Free Killing Britney by Sean Olin Page B

he’d known all this, he would have tried harder to be nice to Britney. He’d been operating under the assumption that she was just a typical popular girl who judged everybody and was always looking for a way to hold on to her feeling of superiority. It felt to Adam now that he was the one who had been refusing to give her a chance. He promised himself that he’d show more compassion from here on out.
    It was almost eleven-thirty and Mr. Johnson had told Adam to be home by twelve.
    “So,” he said, “who’s going to cart me home? Melissa?”
    Without looking up, Bobby said, “Yeah, Melissa, take him home. I’ve got some serious killing to do here.”
    “I don’t know,” she said, winking at him as she grabbed her coat. “I don’t think I trust him alone with me.”
    “Good call,” Adam said. “I wouldn’t trust me alone with you either.”
    Once they were outside and headed toward the Johnsons’ house, he said, “What I don’t understand is, it seems like you two care about Britney a lot. Why does she hate Bobby so much?”
    “Bobby? Well, he has his problems too,” said Melissa. Abruptly changing the subject, she pushed the play button on her car stereo and said, “Here, listen to this new CD I picked up last week. It’s incredible.” It was Belle and Sebastian. Dear Catastrophe Waitress. “It came out a couple of years ago, but it’s great, isn’t it?”
    “You’re kidding, right?”
    “You don’t like it, do you?” She sounded truly disappointed.
    “No, it’s not that. It’s—I love these guys. I had no idea anybody in this town had ever heard of them.”
    “Well,” she said, “I’m full of surprises.”
    A prickle of anticipation inched up Adam’s back. He hoped he’d have the opportunity to be surprised by her again and again.
    They didn’t speak much on the ride home, but the music made Adam feel like they were growing more intimate anyway. He almost felt like it would be all right to kiss her when they got to Britney’s house, but she got very serious as she pulled into the driveway. He wondered if maybe he’d been imagining the whole thing and if she still thought of him as just that guy who lived in her best friend’s house.
    “Listen,” she said. “You probably shouldn’t tell Britney about all the stuff we talked about tonight, okay? I mean, she’d kill me if she knew I still hang out with Bobby.”
    “Sure,” Adam said. He was afraid he looked sort of dumb nodding like this. “No problem.”
    She winked at him. “See ya.”
    “Yeah, see ya.”
    It wasn’t until she had driven away that he realized that they had a secret now. They had a secret! And a secret was almost as good as a kiss.

twelve
    After the final bell rang on Friday afternoon, Britney hid her head in her locker so she wouldn’t have to be confronted again by the pitying looks of her fellow students.
    All day she’d been confronted by the eyes of freshman girls, of boys from the school newspaper, of the guys from Hummus, everyone staring, thinking, she was sure, There but for the grace of God go I. She knew that they wanted to impress their sympathy on her, but she wished they would stop staring. If everyone just acted like nothing had happened, maybe she could begin to feel normal again.
    When Melissa wandered over, Britney was momentarily disappointed. She’d hoped to hang out with Erin and the other wives, to go somewhere with them and do something mindless, maybe watch TV, while snuggling into their shared memories of Ricky.
    “Can I get a ride home?” asked Melissa.
    Britney gazed down the hallway. There wasn’t a hockey wife within sight. She didn’t want to be rude, and she really hadn’t spent enough time with Melissa lately, so she said, “Sure.”
    “I need to stop by the library. Is that okay?”
    Britney nodded. Now that she’d committed, she couldn’t back out, though hanging around at the library was the last thing she wanted to do.
    The two of them made their way