Arousing Love, a teen novel Read Online Free Page A

walls.
    “You’re really talented.” She peered at one
of the portraits. “Do you have any more like this?”
    “There’s another portrait in my room. My
parents didn’t want it for the house.”
    “Why not?”
    “It’s a nude. Not really their thing.” I
grinned.
    She laughed. “I wanna see it.”
    “Alright, but the subject’s not as beautiful
as another I’ve seen recently.”
    It took her a moment to grasp my meaning,
then her mouth dropped open. “I can’t believe you!” She slapped my
arm and laughed.
    I laughed too.
    “Who’s your friend, Zach?” My mom had come
into the room.
    “Oh, Mom, this is Joanna.”
    “Hello.” My mom smiled at Joanna, then gave
me her quizzical eyebrows look. I’d never brought any girls to the
house before, so who knows what she was thinking.
    “Joanna wanted to see some of my art.” I
explained.
    “Oh yes, he’s good isn’t he?”
    “He is. They’re all very good. The portraits
are my favorite.”
    “He’s done some nice landscapes too. It’s a
pity there aren’t more of them here. He keeps giving them away to
his friends.”
    “We’re going now, Mom.” I ushered Joanna
towards the door.
    “It was nice meeting you, Mrs. uh . . . Zach’s mom.”
    My mom smiled. “It was nice meeting you too,
Joanna.”
    We went out to the shack and I unlocked the
door.
    “Your mom seems nice.”
    “Yeah.”
    I closed the door behind us, and we looked at
each other. I could feel a nervous tension between us, like we were
waiting for something to happen.
    “Maybe it’s not a good idea to come
here.”
    “It’s okay, I won’t take a shower this time.”
She laughed, though it didn’t really ease the tension.
    I pulled my painting out from behind the
shelf.
    “Why do you keep it back there?”
    “It’s not really something I’d want on my
wall, and I’ve got nowhere else to put it.”
    I thought I detected a slight blush as Joanna
looked over the female nude figure in the painting.
    “It’s beautiful. How long did it take you to
paint it?”
    “Not long. I work pretty fast.”
    “Who did you use for a model?” She lifted her
eyes from the painting to look at me.
    “It was just a photo.”
    “Oh.” Her eyes wandered a little before
returning to mine. “Have you ever seen a naked woman in real
life?”
    Her question took me by surprise. “Ah, you
mean apart from you?”
    “Yeah.” She blushed.
    “I don’t know, probably not.” I was ashamed
to admit that. “Actually, I had a dream about you last night. It
felt like it meant something.”
    “What was it?”
    “It wasn’t sexual or anything, but you were
naked . . . ”
    I smiled as she blushed again. She was so
cute. I put the painting back behind the shelf as I recounted the
dream to her.
    “. . . It
was like you were seeing the real me, and I was seeing the real
you—we accepted each other for who we really are.”
    She frowned. “So, I haven’t seen the real you
yet?”
    “You have, it’s just . . . you know, sometimes we aren’t totally
ourselves with other people until we know them really well. You
know what I mean?”
    “Yeah, but I’m not like that, I’m just
me.”
    “You don’t care what people think of
you?”
    “I care what you think of me.” She smiled a
little smile that made her look so vulnerable.
    “You wanna know what I think? I think you’re
amazing. You’re beautiful and happy and free, and you’re so much
fun to be with. I really like you a lot.”
    Joanna tilted her head to one side and smiled
shyly. “You know, I think teenagers are afraid of rejection more
than anything else.”
    “I know. We tear each other to pieces trying
to be accepted. It’s a teen eat teen world.”
    “And the media feeds our fears. They tell us
what’s cool and what’s not, and how to look and act to be
accepted.”
    I nodded. “We’re majorly marketed to. It
feels like everyone’s trying to manipulate us, and they know how to
target our weaknesses. I hate