The Book of Luke Read Online Free Page B

“pop,” or that instead of applying to Williams and Wesleyan, my friends were applying to Northwestern and Notre Dame? Did I mention that my parents weren’t living together and seemed on the verge of divorce? Did I begin by announcing that I wasn’t accepted early decision at Brown? Or just come right out and tell them that Sean dumped me two days ago because he didn’t think a long-distance relationship would ever work out?
    But I couldn’t tell them any of that. I knew who they were expecting. Nice Emily. Sweet Emily. Not bitching-about-everythingthat’s-wrong Emily. If you asked anyone at Heywood Academy what they remembered about Emily Abbott, nine out of ten people would say, “Emily Abbott, she was so nice!” The tenth person would probably remember I was the one who’d scraped dog crap on the school’s front steps.
    Even if Lucy and Josie were acting like no time at all had passed since we last saw one another, I wasn’t convinced it was that easy. A lot had happened in two-and-a-half years. Josie had practically become an instant heiress thanks to some software program her dad invented, and Lucy was being wooed with scholarships and promises of greatness by every Division I school with a women’s soccer team. And now I was supposed to jump-start our friendship with my own sucky life? No way. I’d give them the Emily they remembered.
    “There’s not enough time. You guys tell me what’s been going on here,” I demanded instead—in the nicest way, of course. The hallway was filling up with students and the sounds of locker doors slamming shut, and I only had a few minutes before Josie and Lucy would leave me and I’d be on my own. “And hurry up,” I insisted, feeling our time together ticking away.
    “Not much around here changes, unfortunately,” Lucy answered. “A few other people have moved away, and a few new people started, but otherwise it’s the same old faces you’ve known since sixth grade.”
    “Come on, there must be something? No cringe-worthy stories?” I asked, not bothering to hide my disappointment. I’d missed out on two whole years at Heywood, there had to be some piece of interesting news to tell me. “Any new guys?” I turned to Josie, remembering that the last time we spoke on the phone she had just gotten herself yet another new boyfriend. “What’s going on with Luke?”
    Josie’s hands flew up between us as if attempting to deflect the question. “Don’t even say his name.”
    “He cheated on her over Christmas vacation,” Lucy explained.
    “He didn’t just cheat on me, I caught him making out with someone else at Owen’s New Year’s party.”
    “A sophomore from St. Michael’s,” Lucy added, knowing that added insult to injury.
    For a second it occurred to me that a cheating boyfriend might be worse than a boyfriend who blindsided you with a breakup. Maybe my mom was right. Maybe things could be worse. At least Sean didn’t break up with me because he wanted to be with someone else. He broke up with me because he just didn’t want to go out with me anymore.
    Okay. That didn’t help at all.
    “That had to suck,” I empathized with Josie, attempting to put Sean out of my mind and focus on her cheating boyfriend instead.
    I had a hard time picturing the Luke Preston I remembered cheating on anybody, no less Josie. When Josie and I would still talk on the phone our sophomore year, she’d mentioned Luke had changed over the summer, but I figured he’d just gotten his braces off, maybe lost a few pounds, and finally shaved the brown fuzz that seemed to hover over his upper lip like something more in need of a Swiffer than a razor. And even though Josie told me she and Luke had started going out in October, I still couldn’t quite picture my Josie, the girl who totally had her act together, going out with Luke Preston, who was mediocre at best.
    “He kept swearing he sent me a breakup e-mail right before I left for the Bahamas, like that made any