Free Toxic by Kim Karr Page B

bikini.
    “Sure,” I said.
    “Sorry,” Jamie said, sweeping her with his eyes. “I have some things to do afterward.”
    Emmy pursed her lips. “I bet you do.”
    Jamie sighed heavily and turned and walked outside.
    I stayed behind. I didn’t care if she came but obviously Jamie did. I wondered what was going on but I knew better than to ask him.
    “Are you okay?” I asked Emmy instead.
    Her head shot up and I noticed her face was pale, there were dark circles under her eyes, and her cheeks were hollow. “Couldn’t be better.”
    “Well, if you need to talk—”
    “You won’t be around,” she said fiercely and walked out the back door, slamming it behind her.
    We hadn’t been getting along for a while.
    I didn’t follow her. Instead, I went the other way—toward Jamie.
    He stood on the broken front porch step with his hands in his pockets. “Ready?”
    I nodded. “Emmy’s not eating again.” I didn’t have to ask her, I could tell.
    “Yeah, I know.”
    “Did you tell her parents?”
    “Fuck no, they’d just lock her away again.”
    We took our time walking to his car. “She needs to quit the coke.”
    He nodded.
    “And so do you.”
    He looked like crap as well. “I know.”
    I wasn’t going to lecture him. He knew it was time to quit. “What are we going to do about Emmy?”
    “We? We aren’t going to do shit. She’ll freak if she thinks you’re in on anything.”
    I looked at him knowingly.
    “I’m going to stop by her sister’s after I drop you off.”
    “Is that why she’s mad at you?”
    His laugh was bitter. “No, she doesn’t have a fucking clue. She’s mad because I fucked some redhead model last night and I wouldn’t let her join us.”
    “So you two broke up again?”
    He opened my door. “No. There’s no breaking up since I was never with her.”
    “Yes, you were.”
    He lifted a brow. “Do you really want to talk about this?”
    I pulled the door closed, not only on him but the conversation. We obviously had different definitions of what being with someone meant. Mine was that if you slept with someone consistently, you were with him or her. Same argument we’d had for years, but in his defense, we had agreed it was best not to discuss Emmy.
    As soon as he got in the car, he turned to me. “You need to tell your boyfriend the truth, Phoebs.”
    “What’s the matter with you?” I blurted out.
    “You,” he spit back. “I’m tired of all the bullshit going on here. Emmy’s issues. Logan disappearing. Danny hiding who he is. And you too. Just quit the fucking lying to that guy. He doesn’t deserve it. Who you are isn’t a big deal and you’re making it worse by continuing to lie to him. He’s going to find out.”
    The hostility in Jamie’s eyes made my guilt instantly flare. “I know,” I sighed. “I want to tell him. I’ve tried to tell him so many times already but I just can’t seem to get the words out.”
    “What is it you’re really afraid of?” he asked.
    I didn’t hesitate in my answer. “You already know. That he’ll dump me because of who I am,” I confessed again.
    He looked at me knowingly.
    “He has this chip on his shoulder about people with money.”
    “So you’ve said. Did something happen to him?”
    “I think it’s just from spending every summer of his life in the Hamptons and being subjected to poor behavior.”
    “I can see that. But he knows you. If he dumps you because of your family, he’s not the right one for you anyway.”
    I shook my head. “You don’t understand.”
    “I do and that’s why you need to tell him before it’s too late.”
    “I will . . . soon,” I conceded.
    Concern flashed in his eyes. “Promise?”
    “Promise.”
    But I couldn’t tell Jeremy today. Today was a good day and I didn’t want to ruin it.
    He had been the one to teach me how to drive, and even though my mother had insisted it wasn’t necessary—“After all that’s what drivers are for,” she’d said on many