Train Wreck Girl Read Free

gotten used to having her around. I liked it. She was a good kid. But more than that, there were moments when she would do things so thoughtful and generous that I would feel, I don’t know, more human or something. Or she’d completely drop her guard and let me see the Libra that she was when no one was around. During those times, I could picture a future with me and Libra stretching into old age. So of course I wanted her to go to Florida with me.
    On the con side, though, if she came with me, she’d have to quit college, move two thousand miles from home, and get the first job of her life all so she could camp out with a loser like me.
    And I guess there was a third option. I could’ve stayed in Flagstaff. I had a good gig tending bar downtown and I had a cool girlfriend and I had a friend to hang out with and plenty of free time to read and ride my bike around town and sleep when I was tired. But that wouldn’t work. This was no time for status quo. I was turning thirty in a few months. It was already too late to die young. And if I had to keep living, I had to come up with a new plan. I had to go back to the place where everything went wrong and start fixing things from there.
    The decision about what to do with Libra became more and more clear in my mind. I climbed down off the tracks, hopped the fence into my backyard, and went into my trailer.
    Libra paced back and forth across the living room floor. She moved quickly. Her pacing took up most of the room. I had to time it right just to get over to the rocking chair by the wall heater.
    I sat in the chair and unlaced my boots. “What’s up, kid?” I asked.
    Libra didn’t stop pacing. She said, “Where have you been all night?”
    â€œAt work.”
    â€œYou smell like a bar.”
    I pulled off a boot and the wet sock underneath it. “I work in a bar.”
    â€œOh, you’ve got an answer for everything, don’t you?”
    I looked up. Libra’s pacing was making me dizzy. I said, “You’re gonna wear a hole in the floor if you’re not careful.”
    Libra stopped. She looked at me. Her mascara was spread across her eyelids like a fog. The rest of her make up had been washed off, making the freckles on her cheeks all the more prominent. How could I ever leave this girl? I asked myself. And: how could I not? How could I condemn her to a life with me?
    Libra kinda snarled and said, “Don’t look at me like that.”
    I figured I knew what the problem was and said, “Talk to your mother today?”
    â€œWhat do you think?”
    â€œI think you did. Sit down. Tell me about it.”
    Libra didn’t sit. She crossed her arms and said, “My mom wants me to see a shrink.”
    â€œReally?” I let out a little laugh, because for all my talk of Libra being crazy, I always knew that I was the one who really had the problem. So this surprised me. I said, “Are you gonna go?”
    â€œI can’t.” Libra sat on the couch. She crossed her legs and kept her arms crossed and this made her look so vulnerable that I got a little sad.
    â€œWhy not?”
    â€œShe made the appointment for tomorrow. I gotta go to the med center tomorrow to get my annual check-up.”
    As soon as she said this, I got another idea. Because those med center doctors are always good for drugs. I said, “What? Your pap smear and shit like that?” Libra nodded. “Listen, Libra, can you do me a favor when you get there?” Libra looked at me kinda surprised, like it was totally inappropriate for me to be changing the subject right now. Which it was. So I hurried. I said, “Will you tell the doctor that you have really bad cramps? Tell him that you can’t sleep some nights because the cramps are so bad. He’ll prescribe you some Vicadin, and we can have some fun with it.”
    Libra drummed her fingers on her bicep. I could see it was about time to wrap things