Read As Dead as It Gets for Free Online

disapproval.
    “I just sort of…liked it.” I knew how lame that sounded. The truth was, the white hair looked blank and empty, which felt like a good reflection of my life at the moment. Going back to my pink hair would have felt like putting on a costume.
    But I couldn’t say that to Megan. Not when she was looking at me almost like a stranger.
    “So, uh…what have you been up to? Did you get my texts?”
    She glanced around, as if people would be watching us. But no one was. “Yeah, sorry. I’ve been busy.”
    “How’s your new school?”
    “It’s not new,” she said. “I’ve been there for two months.”
    Yeah, but she’d never returned my calls when I wanted to ask her about it. So it was new to me. Jared went there, too, which meant I knew a little about Sacred Heart Academy itself. But he was a senior and she was a junior; they didn’t have any classes together. Therefore I knew absolutely nothing about how Megan was doing.
    And she wasn’t talking, so apparently that wasn’t going to change.
    “I got a car for Christmas,” I said, grasping now, trying to provoke some kind of response.
    It didn’t work. Megan’s eyes flickered to meet mine briefly, then flickered away. She gazed at the wall over my head, at the floor, at the front hallway—everywhere but at me.
    “Great,” she said.
    She didn’t even care what kind it was.
    “Megan.” My voice was thin and strained and so pathetic that I hated myself. “What’s going on? Did I do something wrong?”
    Her nostrils flared. “No, of course not.”
    “Then why won’t you—”
    “I can’t believe Carter and Zoe are together,” she said, studying her bracelet. “It’s so weird.”
    I had to make a conscious effort not to squeeze my cup until it collapsed. “What?”
    Finally, she looked directly at me. “He and Zoe Perry are kind of a thing now. It happened a week or two ago, I guess.…You didn’t know?”
    “No,” I said. “I didn’t know.” I took a sharp breath in and leaned back away from the table. Even though part of me had expected it to happen eventually, I hadn’t known it would feel like this—like being punched in the soul.
    “Sorry,” Megan said. “I just figured you’d been to some of the parties and—”
    “I don’t go to a lot of parties,” I said.
    “But…you have a new boyfriend, right?” she asked. “That guy from my school?”
    “Jared,” I said. “He’s not my boyfriend.”
    Her lips pressed tightly together, and she looked around for an escape. “I’m sorry, Alexis. Truly. But I…I have to go. Maybe we’ll run into each other later.”
    I nodded and forced a painful half smile, feeling the muscles in my jaw pull tight as she walked away.
    Then, as if on cue, I glanced up at the door and saw them enter together: Carter and Zoe, her hand clenched around his. I was inordinately relieved that at least he’d cut his blond hair short, so she couldn’t reach up and touch his soft blond curls the way I’d always done.
    A few short months ago, Zoe had been a shining, golden girl—all sweetness and smiles. Needless to say, that was before she took the oath and joined the Sunshine Club.
    She’d come through the experience a little less sunny than most of the members, to put it mildly. For starters, she’d cut her long blond hair and dyed it dark magenta. And she’d ditched the preppy clothes—or rather, thrashed them. Everything she wore was like a torn, wrinkled, ripped version of its former self.
    With a jolt that felt like a zillion watts of electricity, Carter’s eyes met mine, and he snatched his hand out of Zoe’s. It felt like he’d done it for me, to protect me from having to see them together.
    Part of me was grateful, but part of me—a much bigger part—felt like the knife, once it had pierced the surface of my heart, might as well go all the way through.
    I checked the time on my phone. Eight thirty—still three and a half hours till midnight. I stared at the numbers for