Read Online Watch Me Disappear by Diane Vanaskie Mulligan - Free Book Online Page B
Authors: Diane Vanaskie Mulligan
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says.
We do not waste a minute.
The drizzling rain has returned. I drag my bare feet in the grass. My hands are shaking. Wes and his friends follow us from the pavilion. We stand in a misshapen circle in the dark.
“What the heck was that about?” Missy asks.
I shake my head. “She’s my neighbor, and she hates me.”
“No kidding,” Wes says. After a moment he adds, “If it makes you feel any better, most people hate her.”
“Her? Miss Popularity?” I ask, looking at him.
He pushes his hair back behind his ears. “Maybe she used to be,” he says, “but she’s been making people’s lives hell since middle school, and even the prettiest girl can’t get away with that forever.”
That’s news to me. I am pretty sure that beautiful people are generally immune to the rules of polite society that the rest of us must obey. “Yeah, but she doesn’t know that, does she?” I ask.
“I doubt it,” he says.
“Uh, Lizzie?” Missy says, touching my elbow. “Is that your dad?” She points toward a man who is indeed my father, standing in the middle of the pavilion.
“What time is it?”
“9:20,” one of Wes’s friends chimes in.
I had lost track of the time. It had been such a gray and gloomy day that it never sunk in how dark it had gotten outside. And I have to admit, before Maura lost her dinner at my feet, I was having fun. I guess the old “time flies” expression contains some truth. As I hurry toward my dad, I hear Missy quickly explaining to Wes and his friends.
“If it were up to me, I’d let you stay until the end,” my dad says when I reach him. He turns to lead Missy and me to the car where undoubtedly my mother is getting ever more annoyed with me.
Oddly enough, I don’t feel the usual dread of my mother’s anger. It was sort of a fun night (up until the end), and I guess I am ready to pay the price. Besides, I so seldom give her real cause for anger (sure we snip at each other, but I don’t get into real trouble. Even tonight—9:20—it’s not like I stayed out hours past curfew or anything). Anyway, I know she will save her true temper for when we get home. She won’t get too heated in front of Missy.
* * *
Turns out my mother thought her best reproach tonight was the silent treatment. She said nothing to me or Missy in the car, she said nothing after we dropped Missy off, and when we got home, she went straight upstairs without a word to me. My dad and I sat in the living room watching TV until around 10 when he went to bed.
I finally had my first real high school social experience. I went out with a friend to a large gathering of teenagers where there were few adults. I sat around gossiping with other kids from school. I was actually part of a group, if only for a couple of hours. And—the only part I would have liked to skip—I was the center of attention in a scene of teenaged drunkenness. At least I had not been the one drinking, and I had not gotten into any trouble. But best of all, I have a friend. Missy came to my side when I was on the spot, while Maura’s friends, except that one boy, just stood by and watched.
As I sit here now, half replaying the evening in my mind, half-watching Tosh.0 (Just imagine if my mother came downstairs right now and learned that on top of everything else, my dad did not enforce “bed time” and I’m watching completely trash on TV!), it occurs to me that although I still cannot get away with using Facebook at home, I can communicate with Missy freely on the phone now, and I can even talk to Wes and his friends without wondering how I will explain meeting them to my parents. I can have an almost normal teenage existence. All I am missing is a cell phone.
Chapter 5
This afternoon I was hanging out in the kitchen while Mrs. Morgan and my mom sat in the living room. They weren’t talking to me, but they weren’t talking so softly that I couldn’t hear them
We do not waste a minute.
The drizzling rain has returned. I drag my bare feet in the grass. My hands are shaking. Wes and his friends follow us from the pavilion. We stand in a misshapen circle in the dark.
“What the heck was that about?” Missy asks.
I shake my head. “She’s my neighbor, and she hates me.”
“No kidding,” Wes says. After a moment he adds, “If it makes you feel any better, most people hate her.”
“Her? Miss Popularity?” I ask, looking at him.
He pushes his hair back behind his ears. “Maybe she used to be,” he says, “but she’s been making people’s lives hell since middle school, and even the prettiest girl can’t get away with that forever.”
That’s news to me. I am pretty sure that beautiful people are generally immune to the rules of polite society that the rest of us must obey. “Yeah, but she doesn’t know that, does she?” I ask.
“I doubt it,” he says.
“Uh, Lizzie?” Missy says, touching my elbow. “Is that your dad?” She points toward a man who is indeed my father, standing in the middle of the pavilion.
“What time is it?”
“9:20,” one of Wes’s friends chimes in.
I had lost track of the time. It had been such a gray and gloomy day that it never sunk in how dark it had gotten outside. And I have to admit, before Maura lost her dinner at my feet, I was having fun. I guess the old “time flies” expression contains some truth. As I hurry toward my dad, I hear Missy quickly explaining to Wes and his friends.
“If it were up to me, I’d let you stay until the end,” my dad says when I reach him. He turns to lead Missy and me to the car where undoubtedly my mother is getting ever more annoyed with me.
Oddly enough, I don’t feel the usual dread of my mother’s anger. It was sort of a fun night (up until the end), and I guess I am ready to pay the price. Besides, I so seldom give her real cause for anger (sure we snip at each other, but I don’t get into real trouble. Even tonight—9:20—it’s not like I stayed out hours past curfew or anything). Anyway, I know she will save her true temper for when we get home. She won’t get too heated in front of Missy.
* * *
Turns out my mother thought her best reproach tonight was the silent treatment. She said nothing to me or Missy in the car, she said nothing after we dropped Missy off, and when we got home, she went straight upstairs without a word to me. My dad and I sat in the living room watching TV until around 10 when he went to bed.
I finally had my first real high school social experience. I went out with a friend to a large gathering of teenagers where there were few adults. I sat around gossiping with other kids from school. I was actually part of a group, if only for a couple of hours. And—the only part I would have liked to skip—I was the center of attention in a scene of teenaged drunkenness. At least I had not been the one drinking, and I had not gotten into any trouble. But best of all, I have a friend. Missy came to my side when I was on the spot, while Maura’s friends, except that one boy, just stood by and watched.
As I sit here now, half replaying the evening in my mind, half-watching Tosh.0 (Just imagine if my mother came downstairs right now and learned that on top of everything else, my dad did not enforce “bed time” and I’m watching completely trash on TV!), it occurs to me that although I still cannot get away with using Facebook at home, I can communicate with Missy freely on the phone now, and I can even talk to Wes and his friends without wondering how I will explain meeting them to my parents. I can have an almost normal teenage existence. All I am missing is a cell phone.
Chapter 5
This afternoon I was hanging out in the kitchen while Mrs. Morgan and my mom sat in the living room. They weren’t talking to me, but they weren’t talking so softly that I couldn’t hear them
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