分节阅读_51

  lie?” i asked. but i could hear his d in front of the
  house.
  i jumped up, foolishly edgy, gathering the no quilt and my book. i
  ra some oil heati that dinner
  would be late. charlie his guepping out of
  his boots when i .
  ”sorry, dad, dinner's — i fell asleep outside.” i stifled a
  yawn.
  ”don't worry about it,” he said. ”i wach the s the
  game, anyway.”
  i watched tv with charlie after dinner, for something to do. there wasn't
  anything och, but he knew i didn't like baseball, so he
  turo some mi that her of us enjoyed. he seemed
  happy, though, to be doiogether. a good, despite
  my depression, to make him happy.
  ”dad,” i said during a ercial, ”jessigela are going to look
  at dresses for the daht in peles, aed
  me to help them ind if i go with them?”
  ”jessiley?” he asked.
  ”and angela weber.” i sighed as i gave him the details.
  he was fused. ”but yoing to the da?”
  ”no, dad, but i'm helping them find dresses — you know, giving them
  structive criticism.” i wouldn't have to explain this to a woman.
  ”well, okay.” he seemed to realize that he was out of his depth with the
  girlie stuff. ”it's a sight, though.”
  ”we'll leave right after school, so we get back early. you'll be okay
  fht?”
  ”bells, i fed myself for seventeen years befot here,” he
  reminded me.
  ”i don't know how you survived,” i muttered, then added more clearly,
  ”i'll leave some things for cold-dwi the fridge, okay?
  right on top.”
  it was sunny again in the m. i aed hope that i
  grimly tried to suppress. i dressed for the warmer weather in a deep blue
  v-neething i'd worn in the dead of winter in phoenix.
  i had planned my arrival at school so that i barely had time to make it
  to class. with a si, i circled the full lot looking for a
  space, while als for the silver volvo that was ot
  there. i parked i row ao english, arriving
  breathless, but subdued, before the final bell.
  it was the same as yesterday — i just 't keep little sprouts of
  hope from budding in my mind, only to have them squashed painfully as i
  searched the lun in vain and sat at my empty biology table.
  the peles scheme was ba again fht ahe
  more attractive by the fact that laureions. i was
  anxious to get out of town so i could stop glany shoulder,
  hoping to see him appearing out of the blue the way he always did. i
  vowed to myself that i would be in a good mood tonight and not ruin
  angela's or jessica's ehe dress hunting. maybe i could do a
  little clothes shopping as well. i refused to think that i might be
  shoppile this weekend, erested in the
  earlier arra. surely he wouldn't cel without at least telling
  me.
  after school, jessie home in her old white mercury so that i
  could ditch my books and truck. i brushed through my hair qui i
  was inside, feeling a slight lift of ext as i plated getting
  out of forks. i left a note for the table, explaining again
  where to fiched my scruffy wallet from my school bag to a
  purse i rarely used, and ran out to join jessit to angela's
  house , aing for us. my ext increased
  expoially as we actually drove out of the town limits.
  ===========================================================================
  8. peles
  jess drove faster than the ade it teles by four.
  it had been a while since i'd had a girls' night out, arogen
  rush was invig. we listes while jessica
  jabbered on about the boys we hung out with. jessica's dih mike
  had gone very well, and she ing that by saturday night