Marianne by Elizabeth Hammer (best books to read in life TXT) 📕

“Oh, good,” said Marianne. “What?”

“When you kissed me.”

Marianne dropped her pen. “Huh?”

“Remember,” said Georgia, flailing her hands in excitement. “At the beach, when we kissed!”

“What the?” Marianne could hardly close her mouth. “You mean when you fell onto my face?”

Georgia nodded. “Yeah.”

“What the hell? Georgia!” Marianne looked toward the others for help. “I can’t… That’s not even a real thing… He’ll think I’m a lesbian!”

“But, but…”

“Sit down!” shouted Marianne. “Anyone else got anything?”

“Just do the co-dependent ladies, Marianne,” said Sally. “You’re running out of time.”

“Okay, fine.”

Those ladies at the arcade were yelling at you because I told them my boyfriend was abnormal.

Two o’clock:

Sally had to type out and send the text because Marianne was rather indisposed. She’d broken down so badly that Georgia had to stick her in a restroom stall to protect all the poor children who were walking by.

“He’s not going to show,” wailed Marianne. “This was so stupid! What was I thinking?”

“It’s okay, sweetie,” said Georgia, patting her back. “It’s okay.”

Marianne sat up and dried her face with her wad of toilet paper. “And now my makeup’s all ruined.”

“I brought some with me,” said Georgia, patting her again. She handed Marianne a new bunch of toilet paper. “Just relax.”

“I can’t.” She was fully hyperventilating now. “I can’t. This is the stupidest thing I’ve ever done.”

“Oh, you know that’s not true, honey,” said Georgia. “You wouldn’t be in this mess if that were true.”

Sobs. “Why do you hate me?” moaned Marianne.

The door to the stall banged open. “All right, kid,” said Sally. “We sent it.”

Marianne whipped her head up and wiped her nose. “Which one? What’d you say? Read it to me.”

Sally flipped open Marianne’s phone and read, “‘Remember that poem from Dark Lord Alvin? I actually did think it was catchy.’”

“No!” screamed Marianne. “I only thought it was almost catchy. The tiniest bit catchy. I wasn’t even going to use that one because it’s so insignificant.”

“I know, I know,” said Sally, rolling her eyes. “But Ben thought it would be a good setup for the dishwasher one.” She shrugged. “He thinks you need to lighten the mood between the hard confessions. Plus, Alvin was moping around behind us. He was still acting butt-hurt because you said you weren’t going to use it.”

“You dorks! You dorks!”

Three o’clock:

This next one didn’t go much better. When the time came, Marianne refused to send the agreed-upon message because it was too mean, and Andrew had to wrestle the phone away from her and go send it himself.

I hated when you would do stuff like give me hints on Solitaire or tell me how to load the dishwasher. I always said it was fine, but it wasn’t.

Four o’clock:

“Okay, okay. I’ll do the dress one,” said Marianne, detaching herself from Raven. “Someone get this crazy girl away from me so I can type.”

You were right; that grey dress I wore to the movies was new. I didn’t want you to think I shop too much.

Five o’clock:

Most everyone was on Space Mountain, but Dark Lord Alvin had stayed outside to keep Marianne company. She was half-way through her message when the Dark Lord grabbed her arm.

“Look!” he shouted. “It’s Gary Coleman!”

Marianne looked up. “Didn’t he die?”

“He’s right there!” Alvin pointed.

She squinted. “You mean that guy in the green shirt?”

“Yes! Yes!”

“Good grief, Alvin,” said Marianne. “Stop shouting. That is not Gary Coleman.”

“Sure it is.”

“No! That man is short and black—” Marianne grabbed Alvin by the shirt to keep him from walking forward. “—that’s not enough to make him Gary Coleman!”

Alvin was still trying to get away. “It’s him,” he said. “Who else could it be?”

“It could be a short black man!”

He pulled free. “I’m gonna go meet him.”

Marianne spun around and ran behind a tree to send her message.

I told my parents that you were only 20 so they wouldn’t freak out about our age difference. I don’t think they believed me, though.

Alvin didn’t get socked in the nose, but it had been close.

Six o’clock:

I was the one who infected Danielle’s computer with spyware. I was downloading that video of the monkey on the motorcycle. Not the one with the rap song, the other one.

Seven o’clock:

Mickey and I knocked your MP3 player into the pool. We didn’t want to get in trouble for being stupid, so we blamed the baby.

Eight o’clock:

Marianne sat on a bench right in front of the castle, staring off into space. Sally and Ben were in a heated argument over whether Marianne should use a comma or a semi-colon. Georgia was running around and shouting herself hoarse trying to find hairspray so she could give Marianne another spritz.

Marianne dialed Danielle’s number. “How’s my mom?”

“A little better,” said Danielle. “She was trying to come down there again, but your dad got her calmed down.”

“Good,” said Marianne. “And Patrick? Any phone calls? Messages? Anything—”

“No,” sighed Danielle. “Don’t you think I’d call you if he’d contacted me?”

“Yeah. I just…” Marianne clutched her still aching stomach. “Ahh! I wish that I knew he was getting them at least! What if it’s all for nothing because his phone is off? That would almost be worse than him deciding not to show.”

Danielle snorted.

“Ugh,” moaned Marianne. “I know. I’m not thinking straight.”

“Better get it together,” said Danielle. “Only four hours to go.”

“I know,” said Marianne, glancing around to check for eavesdroppers. “I’ve gotta get out of here,” she whispered. “I need to think. I need to do the rest of this without gawkers.”

“Sneak off.”

Marianne frowned. “They’ll hunt me down.”

“Sneak off,” said Danielle again. “I’ll call Sally in five minutes to explain.”

“Okay,” said Marianne. “If you don’t hear from me by an hour past midnight, start a search because I threw myself into a ditch.”

“Talk to you soon.”

Marianne hung up, sent her eight o’clock text, and made her escape.

I starve myself because I can. When it’s me vs. hunger, I can always win, and that’s addicting. I never get to win at anything