All You Never Wanted Read Free Page B

I hadn’t thought much about him since he’d left. I had sort of evolved past him.
    Joshua knew I couldn’t claim Alex’s social status at Greenwich. But he also knew what I had in me. Joshua wanted me to throw this party because I was smart enough and Gia enough to get it done. Not because he thought I’d cack it up.
    “Who do I invite from the seniors?”
    “Al can take care of that. I’m guessing it’ll be the rest of the Blondes, and then whoever they bring.”
    “So, yeah. I’m game. Let’s do this thing,” I said. I was giving it my best, with a lazy smile like it was no big deal.
    Instead of the biggest deal that had fallen in my lap all year.
    Joshua’s smile turned over my heart. Truthfully, I’d have never refused him. I had a thing for Joshua Gunner, and Joshua Gunner had a dream, and who was I to question how he financed it? Especially since my own dreams were prepaid in full, thanks to my kindly bazillionaire stepdad.
    But Joshua’s dream went something like this: next spring, after he finished his degree at Westchester Junior College, he’d migrate to Los Angeles and join up with Tom Savini, “the Godfather of Gore.” Savini did makeup and SFX for every kickass horror movie you’ve ever seen. Joshua had apprenticed for him during his SKiP last year while they shot the latest
Stab
(
Stab III: Bled from Within
) over in Locust Valley.
    It had been life-changing. Savini had encouraged Joshua to go to college. To learn film. To dream bigger than bowling alleys.
    The Savini thing might seem left-field, but only if you’d never witnessed what Joshua could create. Those gouged eye sockets and bumpy scar tissue were objects of gruesome beauty. His zombie transformations were so disgustingly awesome that our past two school plays—
Rocky Horror Picture Show
and
The Hunchback of Notre Dame
—had been mounted just to squeeze the most from Joshua’s genius.
    Last spring, the Theater Department even did the unprecedented and threw him a farewell party. There wasn’t a single kid who didn’t know his name after that.
    “No broke dick, okay, Thee?” he warned me now. “I’m speaking to you as a big brother. Don’t waste my time.”
    “All amateurs will be unwelcome,” I assured him. “Promise.”
Big brother
. My smile felt tight as a noose.
    “I’m thinking you invite Jack Gaffney and Harper Buck and the McBride twins and Fiona Levine. Can you handle it?”
    “Um … 
yea-ah
.” I was trying for Gia, a purr in my voice and poochy lips. Hoping I didn’t sound stupid. “But
you
have to make sure Alex approves. If this comes from me, it’s an automatic no.”
    “I’ll bring it up later tonight. If I can. The thing is, Alex isn’t feeling …” Joshua’s eyes cut to the ceiling. “Why’d you have to leave her today, anyway?”
    “Leave her? I didn’t leave her.”
    “She said you ditched on Elm.”
    “Because that was the
plan
.” My nerves sparked. The “five minutes” plan. I thought I’d given Alex way enough time. I thought she’d been good to go. Guess not. And since when did Al sneak behind my back and rat me out to her boyfriend?
    “She never made it to tutoring,” Joshua said. “She said shedrove to the train station and then turned around and came back here.”
    “Her problem’s getting worse,” I said. “I’m worried about her.”
    “Sure, you look like you’re losing plenty of sleep over it.” His smile was almost sad.
    “I’m being totally sincere, actually,” I bit back. “Alex is the truest thing I’ve got. But what am I supposed to do? If she can’t leave her room or leave the house or drive her car or get out of—”
    “Her head,” he interrupted, using two fingers to tap his temple. Like he knew all Alex’s secrets. Like I was simple. “Her head is the only place she can’t get out of. But she’ll beat this. You have to just think of it as … a losing streak.”
    A losing streak
. Oh gee. Thanks, Joshua. That’s why Alex had