All the Major Constellations Read Online Free Page B

support.
    Andrew stood up. “
Un Chien Andalou
is short, Sara. Besides, maybe you’ll pick up some French.”
    â€œI’m not even sure that I’ll be in France.”
    â€œYou’re going to backpack around Europe and not go to France?” Marcia asked.
    Andrew snorted, and both girls looked at him. Sara’s year-after-high-school backpacking plans grated on him for reasons he was unable to define. It just all seemed so stereotypical. “Marcia’s right. Go to France, see the Louvre, stay in hostels, write in a journal, get a tan, and contract herpes,” he said.
    â€œJealous?” Sara shot back.
    â€œPlease stop arguing,” Marcia said.
    â€œAnd for your information,” Sara continued, “I always use condoms. Not that either of you would know anything about that.”
    He scowled and crossed his arms over his chest, wounded at this reminder of his virginity.
    Marcia cleared her throat and said, “Actually, condoms don’t really protect against herpes, because herpes—”
    â€œOh, shut up, Marcia!” Sara and Andrew shouted together.
    Lately they’d been bickering. It didn’t help that Marcia had become infatuated with yet another medical book, this one about infectious diseases, and could not seem to stop herself from announcing these transmissible illness tidbits at the most awkward moments.
Sprinkles of anxiety to flavor your day,
Andrew called them.
    â€œWell, if we’re not going to the real movie theater,” Sara said as she went behind her closet again, “I’m going to slip into something more comfortable.”
    â€œWhose car are we taking?” Andrew asked.
    â€œCan we take both? That way you can give Marcia a ride home, and I can pick up my mom when her shift is done,” Sara said.
    â€œOr drive off alone with that sleazy projectionist,” Marcia muttered.
    â€œWhat was that?” Sara shouted from the closet.
    â€œI thought Janet wasn’t working nights,” Andrew said, lessout of curiosity and more to prevent a spat from developing between the two girls. Andrew was more or less indifferent to Sara’s occasional promiscuity with older guys, but he knew it annoyed Marcia.
    â€œNot regularly, but she took a night shift for a friend. They’re the worst. She can’t get the smell of rancid milk out of her hair for days.”
    Sara’s mother, Janet, worked at a cheese factory, and the stories she told of the place were enough to turn Marcia’s vegetarianism into tentative stabs at veganism.
    â€œYou want to hang out after the movie? What time do you have to pick your mom up?” Andrew said.
    â€œIt’s just easier with two cars,” Sara said. Andrew and Marcia exchanged looks. She had not quite answered the question.
    â€œI’ll leave now and get tickets,” he said.
    â€œThere’s some cash on my dresser,” Sara said.
    Marcia dug around her pockets and produced a pile of lint. She looked up at Andrew, embarrassed.
    â€œPay me back later,” he said, waving away her explanation. “You coming with me or you want to ride with Sara?”
    â€œI think I’ll go with Sara,” she said.
    Andrew stepped outside. It was six o’clock. The sun was just settling back into the green mountains and leaving a soft pink blush in the sky. He thought of Laura, of the color of her skin, how it was like the light of the setting sun reflected in the sky and bouncing off the clouds of a perfect spring day. Pale yet golden,cool yet warm. He sighed. Sometimes, often in fact, he wished he could stop thinking about her. He felt cursed with obsession. He considered confessing his crush to Marcia and Sara; perhaps this would ease the sting and make him feel less like an actor in his own life, pretending everything was cool when really he was half out of his mind.
    He was about to drive away when Marcia came running down the steps. He smiled as she