Something True Read Online Free Page B

You’re so lucky he moved here.”
    I swallowed back a bitter taste in my mouth just as my phone beeped. Call waiting. I looked at the screen.
    “It’s Veronica,” I told her.
    “Tell her I said hey!”
    No arguments. That was how it was. When Veronica called, you took the call. It was just accepted fact. I clicked over.
    “Hey, V!” I said, my fingers going to the diamond D pendant around my neck, a gift from Veronica for my sixteenth birthday. It was exactly like her V, but slightly smaller. She hadn’t given one to Mariah or our fourth, Kenna Roy, so it meant a lot to me.
    “Hey, D! Listen, I wanted to tell you that I bought a new dress for homecoming, and it’s blue.”
    I stopped halfway across the sidewalk. “What? But mine’s blue.”
    “I’m sending you a pic right now.”
    My phone beeped with a text. I opened the photo and just about died. The dress was not only the exact same shade of blue as mine, but it was almost the exact same cut. Except this one had more of a plunging neckline. With her hair curled into perfect tendrils and her lips shellacked in deep red, Veronica looked like she was walking the red carpet at the VMAs. I would kill to look that good, just once.
    “I don’t get it,” I said into the phone, ducking into the shade under the pink-and-brown-striped awning of Goddess Cupcakes. “We shopped together. I thought you liked the red dress you bought.”
    “Um, hello? When are you going to tell me how much you love the new one?” Veronica asked.
    A harried-looking mom with a double stroller walked by me, and one of her mop-haired kids dropped his striped sock on the ground. I bent to retrieve it and jogged as best I could to catch up with her.
    “Miss? Your son dropped this,” I called.
    She stopped and looked at me with tired eyes. “Thank you!” she gushed. “He would’ve screamed the whole way home.”
    I smiled at her and waved at the little guys as they took off again. One of them waved back. Too cute for words.
    “Darla? Are you there?”
    I flinched. I’d almost forgotten I was on the phone.
    “No! I mean, yes. Sorry. The dress is awesome,” I said. “But aren’t you worried that we’re going to look . . . I don’t know . . . like matching bridesmaids or something?”
    “Of course not. Because after school tomorrow we’re going shopping for your new dress.”
    Suddenly I felt very, very hot. I turned around and pressed my forehead into the cool glass window of Goddess, my fingers gripping my phone so tightly they hurt. I loved my dress. Veronica knew I loved my dress. It made my waist look tiny and my legs look longer and the cap sleeves totally hid the fact that one of my shoulders was slightly higher than the other—something my back brace didn’t entirely fix.
    I took a breath, choosing my words very carefully. “That’s really nice of you to offer, V,” I said. “But I like my dress. And it was on sale, so you know I can’t return it.”
    “So you’ll wear it to prom,” Veronica said, like the conversation was over. “Or give it to your mom or something. It probably wouldn’t make her hips look huge.”
    “It makes my hips look huge?” I asked, lifting my head.
    “Well, when your waist is cinched that small, your hips naturally stand out by comparison.” Veronica was getting impatient. “Why are we still talking about this? Tomorrow we’ll go shopping and find you something even better, I promise. I gotta go. Mom’s trying to force-feed me an omelet, so I must go get her head examined.”
    “Okay. Bye.”
    Veronica was already gone. I gazed down at the picture of her again, feeling suddenly exhausted. She, of course, looked perfectly proportioned in her dress. I flicked through my photos to the one we’d taken of me in the dressing room when I’d decided on mine.
    Oh my God. My hips were huge! How had I not noticed that before? I blanked the screen and shoved my phone back in my purse. There. Gone. I could obsess about that later. Right