Traplines Read Online Free Page A

They wouldn’t notice if I wasn’t here. Maybe people would talk for a week or two, but after a while they wouldn’t notice. The only people who would miss me are Tony and Craig and Billy and maybe Eric, when he got toked up and didn’t have anything for target practice.
    Billy is playing Mortal Kombat at the RinkyDink. He’s chain-smoking. As I walk up to him, he turns around quickly.
    “Oh, it’s you,” he says, going back to the game.
    “Hi to you too,” I say.
    “You seen Elaine?” he says.
    “Nope.”
    He crushes out his cigarette in the ashtray beside him. He plays for a while, loses a life, then shakes another cigarette out one-handed. He sticks it in his mouth, loses another man,then lights up. He sucks deep. “Relax,” I say. “Her majesty’s limo is probably stuck in traffic. She’ll come.”
    He glares at me. “Shut up.”
    I go play pool with Craig, who’s decided that he’s James Dean. He’s wearing a white T-shirt, jeans, and a black leather jacket that looks like his brother’s. His hair is blow-dried and a cigarette dangles from the corner of his mouth.
    “What a loser,” he says.
    “Who you calling a loser?”
    “Billy. What a loser.” He struts to the other side of the pool table.
    “He’s okay.”
    “That babe,” he says. “What’s-her-face. Ellen? Irma?”
    “Elaine.”
    “Yeah, her. She’s going out with him ’cause she’s got a bet.”
    “What?”
    “She’s got to go out with him a month, and her friend will give her some coke.”
    “Billy’s already giving her coke.”
    “Yeah. He’s a loser.”
    I look over at Billy. He’s lighting another cigarette.
    “Can you imagine a townie wanting anything to do with him?” Craig says. “She’s just doing it as a joke. She’s going to dump him in a week. She’s going to put all his stupid poems in the paper.”
    I see it now. There’s a space around Billy. No one is going near him. He doesn’t notice. Same with me. I catch some guys I used to hang out with grinning at me. When they see me looking at them, they look away.
    Craig wins the game. I’m losing a lot this week.
    Elaine gets to the RinkyDink after lunch. She’s got some townie girlfriends with her who are tiptoeing around like they’re going to get jumped. Elaine leads them right up to Billy. Everyone’s watching. Billy gives her his latest poem. I wonder what he found to rhyme with “Elaine.”
    The girls leave. Billy holds the door open for Elaine. Her friends start to giggle. The guys standing around start to howl. They’re laughing so hard they’re crying. I feel sick. I think about telling Billy but I know he won’t listen.
    I leave the RinkyDink and go for a walk. I walk and walk and end up back in front of the RinkyDink. There’s nowhere else to go. I hang out with Craig, who hasn’t left the pool table.
    I spend the night on his floor. Craig’s parents are Jehovah’s Witnesses and preach at me before I go to bed. I sit and listen because I need a place to sleep. I’m not going home until tomorrow, when Mom and Dad are sober. Craig’s mom gets us up two hours before the bus that takes the village kids to school comes. They pray before we eat. Craig looks at me and rolls his eyes. People are always making fun of Craig because his parents stand on the corner downtown every Friday and hold up the
Watchtower
mags. When his parents start to bug him, he says he’ll take up devil worship or astrology if they don’t lay off. I think I’ll ask him if he wants to hang out with me on Christmas. His parents don’t believe in it.
    Between classes I pass Mrs. Smythe in the hall. Craig nudges me. “Go on,” he says, making sucking noises. “Go get your A.”
    “Fuck off,” I say, pushing him.
    She’s talking to some girl and doesn’t see me. I think about skipping English but know that she’ll call home and ask where I am.
    At lunch no one talks to me. I can’t find Craig or Tony or Billy. The village guys who hang out by the science