Break The Ice Read Online Free Page B

me says, laughing. “We accept your apology.” Others join him in laughter.
    Even I get a few laughs in until I remember what waits for me outside these walls. Not a day off to find out how Infinity Spectrum plays. The only thing for me is a small couch inside a hospital. Another dose of guilt strikes me.
    While all of the other kids talk to each other, I pull my iPhone out and set it on my lap. If I pretend I’m resting my head, I can scroll through a few websites before Parkins spots me. Three new Facebook messages wait.
    Kaitlyn : hey, how things going?
    Kaitlyn : i totally got off school today. power malfunctions. when do you get home?!
    Kaitlyn : message me back soon
    “Even if the power is off, Sam, no phones out during class.”
    Parkins stands over me. “Sorry. Won’t happen again,” I say.
    He smiles. Not because he’s happy, or he believes me, there’s something hidden behind his eyes. Oh God, does everybody know?
    I stuff the phone back into my pocket. I’ll message her back once I’m safely out of this Hell.
     
    “We’re up,” Parkins says after Dana sneaks in and slips him a sheet of paper. “Everybody single file, don’t push each other over, and I’ll see you all tomorrow.”
    I wait in the back until everybody else squeezes through the small door. No use blocking the hallway, especially since I have to find a way to the hospital. I ride the crowd of students out into the bus loading zone. Number seventy-three sits twenty feet down the walkway. It could take me home. To Kaitlyn.
    No.
    Forcing myself to look away, my stare lingers on the student parking lot. A few empty spaces scattered throughout the lot. I haven’t been able to convince mom that I need a car. Days like today are the perfect, morbid example.
    Sally catches me staring at her before I register that I’m doing it. She says bye to her friend and waves me over.
    “Hey, want a ride?” she says.
    “I’m going to the hospital,” I say. Then it clicks. That’s what she meant. Why would she want to give me a ride home?
    She grins. “Me, too. My dad is taking me out to lunch.”
    “That sounds fun,” I say. I want to punch myself. This conversation needs to end.
    “You could come with if–”
    A car horn cuts her off. A blue dodge pulls up next to me. “Hop in, kid. Apparently, I’m your new chauffer.
    Melanie. My hero.
    “Thanks for the offer, Sally, but I have to go,” I say. Without another word, I fold myself into the car, pulling my knees almost to my chest to avoid crushing the cans of diet Pepsi littering the passenger side floor. I don’t remember them being there this morning. I glance in the back seat. She must have tried cleaning off the floor but everything seems to have migrated to me.
    Pulling out of the parking lot, Melanie stares at me through the rear-view mirror. I’m not sure how she manages to watch the traffic behind her with it angled towards me like that.
    “She’s cute,” she says.
    My face heats up, burners on high. “She’s the doctor’s daughter.”
    “So?”
    “Can we talk about anything else in the world?” I say.
    “Sure, sure. Do you have a girlfriend?”
    I groan. “Sort of,” I say, only because I’m too embarrassed to tell the truth. No, I don’t have a girlfriend. No, I’m a senior in high school, and I haven’t had a girlfriend at all unless you count middle school, but you can’t because nobody does and it’s idiotic to think otherwise.
    Melanie wiggles in her seat. For being older than me, she acts like a kid. I find her in the mirror. She doesn’t look very old. Twenty-one, twenty-two tops. She catches me staring. “Well?” she says.
    “ Well what?”
    “Tell me about her before I have to go put catheters into old men.”
    For the first time in two days, I laugh.
    “Give me something,” she says. “Okay, start off easy. Hair color?”
    “Blonde.” I’ve always liked blondes, so why wouldn’t my imaginary girlfriend have blonde hair?
    “Smart