no clue.
    I mean, sure, there are those days when she brings new meaning to the word
bitchy,
but I’m used to that. I know what that looks like. But that has nothing to do with what was going on this morning.
    I’ve played the whole thing over so many times, and I still cannot figure out what I said to piss her off. I wasn’t talking about Heather—that always pisses her off. I wasn’t joking about her wardrobe—that’s a great way to get her all riled up. Was it about what happened in the park? She hates it when I try to be the hero. But I don’t think so. She was grateful for that day. I know she was.
    Unless it did have something to do with the crutches. Theywere really the only thing that made this morning different from any other morning. Maybe she was just pissed to find out I was taller than she was—which, I must admit, I found quite enjoyable. But that couldn’t possibly be what was making her so distant.
    And that last moment we had before Heather showed up? It felt like someone had just plugged me into an electrical socket. What the hell was that about?
    I mean, I’m not stupid, I know what that was about for
me.
I’m not a five-year-old. I know what it feels like when two people have that. . .
    No. Bullshit. All this hobbling is