My Worst Best Friend Read Free

admit it. But I just couldn’t face her right now. I really couldn’t.” She shook her head. “I mean, I am truly fond of Marilouise, you know I am.” She frowned. “And that’s even though she hasn’t always been the most totally understanding and supportive friend you could hope for.” Curls swirled and earrings flashed. “Remember the time that psycho at Scissor Sisters cut my hair and Marilouise said I looked like a squirrel?”
    “Savanna, she
was
joking.”
    “But it wasn’t funny, Gracie. You know how sensitive I am.” More swirling curls and flashing gold. “And what about how she’s always defending Zelda and telling me I should be nicer to her?”
    Zelda was Savanna’s mother. They had a troubled relationship. (Savanna had a troubled relationship with her dad and her sister too, but the one with Zelda was more troubled.)
    “That’s just because Marilouise’s father abandoned them. You know, she’s very mother-sensitive.”
    “Maybe.” Savanna’s shoulders heaved as though she was trying to shake something off them. “But she still makes me feel really bad when she goes into her Miss-Sweetness-and-Light-and-Two-Good-Shoes routine.”
    “Goody Two Shoes.”
    “Whatever. The point is that Marilouise doesn’t live with the horror that is Zelda Zindle. I bet if she did she’d talk to her exactly the way I do.”
    I wasn’t so sure about that. Besides the fact that Marilouise was more the salt-of-the-earth than the salt-in-the-wound type, odds were that if Marilouise had been made of jute she’d have been a doormat. She wasn’t really known for being harsh.
    “You may be right,” Savanna conceded. “I mean, she is like the human equivalent of boiled potatoes, isn’t she?” Savanna smirked. “No butter, no salt, and
definitely
no pepper.”
    “There
are
worse things.” I really liked plain boiled potatoes.
    “I didn’t say she’s like this major booga-booga friend from hell, Gray. I mean, she’s absolutely not the worst best friend I ever had.”
    That would be Lena Skopec. Lena Skopec and Savanna had been best friends when they were nine. Lena talked Savanna into giving her the pink leather boots she got for Christmas as a friendship present, and then, when Zelda made Savanna ask for them back, Lena told everyone that Savanna had lice. My worst best friend was Candy Russo.
    “But Marilouise is your oldest friend.” I guess I felt about Marilouise the way I felt about the planet – you know, that I had to defend her because she couldn’t really defend herself.
    “Exactly!” Savanna snapped her fingers. “The important word here being
old
. I mean, let’s face the very loud music, Gracie. Marilouise and I have been drifting apart since we started high school. You can’t deny it. I grew up practically overnight, but Marilouise is still like a little kid. Everything’s
Mommy this
and
Mommy that
… I mean, she still has
dolls
on her bed, for God’s sake! You’ve seen her room. It’s like Time dropped dead in there or something. Dolls on the bed … ruffles on the spread … pictures of her dogs all over the dresser… It’s like a mega-miracle she finally got rid of her Little Mermaid curtains.” She sighed. “We just don’t have that much in common any more.”
    “Yeah, but—”
    But Savanna was on a roll.
    “And what was the
‘It’s not like a real party or anything’
routine? I mean, give me a break, huh? Like there was ever a chance she’d have a real party! Marilouise doesn’t know enough people to fill an SUV, yet alone enough to make a party.”
    “Let alone.”
    “Don’t try to distract me, Gracie. The point is that she’s lucky she knows
us
or she’d be eating her stupid eggplant with only that witch Jemima for company. I mean, ohmigod… How depressing would that be? I’d rather be put on a chain gang.”
    “You wouldn’t say that if you’d ever seen
Cool Hand Luke.
” Savanna had a thing about old movies: she wouldn’t watch