There are best friends Justine, whose parents are enjoying professional success, and Rory, whose family is struggling with recent job layoffs. The two families have been close since the girls were babies. Will their friendship be affected by their changing economic situations?
I wonder how the press release might read for this new film. I wonder how Lance and Leslie will figure out what happened, what I did to my friend, and how that story will get told.
I’m so surprised that I blurt out, “Hi,” before I can remember all the reasons not to.
Rory says, “Hi,” softly. Her eyes shift to the cigarette in my hand, which I didn’t have time to hide.
We’re caught like this for many more seconds. I notice Rory’s just got her dark blond hair cut again, super short like it’s been since we were eleven, and the style flatters the bold features she’s grown into.
My tobacco benefactor is done with her smoke and walks past us, smirking, to get back indoors.
Then Rory speaks, addressing the cigarette. “Smoking causes one in five American deaths. It kills more people in the U.S. than AIDS, drugs, homicides, fires, and auto accidents combined.”
“I don’t really smoke,” I sputter. “I was just . . .” She’s locked on to it like RoboGirl with a targeting system. It still unnerves me when she does this stuff, so I add, “Did you talk to Lance and Leslie? Are you doing the film this time around?”
Now she looks at me, actually at my eyes—no longer than a blink—then at the hedge next to me.
“Yes. My parents feel strongly that I should continue.”
“Mine too.” I throw the half-smoked cigarette on the ground now and rub it out with my foot the way I’ve seen Olivia do. Rory watches me. These long pauses feel way too familiar, even though it’s been years.
“Well, maybe I’ll see you, then,” I offer, “when they start shooting.”
Now Rory’s eyes meet mine once more. They dart away, as if trying to escape, then back. It’s strange to see her face straight on like that.
She asks, “Are you going to do to me what you did last time?” Her voice isn’t accusing at all. It’s mostly flat, as always, with the slightest twist of curiosity, like she’s asking me what I’m having for dinner. Eyes away, and back again. I can tell this is work for her. I heard that a therapist at school has been helping her with social skills. “I would just like to know,” she adds, “so I can make a plan for how to deal with that.”
I used to hate Rory’s directness. It irritated the hell out of me. But right now I can’t think of anything more refreshing.
“No, I’m not. I mean—”
She cuts me off. “I’m going to be assertive here and say, please don’t. It hurts too much.”
Then she turns and continues on. If Rory thinks about these things, if she’s at all typical in certain kinds of ways, I’m sure she’s muttering bitch on her way down the street.
About the Author
Angelique Hanesworth
JENNIFER CASTLE’s first novel, The Beginning of After, was named an American Library Association Best Fiction for Young Adults selection and a Chicago Public Library “Best of the Best” Book. She wrote many unproduced movie and TV scripts before returning to her first love, fiction . . . but she’s still hooked on film and the way we can find and tell our stories with images. She lives with her family in New York’s Hudson Valley. You can visit her online at www.jennifercastle.com.
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Also by Jennifer Castle
The Beginning of After
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Copyright
HarperTeen is an imprint of HarperCollins Publishers.
PLAYING KEIRA. Copyright © 2013 by Jennifer Castle. All rights reserved under International and Pan-American Copyright Conventions. By payment of the required fees, you have been granted the nonexclusive, nontransferable right to access and read the text of this e-book on-screen. No part of this text may be reproduced, transmitted, downloaded, decompiled, reverse-engineered, or stored in or introduced into any information storage and retrieval system, in any form or by any means, whether electronic or mechanical, now known or hereinafter invented, without the express written permission of HarperCollins e-books.
EPub Edition April 2013 ISBN 9780062271594
ISBN 978-0-06-227159-4
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FIRST EDITION
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