[This story is free again]
A social klutz and certified bookworm, Autumn Lyne is content with having just books as companions--that is, until her extrovert of a sister drags her out to meet her band. But nobody has expected that this would mark the...
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If there was such a thing as love at first sight, then I certainly did not fall prey to its power the moment my eyes met his. I only felt a poke of wonder, as if seeing a book with a unique title.
Clover, however, surrendered to it easily. She had been attracted to Michael Summer from the minute she saw him in her AP Music, first day of senior year. She didn't admit it openly, but it was too obvious, anyway. It doesn't take a genius to see that a girl likes a certain boy. You can see it in her eyes and smile whenever she speaks of him.
Clover was boy-crazy. Not that she hooked up with numerous guys. She just ceaselessly talked about cute boys or about that time a cute boy smiled at her. I lost track of how many of them she liked and cried over because she was quick to hop from one crush to another. It wasn't like I was bitter or anything, but the downside was that she spent so much time trying to make herself look good for them when she shouldn't.
"This is your fault, Clover," I said, running along the footpath one morning. The cold wind blew against my face, making me clench my teeth.
"My fault?" she exclaimed behind me.
"Yes. You and your thirty minutes of doing that winged eyeliner. We missed the bus again." I could've taken my bike but forgot to fix the loose chain the day before.
"Thirty minutes? It was only like two."
"Two minutes of forever, you mean."
"I wanted my look to be perfect!"
"Clover, you don't need to worry about making yourself look perfect. You could wear a potato sack and still look pretty," I said. And meant it. She was pretty. She was named Miss Photogenic in her middle school pageant.
Clover smugly lifted her chin. "I can always look prettier."
"Sure," I deadpanned. "But I don't think that qualifies as an excuse for being late to school."
A sleek black car drove by, and her gaze followed it until it disappeared into a corner.
"It would sure be nice to have a car right now," she mused. "It sucks that Mom doesn't want me to get one."
"Because we can't afford it," I replied. "And ever since that news about a highway accident, she thinks all the drivers on the road are incompetent."
"Yeah, but think about it—us having the freedom to travel anywhere. Going to parties. Road trips. The luxury of not having to ride that stinky school bus every morning."
I hummed. A road trip sounded like a dream. "Well, I heard that the human body can still function with just one kidney, so if you want to volunteer..."
She pushed me playfully, and I laughed. Then, a vague memory flashed across my eyes all of a sudden.
"Hey, didn't we use to have a car before? It was a black one. A Toyota or something. And then..."
"Oh, no," I heard her groan under her breath, but I couldn't stop myself from talking. The picture was becoming clearer in my head by the second.
