Read Online The Lifeboat Clique by Kathy Parks - Free Book Online Page A

nosebleed seat in heaven at best.
    That night on that slowly moving roof, I asked God to welcome Croix into heaven, because if there was a heaven, that handsome dead boy was surely a candidate. Next, I asked God to please save me, and though I knew there were many souls out there worthy of saving, I had dreams and hopes and a straight B+ average and would have written a short essay on my qualifications had I any paper. I also apologized for all the jokes I had made at his expense and said I hoped he didn’t hold it against me. “It’s human nature, God,” I said silently, “to taunt the larger mystery. And you are very large.”
    I asked him to watch over my mother and Sonny Boy, and keep them safe and dry, and to watch over and protect all the people affected by the wave (although I felt guilty, because I didn’t care so much. I mean, I did in a theoretical way, but it is hard, I found, to care for people you have never met while you are slowly drying out on a rooftop drifting farther and farther away with a bunch of assholes who hate you).
    Speaking of which, I prayed for the assholes on the rooftop with me because, I admit, I thought God would look favorably on it, and besides, it seemed selfish not to. So as sincerely as I could, I prayed for their lives, too. Their entitled, arrogant, somewhat useless lives. Then I went back and prayed again and took out arrogant and useless so it would seem softer.
    I even said a special prayer for Abigail, because I was the better person.

SIETE
    TSUNAMIS GIVE YOU WEIRD DREAMS. IN THE DREAM, I WAS floating on the roof with Sonny Boy, and it seemed perfectly reasonable that he was there, never mind that he was a cat and hated water.
    He said, “How’s it going, dipshit?”
    But here’s the strange part. His voice was, like, an octave lower.
    I said, “Sonny Boy, what happened to your voice?”
    â€œI got my balls back, no thanks to you.”
    He lifted his leg so I could see them. They were huge—the size of golf balls.
    â€œYou touch them again and I’ll kill you.” I woke up, andthere was no Sonny Boy in sight, just a rising sun and a bunch of sleeping cool kids. I lay there for a minute, my cheek against the shingles of the roof, just letting my senses return to me. There had been a tsunami. A lot of people had died. And I might die, too. My eyes stung and tears ran down that funny way when you cry lying on your side, and a deep sniff drew seawater snot to the back of my throat and I sat up. Sienna and Hayley spooned each other. Abigail slept in a vampire position, her arms crossed over her. In her sleep, she looked so young, and I wondered what plans, if any, were forming in her dreams. Trevor also slept on his back, his fingers cupped and resting on his chest. Occasionally his fingers twitched and tapped. I noticed he had very long eyelashes and wondered why I’d never noticed that before.
    I looked out to a flat, endless sea.
    And something else.
    A boat.
    I rubbed my eyes in case my dream wasn’t over, and Sonny Boy was going to rise out of that boat and flash his newly restored balls at me.
    But no. It was a real boat, bobbing about a hundred yards away. It didn’t look very big, but something told me that roofs don’t float forever. And perhaps there was food on the boat. Water. A radio.
    â€œHey!” I shouted. “Wake up, wake up!”
    Abigail lifted her head up. She looked confused.
    â€œWhere are we?”
    â€œWe’re on the ocean. The tsunami, remember? Now look! Look over there.”
    She shielded her eyes and straightened.
    â€œWake up!” she screamed to the others. “It’s a boat!”
    The others slowly came to.
    â€œShit!” said Trevor.
    â€œIt’s drifting away from us!” Abigail said.
    Let me just take a very brief moment to tell you something about lonely girls. While other girls are flirting and texting and listening to whatever they