The Temptations of St. Frank Read Free Page A

shit about him. Maybe he was nothing in her book, not even worthy of a reaction one way or the other. Maybe she preferred nerdy boys. Maybe that’s what got her hot—guys with high GPAs and early acceptances into top-shelf colleges
with scholarships.
Maybe she didn’t care that the Beatles had broken up. Maybe she liked classical music, opera, highbrow stuff. Maybe she thought guys who liked rock’n’roll were low class and beneath her. Fuck, he thought, they would never get together. It was doomed from the start.
    â€œYo,” Dom said. “Who’s the chick?”
    â€œWhat?” Frank had been so involved in the rise and fall of his yet-to-be-but-never-will-be relationship with Yolanda, he hadn’t noticed Tina walking toward them, looking right at him with her little sly-cat smile, hugging her books and covering up the bust she didn’t have.
    â€œWhat’re you doing here?” she said to Frank. They kind of knew each other from school. He always hung out in the yearbook office in the morning, which was next to the physics lab. They’d said hi a few times, but he didn’t think she knew his name. “Do you live near here?”
    Frank tried to think up a plausible excuse for being there, but he couldn’t come up with anything. He shrugged. “Just hanging out.”
    â€œHere?” She gave him a skeptical look. “Why?”
    â€œI dunno. Just checking out the…” He nodded toward the landfill. “You know.”
    â€œYeah, it’s really bad.” She frowned at the smoldering landscape. It was the first time Frank had ever seen her with a serious face.
    Dom said, “So what’re all these people doing here?”
    The breeze blew wisps of hair across her cheek, and for a moment Frank thought she was pretty cute. She looked down and moved the hair off her face with a graceful sweep of her fingertips. When she looked up again, she was looking at Dom. “Who’re you?” she said.
    â€œThis is my friend Dom,” Frank said.
    But she didn’t pay any attention to him. She only had eyes for Dom. She pointed to the cigarette in his hand. “Can I have one of those?”
    â€œSure.” Dom took a pack of Marlboroughs out of his shirt pocket, tapped one out halfway, and held it out to her.
    She took it and held it to her lips, waiting for a light.
    Dom struck a match, but the wind blew it out. He moved closer to her and struck another match, cupping his hand around it and the cigarette in her mouth. It took a second to get it lighted.
    â€œThanks,” she said, exhaling smoke as she moved the hair out of her eyes again, this time with the cigarette in her hand. She was incredibly sexy, sexier than Frank ever imagined she could be.
    â€œSo what’re all these people doing here?” Dom asked again.
    â€œComplaining. They come here all the time. They think the stuff burning underground is toxic and that it’s gonna kill everybody.” She brought the cigarette to her lips.
    â€œIs it true?” Dom asked.
    She shrugged. “Some of the old people have a hard time breathing. Like Yolanda’s grandfather.” She nodded toward Potato Man. “But they’re, you know, old.”
    Frank focused on the trails of smoke blowing across the landfill. It could be toxic, he thought. It didn’t smell terrible, not like burning tires and shit, but he’d read somewhere that sometimes the most toxic stuff doesn’t smell at all. And truckers dump all kinds of chemical crap around here, any place they can get away with it. Everybody knew that.
    â€œTina!”
    Frank recognized Yolanda’s voice as soon as he heard it, high and sweet. She waved to Tina, calling her over. Yolanda was at least three car-lengths away, but Frank could see the sapphire-blue of her tiny eyes. She had a concerned expression on her face, but she didn’t seem to know that he was there. She was focused on