Marissa’s face lights up. “That would be great. Come find me. I live in the blue house at the top of the hill. The one with the dark blue shutters. Do you know it?”
I do. Everyone in the neighborhood knows that house. Mrs.Steiner gives out full-size candy bars on Halloween. Plus, she used to work here at the library.
“Your grandmother is Mrs. Steiner?” I ask.
Marissa nods. “She always brings me here at the beginning of the summer. Not that I mind. I love to read. Just like you, I guess!”
Yep. Just like me.
“Well, I’m going to start my book,” I say. “Those Personal Pan Pizzas won’t earn themselves.” I kick myself internally. I sound like such a dork.
Marissa smiles. “Let me know if it’s any good. Maybe I’ll read it next.”
My heart gallops. Just like that, I’m back in the game.
“Oh, there you are.”
I look over my shoulder to see Holden standing with his arms crossed. He glances between me and Marissa and his mouth curls into a smirk. I shoot him a warning look, silently begging him to keep his trap shut. He holds my gaze for a beat, just long enough for beads of sweat to form on the back of my neck, and then asks, “Want to eat lunch? My mom says we can get a soda from the vending machine in the staff room.”
I nod quickly, desperate to get away before Holden changes his mind about not embarrassing me.
“See you, Marissa,” I say, throwing her a quick wave before following Holden out of the stacks.
“Oooh. JJ’s got a girlfriend,” he croons the moment we’re out of earshot.
I elbow him in the rib cage. “I do not. I don’t even know her.”
But I want to know her. Which is why I read Encyclopedia Brown all through lunch, finishing just as Holden’s mom tells us her shift is ending. I’m kind of surprised by how much I enjoyed it. It was much better than the books we normally read at school. Less depressing too. No one died after eating a poisonous berry or succumbing to a bee sting. I even figured out a few of the mysteries.
Before we leave, I check out the book and then ask for a sheet of paper and a pencil. I jot down a quick note and slide it inside the jacket.
I think you’ll really like this. You’ll probably even solve some of the mysteries, since you read so many Nancy Drew books. But if you need help, the answers are in the back!
—JJ
On the way home from the bowling alley, I ask Holden’s mom to stop by Mrs. Steiner’s.
“I’m just, um… lending a book to Marissa. Her granddaughter.”
“You read an Encyclopedia Brown!” she says, clearly delighted to see the book in my hand. “What did you think?”
“It was great,” I manage. “That’s why I want someone else to get to enjoy it.”
I refuse to meet Holden’s eyes as I dart out of the car to drop the book in Marissa’s mailbox. But when I get back inside, he’s blowing kisses at me.
JJ’s got a girlfriend,he mouths for the second time that day.
I shoot daggers with my eyes as I mouth back,Do not.
I ignore Holden for the rest of the ride, and by the time I get dropped off, he’s let it go. There’s no reason for him to bring it up again anyway.
Because there’s no world in which Marissa would ever be my girlfriend.
10MARISSA
When Sunday night rolls around, I’m curled up in my bed with the only reliable loves of my life—fictional men—when my phone buzzes on my night table. Setting my book down, I swipe away the third-act-breakup tears and reach for my phone.
“Hey,” I manage through a watery hiccup.
