Read Girls In White Dresses for Free Online

upset. They’d known Ellen long enough to be able to read her mood by the way she held herself, and right then, she was as straight as a pole, alert, and excited.
    “Fuck,” Shannon said softly.
    “Yeah,” Lauren answered. “I know.”

----
    They went to the concert, where Lauren and Shannon made up, then got in a fight again when Shannon forgot to watch the Porta-Potty Lauren was in, and let a man open the door, which had a broken lock. “Everyone in line saw me with my pants down,” Lauren screamed.
    “So what’s new?” Shannon asked.
    They went to a bar called Life’s Too Short near the old Cabrini-Green buildings. The whole area was under construction and the streets were lined with half-built condos and shells of townhouses. Because nothing was around it, the bar paid no attention to the city’s rules about shutting down by four a.m. The bartenders let everyone stay in the bar’s outdoor area. Nothing good ever came of this, but they kept going back.
    They sat in a corner of the patio where they could see everyone that walked in. They were fascinated with watching Margaret Applebee, a girl they knew from college. She’d always been kind of fat, but had dropped about forty pounds that year and was, according to Shannon, “whoring it up all over town.” She was talking to their friend Mitch McCormick, pressing herself against his arm, and they were all waiting for him to tell her to go away.
    “Who does she think she is?” Shannon asked. “Like Mitch would ever be interested in her. It’s so embarrassing.”
    “She’s persistent, though,” Lauren said. “You gotta give her that.”
    “I don’t even recognize her,” Isabella said. “She lost forty pounds? She’s a whole different person.”
    None of them saw Louis walk in. They were all so focused on the Margaret Applebee fiasco that they didn’t notice him until he was standing at their table saying, “Hey, Ellen.” Ellen tried to smile and then immediately burst into tears.
    “She’s really drunk,” Lauren said to Louis.
    He took her by the arm and led her away from them. Now they watched the two of them, heads bent together, talking quietly to each other.
    “Oh shit,” Shannon said. “Margaret Applebee is gone. We missed it. Where’s Mitch?”
    Ellen came back over to the table, crying harder now. She couldn’t really talk, but they could guess what had happened.
    “He’s a jackass,” Lauren said.
    “He’s not worth it.” Isabella rubbed Ellen’s back.
    “You should just forget him,” Lauren said.
    “I think Mitch went home with Margaret Applebee,” Shannon said.

----
    Ellen was up and out before any of them the next morning, and she came back to the apartment with Bloody Mary ingredients, a large block of cheddar cheese, and a log of summer sausage.
    “I’m sorry, you guys,” she said. “For how I freaked out last night.”
    “No worries,” Shannon said. She’d already made herself a Bloody Mary and was now cutting off hunks of cheese and sausage to shove in her mouth. Isabella lay on the couch, listening to the conversation. She was too hungover to move, but made a noise and motioned for some cheese and sausage. Lauren cut some off and brought it over to her.
    “I called Louis this morning to apologize to him too,” Ellen told them.
    “Why?” Shannon asked.
    “Because I want to be friends,” Ellen said. “I at least want to be friends with him.”
    “Do you think that will work?” Lauren asked.
    “I think it’s my only choice,” she said. They were quiet for a few moments.
    “There’s something weird about summer sausage,” Shannon said.
    “There’s a lot of things weird about summer sausage,” Ellen said.
    “It should be disgusting,” Lauren said. “I mean, you leave it wrapped up and unrefrigerated forever, but when you open it, it’s still delicious. It’s one of the great world wonders.”
    “I think it’s curing my headache,” Isabella said. She tried to sit up and then lay right