Whom Gods Destroy Read Online Free

and all the time you're wanting to put your arms around her and kiss her.
    “It was a wonderful game,” Lola says again. “I shouted until I was hoarse in the last quarter.”
    You begin to feel a little better. “If I'd known, maybe I'd have done better.”
    “You did wonderfully, Roy. You won the game.”
    There's nothing to be afraid of, you tell yourself. She's talking to you just as she would to anybody else. The thing is, you don't want her to talk to you the way she would talk to anybody else. You want it to be special. You want her to feel the way you feel. And you think, Maybe she does. She likes me. I can tell when somebody likes me.
    An idea hits you then, and you say, “Are you going to college, Lola, when you finish high school?”
    “Why, I suppose so, Roy. Why?”
    “I think I'll go, too. I can get a scholarship if I want it. I want to study law or something.”
    “I think that would be nice.”
    “Maybe we could see each other there, if you go to State University. I'll be going out for football, probably.”
    “Why, that would be nice.”
    You're not sure just how it happened, but you have one arm around her now. And all the feeling inside you starts rushing up in your throat and you can't talk any more. You drop your Coke and put both arms around her, and you pull her against you so hard that you know you're hurting her, but you can't help yourself. You mash your mouth onto hers and time seems to stop. The world stops and waits. And for the first time in your life you feel good and clean and at peace.
    When you release her, her eyes are wide and startled. Then suddenly she smiles and says, “My!”
    You start talking then, and you can't stop. “Lola, I love you. I've loved you ever since I can remember, almost. I want to marry you—not right now, of course, but not too long off, either. I'm going to amount to something, Lola, you wait and see. They can't keep me on Burk Street if I don't want to stay there. I'll be a lawyer or something. Maybe a doctor, and you'll be proud of me, Lola.”
    At first she just has that startled look, and that little half smile. Then abruptly, right in your face, she laughs.
    She throws her head back and howls, and tears of merriment form at her eyes and run down her cheeks. She gasps for breath and holds her sides as if she's in pain, and then she starts all over again, howling and laughing.
    You turn cold. Your insides sag like rock. “Lola!”
    She gets her breath finally. “Oh, Roy!” she gasps, “You're the funniest thing!” And then she starts laughing again.
    You start backing up, a step at a time, at first. Then you turn and try to slip away.
    “Hey, Roy!” someone calls, and you know it's one of the team but you're too sick with shame to turn around. You walk faster, staying in the shadows, and the only thing you want is to get away from there. As far away as you can get. And then you hear the others coming out of the gym to see what all the excitement is about, and you hear Lola laughing, starting all over again.
    “Lola, what on earth!”
    Then, standing in the darkness, praying frantically to a God that you know won't hear you, you hear Lola gasp out, between spasms of laughter: “Oh, this is just too funny! Roy Foley—.Roy Foley just said to me...”
    You don't hear any more. You turn blindly and run.
    You don't sleep that night. You lie there drowning in an ocean of shame, and anger swells your chest and throat until you can't breathe. You beat the mattress with your fists, and you swear that you'll get even with her if it's the last thing you do. You'll be a lawyer, the best damn lawyer in the country, and you'll break her. You'll break her old man. You'll frame him somehow and send him to jail, and see how she likes that!
    You think of a lot of ways to hurt her, but none of them are good enough. Damn her! Damn her! Goddamn her! And you curse yourself, too, because you know well that you haven't got the guts to face her again. There would be