Lasting Damage Read Online Free

Kara
and see if she’s interested. Maybe we can set something up.”
     
    *****
     
    “So, are you going
to call her?” Chloe asked as she stabbed at a chunk of General Tao’s Chicken
with her chopstick and waved it around before popping it into her mouth.
    “She didn’t give me
her number.” Jane lied to her friend as she piled four fat, greasy deep fried
chicken fingers onto her plate. “Can’t use what I don’t have.”
    “That never stopped
you before.” Lily narrowed her dark eyes and stared at her from across the
coffee table. “You’ve always liked a challenge.”
    Jane was tempted to
tell her she was too old to chase after wanted strange girls, but Lily knew her
better than anyone else. She knew all the bad things Jane had done in her life
and understood the terrible things she’d wanted to do. More than anyone else
Lily Hastings fit as perfectly into the role of confessor as she did that of accomplice,
and from the very first day of high school, Lily had Jane’s back and Jane
returned the favor without question.
    It was Lily who told
her to go to the library when she refused to admit Robin was dumping her for
Sarah, and it was Lily who put three week old lobster shells in both of the
offending girls lockers, and it was Lily who sat with her while she ate pint
after pint of Chubby Hubby ice cream. Lily had also been the one who held her
hair when she tried to sew the pieces of her heart back together with
Jagerbombs and Vicodan and ended up barfing all over the leather seats of her
mother’s new BMW.
    They’d always been
there for one another. No secrets and only the palest of lies, but at three in
the morning all Jane wanted to do was sit around the coffee table and stuff as
much Chinese food into her face as her stomach could handle. After that they’d
break into Lily’s medicine chest and see what types of pharmaceutical goodies
that lay ahead in the dangerous hours of the morning.
    “Why don’t we talk
about you for a while?” Jane suggested as an alternative topic for discussion. 
    “Why on earth would
we do that?” Chloe asked. “Lily’s never likes to talk about herself.”
    “Of course she
does.” Jane pulled her set of chopsticks out of the little paper sleeve and
snapped them apart. “Everyone likes being the center of attention.”
    “Don’t
try bullshitting a bullshitter, Jane.” Lily warned.
    “And
which one of you is the bullshitter?” she asked and started dumping white rice
around her chicken pile.
    “Normally
I’d tell you to take your pick, but tonight you get to be the liar, Jane.”
Chloe announced and grabbed the carton of spare ribs. “I saw her write
something on a napkin and give it to you. One can only conclude it was her
phone number.”
    “I
thought we’d agreed to talk about Lily for a while,” she said, once again
trying to dodge the subject.
    “I
don’t have anything worth talking about.” Lily replied. “And you’re a lying
piece of crap.”
    “How’s
that?”
    “You
said you didn’t have her number.” Chloe interjected.
    “That
wasn’t a lie.” Jane made the pronouncement with so much enthusiasm it made her
guilt all the more obvious. “It was creative truth-telling.”
    Lily
shook her head and sighed. “Oh, would you look at that, Jane's trying to
justify acting like an asshole.”
    “How
am I acting like an asshole?”Jane picked up the container with sweet and sour
sauce and poured it over her plate. She kept her eyes down. No good could come
from making eye contact with those two barracudas,
    “How
aren't you acting like an asshole.” Lily stated with such certainty it was
difficult to argue. “The girl is interested in you and you're blowing her off
so don't have to deal with anyone but us.”
    “Time
to change the record, Lil.” Jane shot back.
    “Fine.”
Lily turned her eyes away from Jane and zeroed in on Chloe, who was making
herself busy with the sticky, sweet pork. “What’s her name and what does she
look