Avra's God Read Online Free Page A

and comforting as the flop, flop of her
mother’s slippers against the kitchen floor every morning. What did
Cisco feel? Tossed into a Norman Rockwell painting?
    Talk swirled around her. Being this close to
Cisco made her feel she was running at ten thousand feet and
couldn’t quite catch her breath. Get over it, already . He
was a family friend. Lester sat behind Cisco’s chair, his curly
head cocked to one side as if he waited for his master to finish
eating.
    She listened to the timbre of Cisco’s voice,
not paying attention to what he was saying until she heard her
name.
    “Kurt goes, ‘Avra’s no fun; she’s a techno
nerd.’ So, I say, ‘What kind?’ Drew says, ‘Sound tech.’ And I say,
‘Hello! My band, Beach Rats , needs a sound tech.’“ He
snapped his fingers. His arm grazed Avra’s.
    She set down her water glass with a thud.
Cisco glanced at her, gave her another millisecond look. “So, Avra
says, ‘Stick it in your ear, dweeb boy.’ Or something like that—she
meant Kurt, not me. Anyway—” He faced Avra. “—what’s it gonna be?
You going to tech for us?”
    Her face heated under Cisco’s full attention.
Kurt lifted a newly barbell-pierced eyebrow at her reaction.
    Cisco waited for her answer.
    Look somewhere else—anywhere else. “Whatever.” Was there any chance Cisco wouldn’t notice she was
blushing from two feet away?
    Cisco drilled her with his eyes. “Not
‘whatever.’ Are you going to do it—yes or no? I gotta tell
Jesse.”
    She bent over her plate, willing everyone to
look away. Fine. “Yes.”
     
     
    Avra gathered the calculus worksheets
scattered across her desk into a pile and slipped them in a
folder.
    “Uh, Avra ...” Kallie stood beside her desk,
chewing on her bottom lip. “Did you get this stuff today?”
    “Yeah, why?”
    “I was hoping you might help me figure it
out. That is, if you have time.” Gossamer hair spilled over
Kallie’s perfect skin, making her look like Legolas’, from The
Lord of the Rings, twin sister. “I’m in way over my head. I had
this feeling you might tutor me.”
    Avra puckered her forehead as though she were
sorry. “I’m kind of busy this weekend.”
    Kallie’s eyes flashed surprise and flitted to
the whiteboard. “Maybe another time.” She rushed out of the
classroom.
    Jealousy tasted like three-day-old coffee in
Avra’s mouth. She knew why Kallie thought she’d help. An invisible
cord stretched between them, woven by Avra’s prayers. I’m such a
jerk. Forgive me. She so thought she was over the
jealousy. Obviously not. She’d make it right.
    Avra’s feet moved in slow motion across
campus. She spotted Kallie sitting in the Student Union in a group
of girls. A peanut butter and jelly sandwich oozed onto a brown
paper sack in front of her. Avra swallowed, took a deep breath.
    Kallie’s chin lifted toward her when she
sensed Avra’s presence. A girl with blonde curls licked mustard off
her finger, cast a curious glance at Avra, and refocused on Maddie
Shoewalter, whose blood red fingernails clicked on the lunch table
as she talked.
    Avra hooked her hair behind her ears. “Do you
still need help with calc?”
    “Yeah.”
    “Would eleven tomorrow work for you?”
    Kallie’s puzzled green eyes peered up at her.
“Eleven’s good.”
    Avra scrawled her address across a page from
her notebook and handed it to Kallie. “See you tomorrow.”
    She strode away, hearing Kallie’s faint
“thanks” behind her.
    She’d bet Kallie didn’t miss all four proms
in high school, didn’t have a geek like Morgan as her only
admirer.
     
     
    Avra sat at the dining room table, her books
fanned around her. She twisted a pencil in a plastic sharpener.
Shavings dropped onto the rough draft of her report. Her gaze
drifted out the window where Cisco threw the football to Kurt. His
muscles flexed and relaxed in fluid motion. The pencil tip snapped
inside the sharpener.
    The screen door smacked shut, and the guys’
footsteps