AllFreeNovel
Share Us
“That was amazing.”
“Damn right, it was.” She snorts. “The guy kept talking to you, regardless of the fact you were a starstruck mess. Holy hell.”
“What do you mean?” I ask all defensive, knowing too well exactly what she means.
“If ever fate was giving somebody a shot, it was you. You’ve been mooning over that guy from day one.”
“Me and every other girl in school,” I say.
“So?” She’s not letting me off the hook, and I start making my way down the hall as if I can somehow escape this conversation. True to form, Brooke stays right with me.
“It’s not every girl who just clobbers the guy. And then, Abigail.” She takes me by the shoulders and pulls me to a stop, turning me to face her and squaring my shoulders so she can look me right in the eye. “Andthen, the guy you’ve been pining over for the last four yearsinitiatesa conversation with you. Opportunity wasn’t just knocking, it was pounding on the door.”
“What was I supposed to do?” I shake off her hands.
“Anything.”
“Oh, yeah, like what? Throw my arms around him and kiss him in the middle of the hallway?”
“What have you got to lose,” she fires back and actually hits home. “Are you worried people would laugh at you? In a week’s time, you’ll be at least five states away, so who cares what any of these jerks think?”
“Yeah,” I mumble, totally chastened. She’s right. After our talk about never having taken a chance, Hunter practically handed it to me on a silver platter, and I stood there like a dope.
My chest gets heavy and cold, and my legs turn to air so that I’m just floating down the hall, totally removed from the world around me. Brooke stays beside me, and the waves of disappointment pouring off her only make me shut down further.
We reach the door to my classroom first, and I turn to Brooke to suggest we meet after the final bell when a voice arrests my attention.
“Melissa’s parents are out of town. It’s going to beepic!” Samantha Berensen, head of the cheerleading squad is gloating to a small circle of juniors, and I whip my head around to look at the group. She’s in her element, alright, all blonde hair and fake eyelashes, smiling at sweaty younger guys desperate to lay a finger on her.
“It’s just for seniors,” one of the spindly admirers stammers, voice dripping with hope.
“I’m afraid so.” Samantha pouts, examining her immaculate manicure. “Too bad because everybody who’s anybody is going to be there. My brother even did a massive liquor run, so things are going to getcrazy.”
The lost souls in her circle are positively lapping it up, and it’s like a bomb goes off in my rib cage.
“Seniors only?” I ask, and the group falls into a stunned silence.
Samantha looks up from her nails with deliberate slowness and raises a painted eyebrow. “Yeah?”
“So, it’s okay if Brooke and I come too?”
Brooke’s hand locks on my upper arm, and she digs her fingers in hard, but I don’t want to lose the staring contest I’ve tumbled into with Brightwood’s most popular girl.
“Sure.” She snorts derisively.
“Why not? Just to show we’re open toall kinds,” she says snidely before turning back to lord it over her pimple-faced devotees. “So long as they’re seniors.”
Now that she’s spit all of her poisoned darts, she sashays down the hallway, swinging her hips like she’s trying to knock somebody down. Judging by the trembling attention of the teenage boys watching her rump, she just might manage it.
“Hey,” Brooke says, twisting me around. “What the hell do you think you’re doing?”
“What does it look like?” I shrug as if it’s nothing. “Taking my last big high school moment.”
She lets me go and looks at me like she’s seeing me for the first time.
“Okay.” She raises an eyebrow and gives me a funny smile. “Now that you’ve scored us an invitation, what’s the plan? Do you have the first idea what you’re going to do?”
“Not yet,” I admit, not releasing an ounce of my newfound grit. “But I’ll think of something. There’s no way I’m leaving high school without my first real kiss.”
