Read Online Thirteen Plus One by Lauren Myracle - Free Book Online Page B

... I mean ...”
    The bell rang.
    I’ve got to go to class,” Louise said with unsettling gentleness. ”I just thought you should know.”
     
    Speculation about Dinah ran rampant. Most theories were outlandish: that her father was so furious he was shipping her off to military school. That, in fact, she was already gone. Or that she’d been checked in to Georgia Regional Mental Hospital because she thought she was a vampire, and that’s what the makeup was for—so she could disguise her paleness in the light of day. Or, according to Lucy, a girl in my algebra class, the real issue was Dinah’s bulimia. Only, make that Dinah’s nonexistent bulimia.
    “A) Dinah’s not bulimic,” I said flatly. “And B) Just say she was. She’s bulimic ... and so she steals makeup?”
    Lucy pulled her algebra book, a binder, and a purple jeweled pen from her messenger bag. She arranged them fastidiously on her desk. “It’s a control issue,” she said. She laid a second pen by the first, lining them up so they were parallel. “Instead of food, she gorges on product.”
    I’d never bonded with Lucy. Now I knew why.
    Yet some of the stories possessed just enough of a maybe to worry me. I gnawed at the skin around my thumbnail until a whole chunk peeled free. It was gross.
    And, making everything infinitely worse, I couldn’t find Dinah all day , or get her to answer any of my texts. Maybe she’d lost her cell phone privileges? I called her landline the minute I got home, and my muscles loosened when she finally picked up.
    “Winnie, I’m such a bad friend,” she said. Her voice was thick from crying.
    “No, you’re not,” I said. Although what did I know?
    “I am,” she insisted. “I’m a horrible, horrible friend!”
    “Oh, Dinah,” I said. Off the record, I was gratified at her willingness to admit she’d done me wrong by not coming to me earlier. Way earlier. But this wasn’t about me. This was about her. Anyway, the best way for her to stop being a horrible friend was to simply come clean.
    “Why don’t you tell me what happened,” I suggested.
    “What happened is that I got Mary suspended ! ” Her voice ratcheted to a new level of frenzy. “Now she’s suspended instead of me!”
    “I’m sorry ... huh?”
    “I’m suspended, too, but only for one day, and I get to make up any work I miss. But Mary’s suspended for a whole week, and it goes on her permanent record!”
    I didn’t speak.
    “See? I am a bad friend! A horrible, horrible friend!”
    I still didn’t speak. I felt cold inside.
    “Winnie, say something,” she begged. “Mary already hates me. Now you’re starting to worry me, too!”
    “Yes, but you see, I thought you already were worried about me,” I said, pinching off the words. “I thought you meant a bad friend to me, because you didn’t come to me with your shoplifting problem, which I didn’t even know you had.”
    Dinah fell silent. Then she started crying again. I could hear the muffled sounds of it, and I couldn’t bear it.
    “So Mary’s behind all this?” I asked. “Mary Woods?”
    “Well, yeah, it’s her makeup—didn’t you know?”
    Irritation resurfaced. “How would I? You sure didn’t tell me!”
    “Don’t be mean to me,” she whispered.
    I tried to smush my anger back. I did. Or at least to redirect it at Mary, with her crafty fox-face. Cute shirt, Winnie! Cinnamon, love your nails. Dinah ... don’t tell.
    “Was she blackmailing you?” I asked.
    “What? No.”
    “But you said it was her makeup. Hers, as in she owned it? Or hers as in she stole it?”
    Dinah didn’t answer.
    “Why did she put it in your locker?” I demanded. “Did she do it without your knowing it? Omigod, did she set you up on purpose?”
    “Winnie ...”
    “So Mary Woods is a shoplifter,” I pronounced. “What a loser.”
    “She has a problem,” Dinah said faintly.
    “Omigod, are you defending her? ” I should have stopped there, but I didn’t. “Are you a