Read Story Girl for Free Online Page B

giggle. The laughter started off mild but quickly strengthened in intensity until we were both roaring and crying and struggling for air.
    “What’s so damned funny?” Sheila asked.
    “I was just telling James how much I love beaver.”
    “And it kinda grossed me out,” he said. “Being, of course, that I’m also gay.”
    Though my eyes were spurting tears, I could still see the black rage cloud that had engulfed her face. She was on to us, and our rock-solid alliance.
    “You two queers can find your own way home,” she cried, and fled the restaurant in a major huff.
    We watched as she broke a heel and nearly flew into the backseat of a restored convertible bug. A parking attendant grabbed her and steadied her and folded her into her own car. She sat there at least five minutes before driving away.
    I stared at my phone until the angry text arrived: YOU ARE A FIRST CLASS FUCKING COW!

chapter 9

    T HE HEAVENS WERE full of winking stars.
    Not that I could see them in the L.A. sky – but I knew just the same.
    James and I were walking west on Franklin, all the way to my room. We didn’t hold hands, but I could tell that we both wanted to. I also noticed that his limp was gone.
    I invited him up, and he smiled a big happy yes. It was at this point that I regretted not washing my hair for three days – not even when I’d been stuck in the tub with hives. Not even before my desperate date with Jason. I was also aware of the two small nests of underarm hair that had been left untouched for the past three weeks. Perhaps I had been in a funk – as Jenny had so generously suggested.
    I placed the key in the lock with near palpitations; the place was small and cat-smelly and Lucy had probably added a few droppings to the shambles. She was never consistent when it came to using her proper potty. I opened the door and turned on my new ecofriendly bulb, which set the entire mess ablaze in a Wal*Mart glow.
    “It’s one big litter box,” I said, trying hard to sound as cool and indifferent as Janeane Garofalo. As if this wasn’t really my life, and I didn’t really care.
    “At least you earn the rent,” he said. I could tell he really meant it, and I was again at ease with my bare self. No bells, no whistles.
    I heated tea in the microwave. James looked around at my books and pictures and the tiny toothpick people I handcrafted when bored or depressed.
    “I have never seen so many toothpick people,” he said. “You literally have a forest worth of wood in here.”
    “Yep.”
    We sat on the floor near the big window – overlooking a square of the adjacent building – and sipped chai from large beige pottery mugs.
    I didn’t want him to feel guilty but I had to be honest, “I don’t know what I’m gonna do for money now. I was fired for not showing up today.”
    “Oh fuck.”
    “Yeah, exactly.”
    “Maybe this whole accident thing is a sign from the universe.”
    “A bad sign,” I said, slurping mightily at my chai.
    “Maybe we were both on the wrong track, heading in the wrong direction. And the accident derailed us.”
    “But you were headed for Hawaii,” I said.
    “Not really.”
    “Are you saying we saved each other from something?” I asked.
    “Well, were you happy with the status quo?” He smiled big and wide, and his eyes sparkled accordingly. I could see his nipples under his baby blue cotton shirt.
    “You did save me from a crappy day on the set. Although I guess some hotshot was set up for a cameo.”
    “Do you like hotshots?” he asked.
    “Sometimes.”
    He shook his head and sipped his tea. He didn’t slurp.
    “What?” I asked.
    “You don’t strike me as that type.”
    He was mostly right. And now was not the time to reveal my marathon fantasy life, not when I had the real thing alive and breathing in my room. I absolutely had to see this guy’s nipples.
    “Are your nipples pierced?” I asked.
    “Of course not.”
    “I don’t believe you.”
    He lifted up his shirt and