The Truth About Alice(16)

“Let me check out your big tits,” he said, gasping for air. “You know I’ve seen ’em before.” He was totally, ridiculously drunk. His face was super red, and little drops of sweat were seeping out around his hairline. And Alice Franklin was just standing there next to us like she’d paid to watch a show or something.

Finally she said, “Brandon, let’s just go.” Her voice sounded really small and embarrassed.

Brandon looked me in the eyes, and for the tiniest, weirdest second they were just … empty. Like there was nothing there. No emotion, no feeling, nothing. And then a second after that it was like he’d decided I’d bored him or something. He pushed off of me and stood up, the bed bouncing under me once or twice, the coils of my mattress squeaking like mice.

“Come on, Elaine,” he said, his trademark cute football player face returning. “You know I love you, sweetheart.”

“Elaine, I’m sorry,” Alice said, and she leaned over and picked up my notebook which Brandon threw on the floor.

“What is this?” I said, taking the notebook and motioning at the two of them with disgust. “Eighth grade part two?” Brandon stumbled out of the room, taking Alice’s hand, and she followed him.

I stayed in my room for what felt like forever, completely and totally too embarrassed to go downstairs. What if Brandon and Alice told everybody what I’d written? I took my diary and jammed it in my closet on the top shelf, hiding it under the box of report cards and school projects my mom had made me keep. I never wanted to see it again.

I kept waiting for someone to come up and find me, but not even any of my best girlfriends did. I must have nodded off or something because suddenly I woke up and looked at the clock: 12:45 a.m. Shit. I said a quick little prayer that the downstairs wasn’t trashed.

It was. There were bottles and cans everywhere, and I could see a corner by the television where someone had spilled an entire can of beer and hadn’t even tried to clean it up. My head was totally pounding and my entire body felt fuzzy.

I decided I’d never have another party.

“Where were you?” my friend Maggie said from the corner of the couch where she was curled up, her head in Josh Waverly’s lap. Josh was fooling around with his phone. There were a few other kids around, most of them sipping what was left of the beer or sleeping or watching MTV on low volume.

I saw Brandon Fitzsimmons sitting on the floor, his back against a wall, his phone in his lap. He was still wasted, his eyes staring out at nothing. Alice wasn’t anywhere to be seen.

“I fell asleep,” I said, picking up a few bottles to take to the kitchen. “Y’all are gonna have to leave or help me clean up.”

As I headed for the trash, I heard a yelp from Josh Waverly.

“Are you serious, dude?!”

I carefully placed the bottles on top of the mountain of bottles already in the trash can and headed back into the living room. Josh was looking at his phone and then looked across the room at Brandon, who had half a grin pasted on his face. He shot his eyebrows up twice, real quick.

Josh asked something again about Brandon being serious.

Brandon shot his eyebrows up twice again and grinned all the way this time.

“What the hell?” Maggie said, and she reached up from Josh’s lap and grabbed his phone to see what had caught Josh’s attention. Then she called Brandon a pervert.

“What are you freaking out about?” I asked, and I glanced over Josh’s shoulder at the text that had just arrived from Brandon.

tommy and me banged alice franklin upstairs.

That was all it said. Seven words that would change everything.

I read the text from Brandon again.

tommy and me banged alice franklin upstairs.

“Who went first?” Josh asked with a snort, and for a second I thought Josh was grossed out, but then he grinned at Brandon like Brandon had just thrown him a touchdown pass.

“Dude! Like you even have to ask?” Brandon answered, holding both his arms out wide like he was preparing to accept all the praise he had coming to him.

Maggie rolled her eyes and she pulled out her phone to start texting. All of Healy High would know what was up by sunrise.




By the time school started a few weeks later, it was all everyone talked about. How Alice Franklin slept with two guys in one night in my guest bedroom. Two guys in one HOUR. The thought of it was enough to make me want to puke. Honestly, what kind of girl does that?

I just kept picturing her at the party, sitting in Brandon’s lap and looking all perfect, and I kept picturing her standing there next to Brandon as he read from my diary, her skinny, cute body with the amazing boobs and butt. She was probably totally enjoying making fun of me when Brandon found the notebook. I could picture her making him read it out loud. And then she actually pretended to be sorry when I walked in. She even picked it up off the floor and gave it back to me.

And then she went and did it with two dudes in one night.

Seriously. Here’s a girl who messes around with a guy when that guy is on again with another girl, and here’s a girl who sleeps with two guys in one night, and here’s a girl who messes around with random dudes at the pool. I mean, it’s like she’s just this insult to girls.

And even though she acted like nothing was up, how could she NOT have known everyone was talking about her behind her back? I mean, even the incoming freshmen knew what went down.