The Lit Report Read Online Free Page B

The Lit Report
Book: The Lit Report Read Online Free
Author: Sarah N. Harvey
Tags: JUV000000
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“I don’t know whether he’s the father, okay? We were really drunk and a couple of his friends were in the room with us, and I think I did it with at least one other guy, but I don’t know who. So, to answer your question, no, I won’t be telling Rick. Or my parents. Or Jonah. Or anyone else.” Her eyes filled with tears again, and she disappeared under the covers. I could hear her sobbing, but I left her alone. I needed to think.
    When we were about ten, Ruth and I had gotten into the habit of making all our decisions with the aid of a piece of ruled stationery with a wavy line drawn down the middle—pros to the left, cons to the right. Oh Henry! or Mars bar. Swimming or biking. Red shorts or blue. We were the Solomons of fifth grade, and by high school we were positively Delphic. Our classmates consulted us on everything. Is it okay to liberate cash from your mother’s purse? Absolutely not. Mothers, in our experience, cataloged everything in their purses—tampons, money,breath mints, lipstick. Should you have sex with your best friend’s brother? Probably not, although my objectivity was compromised by the huge crush I had on Jonah. Left to our own devices, Ruth made disastrous decisions and I made boring ones. But the paper oracle never let us down as long as we did it together.
    Ruth was in no condition to help, so I grabbed some paper out of her printer and started without her. I knew from experience that it wouldn’t be long before she would get bored under the covers. One of the great things about Ruth is that she has a moth-flame relationship with catastrophe. She is more than a Drama Queen—she is a Drama Empress. Another great thing is that she’s really creative, and I’m really pragmatic, so between the two of us we can usually figure something out. I started with the facts.
    Ruth was pregnant. I was pretty sure about that, but I wrote down
Home Pregnancy Test?
anyway. Under
PRO
I wrote
Know for sure
. Under
CON
I wrote
Where to buy? False results? Cost?
and
Know for sure
. The
Know for sures
canceled each other out, which left zero pros and three cons. I could always use my Big Mac money to go across town to a big chain drugstore and buy the test. And the false result thing was mostly about false negatives anyway. I was pretty sure we didn’t need to worry about that. Ruth was still snuffling, so there was no one to argue with my logic. Next I wrote
Father?
Then I crossed it out. I didn’t think I’d win that argument.Underneath that I wrote the word
Abortion
. I sat and stared at it until Ruth surfaced. She wandered off to the bathroom, and when she got back I saw that she had washed her face and brushed her hair and put on some mascara. It was safe to say the crying was over.
    One good thing about being at Ruth’s is that her mom never sticks her head in the door and asks what you’re doing or whether you’d like something to eat or drink. That happens a lot at my house. Ruth’s parents leave her alone with her phone and her computer, which Pete checks every once in a while for evidence of skanky surfing. If he ever finds anything really raunchy, he yells at her and shuts her down for a few days. Ruth is pretty stealthy when it comes to computers. She knows how to hide her tracks. Unlike her dad, who watches porn on her computer when she’s at school. Ruth says that bit of information may come in handy some day.
    She sat down next to me and looked at what I’d written. Then she grabbed the pen and paper away from me, scribbled for a few seconds and handed it back. Under
Abortion
she had written
Pro
=
It’s My Life
and
Con
=
Eternal Damnation
. Ruth doesn’t mess around with the paper prophet. I could have added to the list, but I already knew which way we were headed.

Three
    There was no possibility of taking a walk that day.
    â€”Charlotte Brontë,
Jane Eyre
    I first read
Jane Eyre
when I was eleven and
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