All the Major Constellations Read Online Free

the magazine and slapped it against his knee.
    â€œAt least we’ll be close,” she said. “After my trip,” she added. Sara had vague plans to take a year off before college and bum around abroad on a Europass.
    â€œI know. I just—”
    â€œDidn’t want to be so close to home,” she said, finishing his thought.
    â€œI could join Brian in Georgia. You know, be a superfan, go to all his games,” Andrew said with a forced laugh. Sara reached down and pushed back the flop of bangs that fell over his eyes.
    â€œYou need a haircut,” she said. She tucked the hair behind his ear and turned back to the sink.
    â€œI’ll be in the living room.” He stood up.
    â€œ
Alone
in the living room with a dirty magazine?” she said with an impish grin that Andrew knew drove other boys mad. Him, too, a little bit.
    â€œDon’t worry. I’m leaving the porn here. It’s not my thing anyway,” he said. Andrew thought about Brian’s collection of porn under the floorboards of his old bedroom, which Andrew occasionally pilfered. But he wasn’t lying to Sara; porn made him excited in a nauseated kind of way, and the satisfaction it provided was empty.
    â€œCome on, hang out with me. I’m almost finished,” Sara said.She began to hurry even more. Andrew flinched, thinking about the little micro cuts she was giving herself. Sara liked constant company. She became quite petulant when left alone for too long.
    â€œI’m going to check on Marcia.”
    â€œLeave her alone,” Sara singsonged back to him.
    â€œShe’s going to make herself crazy,” Andrew said. He put his hand on the doorknob.
    â€œI’m telling you: don’t bother her,” Sara said. She examined a trickle of blood as it slid down her shin.
    â€œYou need a Band-Aid?”
    â€œNah,” she said.
    From the bedroom they heard Marcia curse in German, a habit from her childhood abroad.
    â€œUh-oh, she’s speaking in tongues. Maybe you
should
go check on her.” She stood up straight, and her brow wrinkled with concern.
    Andrew walked out the door, careful to close it behind him. He felt a sudden chill out in the hallway. It
had
been stuffy in the bathroom, but also warm and cozy, with the steam of the shower and his pretty, half-naked friend perched like a bird of paradise on the sink. A bleeding bird of paradise.
    Sometimes he thought Sara was challenging him to get an erection when she pranced and chatted, half naked, in front of him. Would she do anything about it? Did he want that? Of course he wanted it—sort of. Sara could sometimes be a little
too
flirty. Or confusingly flirty.
    He walked down the hallway and opened the bedroom door a crack. Marcia still sat at the desk with her back to him. She was scribbling and muttering at the same time. Andrew crept up close to her, peered over her shoulder, and read what she had written.
    When my father was killed
    After my father died
    My father was a surgeon, and I’ve always felt a strong desire to follow in his footsteps. My best friends, Andrew and Sara, as well as Ms. Devaux, have been so supportive. . . .
    â€œAndrew!” Marcia stood up and spun around to face him.
    â€œIt’s good!” he said. He laughed and tried to get at the speech.
    â€œYou were reading it?” Marcia shouted, and stamped her feet like a child. In response, Andrew grabbed Marcia around the waist and slung her over his shoulder. With his free hand he took the papers on the desk and tossed them up in the air. For a moment the papers and index cards rained around them like white flakes in a snow globe. He spun her amidst the paper storm while she alternately shouted in rage and laughed hysterically, pounding her fists on his back.
    â€œYou . . . are going . . . to help . . . me,” she said between gasps, “put . . . all . . . my