Heartbroken Read Online Free Page B

Chelseashoved the sweater in her bag. Maybe she’d change into it at the mall. Or maybe she’d just give it back to Lulu.
    “Be ready in fifteen,” her mother called from the stairs. “I have to get to your brother’s practice this afternoon.”
    He’s my half brother , she wanted to say but didn’t. She wasn’t supposed to say that. It made everyone angry and sad, including her. Anyway, she didn’t even think of him that way. Brendan was her brother in every way, especially the annoying ways.
    “Okay,” she said instead.
    She sat down at her computer and touched the mouse. The screen saver gave way to her Facebook page. She scrolled through the news feed. Stephanie was, according to her post, miserable studying for her summer-school calculus exam (how it was possible to study and be simultaneously posting on Facebook was another matter). Boring , Stephanie wrote. Who needs calculus in the real world, anyway? Chelsea wrote: Hang in there, girl!
    Her friend Brian was psyched to be heading to soccer camp. Chelsea knew this not to be strictly true; Brian was always on the bench, always the last player called into the game. She wrote: Knock ’em dead! Josie was getting her nails done. I swear these Chinese ladies are saying mean things about me . Josie always thought people were saying mean things about her, probably because she was always saying mean things about everyone else. Chelsea didn’t post anything.
    Chelsea had 109 Facebook friends, and all of them always seemed to be doing something worth posting about. It made her anxious sometimes to see that feed, to know what everyone else was thinking or doing, whether they were worried or excited, depressed or in love.
    There was a perpetual stream of information about her friends and acquaintances, people from school whose friend request she’d accepted because they’d requested it but whom she didn’t think of as real friends, her cousins in Washington, even her step-grandmother. It always caused Chelsea to wonder about what she was doing, what she should write in her status to make herself seem part of it all. Nomatter what she posted, she felt as if she were always falling short somehow. Once upon a time , her dad, Sean—who hated Facebook—always said, people used to talk. We didn’t post our thoughts and feelings on some digital bulletin board for everyone to see. You knew what you were doing and what your intimates were doing. And guess what? That’s all you need to know .
    It seemed as though Chelsea’s parents were fighting for some ideal that didn’t quite match the reality of things. They were always trying to talk her out of the way things really were in favor of the way things should be. It was exhausting sometimes. Give up , she wanted to tell them. You lost. The world is crap, and no amount of communicating is going to change it . But they were so earnest, so well meaning, how could she say that?
    She had a new friend request. She clicked on the happy blue heads, and the little window popped up. Somebody named Adam McKee wanted to be her friend. She had no idea who he was, but he was super cute, with spiky black hair and dark, thick-lashed eyes.
    She felt a little tingle of curiosity. Who was he? And why was he sending her a friend request? She clicked on his name to see what friends they had in common and where he went to school. He went to high school in Brighton, the next town over. They had one friend in common: Lulu. Figured. Lulu was friends with absolutely everyone, even though she had something terrible to say about most of them.
    There wasn’t any other info about Adam McKee that she could access without becoming his friend. She’d ask Lulu about him later. She didn’t accept friendship from a guy she didn’t know, even if he was smoking hot. She posted on her page: Heading to the mall for shopping and smoothies with Lulu. Anyone care to join? Meet us at the food court! It was lame but the best she could do at the