Because I'm Disposable Read Online Free Page A

dress. My side of the rack was all t-shirts and blue jeans.
    “That’s not what I meant, Corri.” I was sure she knew it too. “Why is he coming over?”
    “Oh, he mentioned that you guys have English together. So, I might have asked him to come over and fill you in on what you missed in class the last two days.” She was still buried deep within her masses of silk, and lace, and floral prints.
    “Awesome.” I plopped back down on my mattress.
    Corrine chose that moment to emerge, bearing an armload of multi-hued, summer numbers. “Uh-uh. Get up.” It wasn’t a request.
    I obeyed.
    She made a show of holding four different, but equally bright , dresses up in front of me and making me stand in front of the mirror while she hemmed and hawed over each one. Finally, she settled on a short, yellow sundress, complete with a sash to tie into a bow in the back.
    I got the feeling she was about to forcibly strip me and put that cheery dress on me herself, but the doorbell rang before she could. Instead, she tossed it at me demanding, “Put it on; fix your hair, and get your butt downstairs immed iately. Link is super adorbs—don’t let me down.” Then, she flitted out of the room like a butterfly.
    * * * * *
    Link was waiting for me in the living room, on the couch, when I rounded the banister at the bottom of the stairs. He looked particularly good today, with his sh ort hair styled in thick, blond spikes, and a light blue shirt tight enough to show off muscles surprisingly well-defined for a teenage boy. He was staring at his sneakers, but looked up as I approached. And then stood.
    I hadn’t known guys actually still did that.
    I skirted around Dad’s recliner and planted myself in the rocker in the corner, crossing my legs awkwardly to avoid revealing anything I shouldn’t. It was bad enough that I was in one of Corrine’s dresses, but to have to make an entrance with Link staring at me, was borderline humiliating.
    As soon as I was seated, Link plopped back down on the worn, beige cushion he’d gotten up from. I probably should have said something, but I couldn’t think of anything to say. Even hello escaped me right then.
    “You look nice.” Link saved me from the silence.
    “Thanks.” My voice cracked on the word, and I busied myself smoothing down the ruffled hemline resting on my thighs.
    “I heard you got suspended for fighting. You come back Monday?”
    “Tuesday. It was a three-day suspension.”
    Link nodded his understanding. The silence pressed in again. Finally, he reached down to dig through the backpack on the floor next to his feet.
    “I brought the English assignments for yesterday and today. And I guess there’s going to be a quiz on Tuesday.” He handed me a small stack of notebook paper, with handwritten notes. “These are my notes on the book. I don’t know if you’ve had a chance to read it, so I thought these might help. At the back are the vocab words too.”
    I sifted through the pages—ten in total—and all of it was stuff he would have written in his Lit journal. He’d copied ten pages of notes for me by hand. In a big picture sense, it wasn’t much, but no one had ever cared much about my education before. Heck, Link had never cared much before. Why now?
    “Why are you suddenly paying attention to me?” I wasn’t sure I wanted to hear the answer. I certainly didn’t want to hear him say it was because he felt sorry for me.
    His eyes widened, and he floundered for a moment before answering. “I’ve always paid attention to you, Callista. You’ve just never noticed before.” His voice was quiet, like a gentle snowfall, but the words resonated deep within my mind. Was it true? Had I always overlooked Link because I assumed he was doing the same with me?
    He pierced me with an earnest look, then switched his gaze back to his sneakers. I wanted to say something, should have said som ething. A denial, an apology—anything. The words wouldn’t come.
    “So, anyway.