Read the Solitude Of Prime Numbers (2010) for Free Online Page B

few seconds to convince herself that Viola Bai was actually talking to her. She was sure she was invisible to her. She pulled the two ends of her shoelaces, but the knot came untied between her fingers.
    "Me?" she asked, looking around uneasily.
    "I don't see any other Alices."
    The other girls giggled.
    "No. Not particularly."
    Viola got up from the bench and came closer to her. Alice felt those marvelous eyes on her, bisected by the shadow of her bangs.
    "But you like gumdrops, don't you?" Viola continued in her honeyed voice.
    "Yeah. I guess. Pretty much."
    Alice bit her lip and chided herself for being so wishy-washy. She pressed her bony back against the wall. A tremor ran down her good leg. The other remained inert, as always.
    "What do you mean pretty much? Everyone likes gumdrops. Isn't that right, girls?" Viola addressed her three friends without even turning around.
    "Mm-hmmm. Everyone," they echoed. Alice noticed a strange trepidation in Federica Mazzoldi's eyes as she stared at her from the other end of the locker room.
    "Yes, actually, I do like them," she corrected herself. She was starting to feel frightened, even though she didn't yet know why.
    In the first year, the four bitches had grabbed Alessandra Mirano, the one who ended up being thrown out and going to beautician school, and dragged her into the boys' locker room. They shut her inside and two boys pulled their cocks out in front of her. From the corridor Alice had heard the four torturers egging them on and laughing hysterically.
    "I thought so. Now, would you like a gumdrop?" Viola asked.
    If I say yes, who knows what they're going to make me eat, Alice thought.
    If I say no, Viola might get pissed off and I'll end up in the boys' locker room as well.
    She sat in silence like a moron.
    "Come on. It's not such a hard question," Viola said mockingly. She took a handful of fruit candies from her pocket.
    "You girls back there, what flavor do you want?" she asked.
    Giulia Mirandi came over to Viola and looked into her hand. Viola didn't take her eyes off Alice, who felt her body crumpling under the gaze like a sheet of newspaper burning in the fireplace.
    "There's orange, raspberry, blackberry, strawberry, and peach," Giulia said. She threw a fleeting, apprehensive glance at Alice, without letting Viola see.
    "I'll have raspberry," said Federica.
    "Peach," said Giada.
    Giulia tossed them their candies and unwrapped the orange one for herself. She slipped it into her mouth and then took a step back to return the stage to Viola.
    "Blackberry and strawberry are left. So do you want one or not?"
    Maybe she just wants to give me a candy, Alice thought.
    Maybe they just want to see whether I eat or not.
    It's just a candy.
    "I prefer strawberry," she said quietly.
    "Damn it, that's my favorite too," Viola said, giving a terrible performance of disappointment. "But I'll happily give it to you."
    She unwrapped the strawberry candy and let the paper fall to the ground. Alice held out her hand to take it.
    "Wait a minute," Viola said. "Don't be so greedy."
    She bent down, holding the candy between her thumb and index finger. She rubbed it along the filthy locker room floor. Walking with her knees bent, she dragged it slowly along the whole length of the room to Alice's left, close to the wall, where the dirt had coagulated in balls of dust and tangles of hair.
    Giada and Federica were dying of laughter. Giulia nervously chewed on her lip. The other girls had figured out where things were going and left, closing the door behind them.
    When she got to the corner, Viola headed for the sink, where the girls splashed their armpits and faces after gym. With the candy she wiped up the whitish slime that lined the inside of the drain.
    Then she turned to Alice and held the revolting object under her nose.
    "There," she said. "Strawberry, just what you wanted."
    She wasn't laughing. She had the serious, determined look of one who is doing something painful but