Read Harmless for Free Online

dimples. “I'm so glad you could make it. Now let's get going and meet the others and get this party started before the keg gets warm.”
    We climbed into Sally, the name DJ gave to his big green station wagon with the wood paneling, and headed off for his house on Orchard Road.
    A bunch of his friends were already there when we arrived. I'd met Brian before but I'd never met Owen or Chris or this girl named Becky who seemed to be the girlfriend of either Owen or Chris. I couldn't tell right away which one. They were alldrinking beer out of big red plastic cups and there were four pizza boxes lined up on the dining room table.
    Right away, DJ took me up to his room. I didn't even have a chance to meet his friends or make sure Emma and Anna got something to drink, but I figured they could fend for themselves. I brought them there. Now they were on their own.
    He closed his door and he started taking off my clothes and kissing me and taking off his clothes and pulling the comforter off his bed. He was moving quickly like on those after-noons when we only had a short window of time before his mom would be getting home. I wanted to slow things down. It had been over two weeks since we'd seen each other. I wanted to talk. I wanted to take our time. I wanted to look at him. I wanted him to look at me. I wanted to tell him something, anything, about Mom or Carl or Jessica. I wanted to tell him how easy it was to lie about where I was going when nobody seemed to care.
    But then he whispered in my ear, “I need you.”
    And I was quiet. There was nothing more for me to say.

Anna
    I knew Mariah and DJ were having sex. I just knew it. The minute we arrived at his house they disappeared upstairs. They came back only fifteen minutes later but I could tell that they'd been doing it up there.
    You'd think it'd be awkward, just Emma and me and these seniors from Orsonville High while Mariah and DJ were somewhere having sex, but it wasn't awkward at all. We each took a piece of pizza and a beer, which I could barely sip without gagging, and we sat in the living room while that guy Owen, who was really cute, played some stupid PlayStation game against Brian. I sat on the arm of the couch with Owen sitting to my left and watched his hands on the controls. He had a bracelet made of string on one of his wrists.
    Emma, I noticed, wasn't having any trouble drinking her beer. She was done and up for another before I'd even finished my slice of pizza. Where did she learn how to drink beer? How did she get so good at it? We'd never been to a party with beer before this one.
    I studied Mariah after she rejoined the group. Her face was flushed but instead of having that look in her eyes that Bron-wyn does around Silas, she looked a little sad. Maybe it was because DJ didn't spend more time upstairs with her, but this was his house, and he did have to play host, and I figured she should give him a break.
    I was relieved when it became clear that the beer was it. There wasn't any talk of drugs or even any liquor, just a suggestion from Owen that we play a drinking game.
    It was called Quarters and it involved bouncing a quarter into a cup of beer. I sat down next to Owen, and Emma took the seat on the other side of him. It was a pretty stupid game. Chris and Becky didn't play. Without saying anything, they were gone, and I guessed they were up to the same thing that DJ and Mariah were up to earlier in the evening. So it was just me and Owen and everyone else.
    It was getting late. I was getting tired but I didn't want to let that show, so every time I felt a yawn coming on I faked a cough instead. No one picked me to drink the beer with the quarter in it and I was grateful. Maybe all that coughing con-vinced everyone I was getting sick and they didn't want to get my germs.
    I'm sure Emma would have picked me but she wasn't able to get the quarter into the beer. On her best days she's not themost coordinated person I know, but on this night she also