Burger Wuss Read Online Free

fun and I wanted to see her. I went around from room to room. Rick and Jenn walked around with me. They said things to each other like, “Hey, Jenny Jujube,” and “Hey, Tricky Ricky,” and “Hey, Jenny Gin Mill,” and “Maybe Diana’s like gone milk carton. Remember? Milk carton? Missing?” We looked for Diana high and low.
    I did not know Turner at that point, so I did not recognize him when I found him on top of her on a sofa. They had some of their clothes on. A few. She had his green sateen O’Dermott’s jacket around her shoulders. She was laughing at something. She was very drunk.
    Rick said, “She’s in here. Horizontal.”
    “Shouldn’t they be standing up to talk?” Jenn said.
    Rick said, “He just bit her lip.”
    Rick and Jenn turned away. They patted me onthe shoulder as they walked back past me and left me there.
    I felt like I was standing on the last tip of something big that was sinking — didn’t know what to do. Stood by the door. She hadn’t seen me. Go up? Jab him? Yell and punch? Yell and wait for him to get up? Take it outside? Right here? Let her go? Say something short, something quick, something hard that would hurt, say it and turn and leave, sneer in the halls? There were no swearwords dark enough, nothing cutting enough — because I wanted words then to cut, and thinking this now, and remembering his green sateen jacket draped around her shaking shoulders, I want that again, want my thoughts to be a blade, my brains to detonate, to punch, to scream, to find some way to hurt.
    So I ran away. I turned around and started to run out of the house. She saw, called after me, “Wait — omigod! — Anthony! Wait! I’m sorry!” I stopped and waited. I went back a few steps. I was in the shadows. Turner was sitting up now. He was very tall and wide. He had lifted up one hand, with two fingers raised limply to caution her. He was saying, “Shh! Shh!” He waited. He said, “I think he’s gone.”
    She covered her eyes with her hand. She said, “Oh God. I’ll have to talk to him tomorrow. Oh man. What a mess.”
    Turner said, “Don’t sweat it. He’s a little wuss.”
    She said, “Yeah, but he’s really nice. You’re sitting on my leg.”
    Turner said, “Bendy-boy’s a little wuss. He ran away.”
    She said, “You’re sitting on my leg. He’s really nice.”
    I was glad I was really nice. It was really nice to be really nice. I walked outside. Jenn and Rick were tagging after me. They were saying how sorry they were. They said that, man, they couldn’t believe her. They said she obviously didn’t understand about love.
    I heard Rick whisper, “That wasn’t her green sateen jacket, was it?”
    Jenn whispered back, “Would you call that green or loden?”
    They both started to giggle but then Rick said, “Shh, he’s really messed up.” They said that wow, like what was I going to do? They said they didn’t know what they’d do if they were me. They said bye. I walked home. On the way I punched an oak. An oak. I didn’t punch him, I punched an oak. It really hurt my knuckles.
    I couldn’t go to bed. I wouldn’t be able to go to sleep. I paced in my room. The next morning, I called Rick, who ever since he and Jenn realized one night that they were more than just friends had been the guru of love. I found out about Turner. He just graduated from high school in the next town over. He’s going away to college. He works with her at O’Dermott’s. He goes out with a lot of girls. They say his appeal is that he’s handsome and dangerous. He always seems to know what he’s doing. Guys respect him. He’s six-two. He goes by his last name.
    She called me later that morning. My mother was glad to hear her on the phone. I could hear my mother say, “Oh hi, Diana! It’s great to hear from you! How are youthese days? I bought some more cheese popcorn for the next time you come over.” I was in the bathroom, looking at myself in the mirror and wondering why I was so