Read Joe for Free Online

heads
and insist on an intervention. Her parents would be the worst. They would be
ashamed, claim they never saw it coming. Not their Claire . It had to be
her new friends at college, bad influences. It couldn’t be Mike and Mary Hoffken’s daughter. Their little Claire was a good girl. She knew her place. She had goals.
    It’s my own darn fault, she thought. One side of her mouth
pulled up. She was so groomed that she didn’t even dare use a curse word in her
own head. Fuck that , she thought next. Now she laughed out loud, choking
a little on the smoke in her throat.
    “You gonna pass that or choke on it?”
someone behind her said.
    Claire turned. Her older sister, Nikki,
was standing in the doorway to Claire’s bedroom, her right shoulder braced
against the side of it. She knows, Claire thought. She knows and she
still loves me.
    Nikki did know about Claire’s smoking.
Nikki knew almost everything about Claire. Almost everything.
    Claire held out the hand with the joint
in it. Nikki took it and smiled. “Shouldn’t you be studying?” Nikki asked,
taking a deep drag.
    Claire sighed and shrugged. “I guess.
Shouldn’t you be passed out somewhere?”
    Nikki cracked a smile. “Funny. I told
you, I’m working on this new story. It’s driving me fucking crazy. It’s gonna
be a whole damn book, and a good one. People are going to love it.”
    Nikki passed back the joint. Claire took
it. “You’re going to try and sell it?”
    “Hell, yeah. I’m telling you, if they
would just read it, they’d like it. I know it. I’ve never felt this way before.
I’ve got only about a quarter of it left to write.”
    “Then what?”
    “Then I sell that shit and keep writing.
You can retire.”
    Claire laughed. That was Nikki. Big
dreamer. Nikki was the one their parents expected to screw up. She was the one
they were always shaking their heads at and demanding that she do something
with her life. Nikki was like the smoke: free, beautiful and dangerous. She did
what she wanted and was fine with her decisions. Claire was the good one, Nikki
the black sheep. Claire envied her.
    “You don’t believe me, do you? That’s
fine. No one believes me,” Nikki added.
    “No. I do believe in you. If you stick
with it I’m sure you can do what you’re saying.”
    Claire knew that Nikki needed to hear
that. They’d had this same conversation several times over the past couple months.
Nikki had decided she wanted to be a writer for a living. Their parents had all
but laughed in her face when she told them. A pipe dream, they’d called it. A
waste of her time. They wouldn’t keep paying for her to live in the apartment
with Claire if she didn’t step up and start being serious about life. Why
couldn’t she be more like her sister?
    Right, Claire thought, more like me. Caged
and whistling sweet music.
    Claire began stuffing her books into her
backpack. “I’ve got class in an hour. I better go in a minute.”
    Nikki took the joint and sat down on
Claire’s bed. “Or, you could play hooky and we could go shopping, get some
Starbucks, see a movie or something. That’s what I think I’ll do today. Come
with me.”
    “Shouldn’t you be writing?” Claire asked.
    Nikki smirked. “Woke up at eight this
morning and cranked out three thousand words. I think I deserve a break. I’ll
write more tonight, if I feel like it.”
    For a moment, Claire considered it;
skipping a day of classes to go have a fun with her sister. It was probably
just what she needed. This was why she envied Nikki. Her sister lived as though
there was no tomorrow. Claire lived only for tomorrow, but she had been
seriously considering remedying that soon.
    “Wish I could,” Claire answered, “but
today is the review in my philosophy class, and Tuesday we have the mid-term. I
need the review.”
    “Yeah right. You’ll probably be the one
providing all the answers to the review questions, but whatever. I knew you’d
say that.”
    “Fuck off,” Claire