The Female of the Species Read Online Free Page A

picks me up in her peripheral, but she doesn’t slow down.
    â€œCrazy, huh?” I say.
    â€œExcuse me?”
    â€œThe valedictorian thing. Crazy.”
    She stops at her locker, gaze going to the hallway clock instead of me. “I don’t know that it’s crazy so much as an indication that we’re both intelligent people.”
    â€œBut you’re more intelligent.”
    Alex spins her combination lock. “Not necessarily. I’ve never been quite clear how such a thing is determined.”
    â€œThey take your GPA and—”
    â€œI know how the school does it,” she says, snapping her locker open. “I mean in general.”
    â€œOh,” I say, because I can’t really think of anything else.
    The bell rings. The sound slices through the hall, scattering all the words I’m trying so hard to accumulate between us. She jumps as if she wasn’t expecting it, her hands curling into fists.
    â€œAre you okay?” I ask.
    â€œNo,” she says immediately, the unexpectedness of the question prompting an honest answer.
    â€œCan I”— help? Have your number? Touch your arm? Get you to look at me again?— all of these things are utterly lost as my name comes rolling down the hallway in Park’s drawl.
    â€œJAAAAAAACK,” he’s calling for me, more than a little obnoxious as he turns the corner to find me at Alex’s locker. The halls are filling up and there’s no reason for him to think that I’ve actually been talking to her. Except she’s finally looking at me again, waiting for me to finish whatever this sentence is going to turn into.
    And I can’t come up with a single goddamn word. My mouth is hanging open and it’s like she’s the hook and I’m a fish and I can’t do anything but flop around when Park pushes his body against mine so that we’re touching from toes to forehead and all I can think is Jesus, really? Right now? This is the moment he chooses to pull out a joke from seventh grade?
    â€œJack, baby,” he says. “I missed you so much.” Heclenches my head in his hands and covers my mouth with his thumbs and fake kisses me so hard I swear I’ll have bruising tomorrow. “And you, girl,” he says to Alex after pulling away from me. “I could just eat you up.”
    He’s going for her with a big dumb grin on his face, absolutely certain that she will have no problem with him smashing his fingers into her lips and his face up to hers. Her expression doesn’t change; that slightly confused look that had been directed at me as I struggled with words now turns to Park as the fist that never unclenched finds a target.
    She drops her shoulder to gain some momentum as she takes a jab at his crotch, one bony knuckle protruding on purpose for maximum effect as if she wants to pop his testicles like water balloons.
    And he goes down like a box of rocks.

7. PEEKAY
    We are having a funeral for Park’s balls.
    That’s how it seems, anyway.
    After Alex brought him to his knees in the hallway and walked away like she’d done nothing more than litter, Park curled up into the fetal position. He pulled the hood of his sweatshirt up over his head so that nobody could see his face while he recovered his masculinity, and everyone gave him a wide berth. The hallway was totally silent except for the occasional What happened? followed by an explanation, followed by the kind of respectful silence we reserve for male groin injuries.
    Jack tried to talk to him but got only grunts in response, and everybody decided to leave him there and went to class. Mr. Franklin walked past a few minutesago, and I imagine he’ll say a lot of understanding things that end in “buddy” for a while until he can coax Park up off the floor.
    Miss Hendricks wasn’t quite sure what to do because she isn’t equipped to offer support to Park, and not forceful enough to