Read Online Skinned -1 by Robin Wasserman - Free Book Online

ruined the last one.
    “This has been a lot of excitement for you today, Lia,” he said politely. “You must be tired.”
    I didn’t get tired anymore. I only shut down at night because it was on the schedule, and I only fol owed the schedule because I didn’t have anything better to do.
    I nodded. They filed toward the doorway, and I fol owed, half-wishing I could leave with them and half-wishing they would go and never come back. This time my mother forced herself to hug me, and I let her, although I kept my arms at my sides. It was strange to have her so close without breathing in the familiar scent of rosemary. But then, it was probably strange for her, with our chests pressed together and her arms around my shoulders, that I wasn’t breathing at al . I thought about faking it for a few seconds, just to make things easier for her. But I didn’t.
    “We’re so proud of you,” she whispered, as if I had done anything other than what I was told—turn off, turn on, survive. I felt something brush my cheek as she pul ed away, but I couldn’t tel what. Maybe a stray hair. Maybe a tear. Maybe I was just wanting to feel something so badly that I’d imagined it.
    My father squeezed my shoulder. The new body was tal er than mine, I realized. He and I were the same height. He didn’t say he was proud of me.
    Another family policy: Kahns don’t lie.

    Zo was last, and I stopped her before she could slip out the door. Her hair was looking better than usual. Not so greasy. And cut shorter, so that it bounced around her shoulders, the way mine used to when it was real.
    “Zo, people at school…” I kept my voice low, so our parents wouldn’t hear. “Are people asking about me? Or, you know. Talking about me?” She gave me a funny half smile. “Aren’t they always?”
    “No, I mean…” I didn’t know what I meant. “Have you seen, I mean, have you talked to any of my friends? You know, Terra or Cass or…”
    “Walker knows I’m here, if that’s what you’re asking.” Zo leaned against the doorway and kept scratching at the bridge of her nose, which, unless she’d developed a rash, seemed mostly like a convenient way to stare at her hand rather than at me.
    “Did he—” But if he’d sent along a message, she would have said so already. And if he hadn’t, I didn’t want to ask. Besides, he would never reach for me that way, through Zo.
    “Is he doing okay?”
    “I know it’s hard to believe, but the world is managing to revolve on its axis even without your daily presence,” Zo snapped.
    “Rotate.”
    “What?”
    “The world rotates on its axis,” I corrected her, because it was al I could think of to say.
    “Right. It revolves around you. How could I forget?”
    I grabbed her arm. She yanked it away, like I’d burned her. Her face twisted, just for a second, and then the apathetic funk was back so quickly, I almost thought I’d imagined the change. “Why are you acting like such a bitch?” I asked.
    “Who says I’m acting?”
    I hadn’t necessarily expected her to burst into tears and sweep me into her arms when she first saw me, just like I hadn’t expected her to tel me how much she loved me and missed me or to gush about how scary it had been when she thought I was going to die. I guess, knowing Zo, I hadn’t even expected her to be particularly nice. But we were sisters.
    And she was the reason I had been in the car.
    I’d expected…something.
    “Come on, Zo. This isn’t you.”
    She gave me a weird look. “How would you know?”
    “I’m your sister,” I pointed out, aiming for nasty but landing uncomfortably close to needy.
    She shrugged. “So I’m told.”
    After she left, I sat down again on one of the uncomfortable benches and stared out the window, imagining them piling into the car, one big happy Lia-free family, driving away, driving home. Then I went back to my room, climbed into bed, and shut myself down.

    I’d set my handy internal alarm to wake me nine