The Lighter Side of Life and Death Read Free

making me dizzy. Can we stop?”
    At this point we’re, like, twelve minutes away from Yolanda’s and maybe ten minutes from my house and I say, “We’ll head over to my place, okay? It’s not far.”
    “Seriously, Mason.” Her face is turning shades of green and she’s forcing her eyes open wide as she stares at a fixed point in the distance, probably in an attempt to stop the spins. “I’m not going to make it.”
    The girl barely drinks. She had to go and pick tonight to booze it up and make herself sick. “All right, climb on my back.” I crouch down and lock my arms around her legs as she hops on. By now I’m starting to get kinda pissed off with the way this is turning out. On any other night I’d be happy to help her out but I’m missing my cast party, the last chance to celebrate the shit out of what we accomplished with
All My Sons
, for someone who could be unconscious in two minutes. Plus, I don’t know that I can carry her very far. There’s a good chance that I’ll be phoning her brother myself in about five minutes’ time, trying to explain that Kat’s passed-out presence on a generic scrap of lawn has nothing to do with me, despite appearances.
    “I wish we brought some pizza with us,” Kat mumbles near my ear.
    “You don’t need to be any heavier,” I say irritably. Generally, this isn’t a good thing to say to anyone. If I’m lucky she won’t remember.
    “I’m not that heavy,” she protests, releasing her grip on me and jumping down. “Your muscles are underdeveloped.” She starts shuffling along next to me and we manage to make it all the way to my house in twice the amount of time it would normally take. The lights are off and the driveway’s empty, meaning Dad’s still at Nina’s.
    I fish my key out of my wallet and unlock the front door. Kat brushes past me, kicking off her shoes and collapsing onto the living room couch. “I love your house,” she announces. “It feels solived in.” The Medina house is covered in plastic wrap and constantly hosed down with multiple layers of Lysol and Mr. Clean. You could perform surgery in any room.
    “You mean messy,” I say, smiling as I sit down next to her. Now that we’re here I’m back to feeling friendly. There’ll be other parties. I did the right thing. “Maybe Nina will fix that.” I nudge her arm. “You feeling better? You want some water or something?”
    “No, I’m okay. Just don’t ask me to walk anywhere else.” Kat rubs her eyes and looks thoughtful, her face back to its normal color. “That’s going to be really weird with Nina and her kids, isn’t it? Having other people in your house, acting like it’s theirs.”
    “I guess.” I’ve been trying not to think of it that way. “Everything’s going to change after graduation anyway.”
    “Yeah, but that’s still over a year away.”
    “It’ll go fast,” I say, making Kat frown.
    “I don’t want it to go fast.” Kat pulls off her hat and wrestles with her poncho. She drapes it over the arm of the couch and turns back to face me. “All that stuff that happens after is serious. Important life and career decisions.”
    “You’re already worrying about those things,” I remind her. She’s had this career path conflict going on since at least summer. Her parents are really into the idea of her becoming a pharmacist. Kat’s half into the idea herself but she’s also hyper-interested in designing jewelry. Personally, I think she’s kidding herself with the pharmacy thing. Not that she’s not smart enough. I just can’t see her in a lab coat counting pills for a living. She needs more than that.
    “I know.” She pouts a bit when she says that. It’s the cutest thing and now’s probably a good time for me to admit that I never entirely got over my crush on Kat Medina. Sometimes I almost forgetabout it. It’s like a photocopy of a photocopy of an original that you packed away in an unmarked cardboard box in your attic. The point is,