Free The Duff: Designated Ugly Fat Friend by Kody Keplinger Page B

just needed to deal with it myself before I sprang it on
     her and Jessica. The Wesley thing, though… God, I hoped they’d never find out.
    I knelt at the foot of my bed and started folding the clean clothes, like I did every night. Weirdly, I wasn’t as stressed
     as I’d expected myself to be. I hated to admit it, but I definitely had Wesley to thank for that.

9
    Dad didn’t leave his bedroom for the rest of the weekend. I knocked a couple of times Sunday afternoon and offered to make
     him something to eat, but he just murmured a refusal, never opening the door between us. His isolation terrified me. He must
     have been depressed about Mom, and ashamed he’d fallen off the wagon to top it off, but I knew this wasn’t healthy. I decided
     that if he hadn’t emerged by Monday afternoon, I would bust into the room and… well, I didn’t know what I’d do next. In the
     meantime, I just tried not to think of my father or the divorce papers on the kitchen table.
    Surprisingly, that was pretty easy.
    Most of my thoughts swarmed around Wesley.
Ew,
right? But I really didn’t know how to handle school on Monday. What did one do after having a one-night stand (or, in my
     case, one-afternoon stand) with the school’s biggest man-whore? Was I supposed to actnonchalant? Treat him with my normal undisguised hatred? Or, because I’d honestly enjoyed myself, should I act, like, grateful?
     Tone down the contempt and be
friendly?
Did I owe him something? Surely not. He’d gotten just as much out of the experience as I had, minus the self-loathing.
    By the time I arrived at school Monday morning, I’d pretty much settled on avoiding him entirely.
    “Are you okay, Bianca?” Jessica asked as we walked out of Spanish at the end of first block. “You’re acting… um,
weird
.”
    I’ll admit, my spy skills weren’t exactly smooth, but I knew that Wesley walked past the classroom on his way to second block,
     and I didn’t want to risk an awkward post-sex meeting in the hallway. I peered anxiously around the edge of the door, scanning
     the crowd for those unmistakable brown curls. But if Jessica could tell something was up, I was being way too obvious.
    “It’s nothing,” I lied, stepping out into the hall. I looked both ways, like a small child crossing a busy highway, and I
     was relieved that I didn’t see him anywhere. “I’m fine.”
    “Oh, okay,” she said without suspicion. “I must be imagining it, then.”
    “You must be.”
    Jessica tugged at a loose strand of her blond hair that had escaped from the confines of her ponytail. “Oh, Bianca, I forgot
     to tell you! I’m so excited!”
    “Let me guess,” I teased. “This has something to do with Harrison Carlyle, right? Did he ask you where you got your cute skinny
     jeans this time? Or how you condition your luscious hair?”
    “No!” Jessica giggled. “No…. Actually, it’s my brother. He’scoming to visit us for the week, and he should be getting into Hamilton by noon today. He’s going to pick me up from school
     this afternoon. I’m really excited to see him. It’s been, like, two and a half years since he left for college and
—.
Hey, Bianca, are you sure you’re okay?”
    I stood frozen in the middle of the hallway. I could feel the blood draining from my face, and my hands turned cold and started
     to shake. There was definite nausea coming on, but I told the same old lie. “I’m fine.” I forced my feet to move again. “I
     just, um, thought I forgot something. It’s fine. Now, what were you saying?”
    Jessica nodded. “Oh, well, I’m so excited about Jake! I can’t believe I’m saying this, but I’ve really, really missed him.
     It’ll be nice to hang out with him for a few days. Oh, and I think Tiffany is coming with him. Did I tell you they just got
     engaged?”
    “No. That’s great…. I’ve gotta get to class, Jessica.”
    “Oh,… okay. Well, I’ll see you in English, Bianca.” I was halfway down the