Breaking Dawn Read Online Free Page A

but neither of us enjoy it.
    Back at the table Carla Driver is sitting next to Brian and they both look up when we return. Carla smiles at Perry and asks him if he will dance with her. Perry looks from Brian to me, confused.
    ‘I’ve been here for two hours and haven’t danced yet,’ Carla says, stepping around the table to Perry, holding out her arm for him to take. Perry glances from her arm to me.
    ‘That would be fun Perry, go ahead,’ I say.
    Perry looks at me like a whipped puppy and takes her arm, with forced gaiety. I feel a pang of guilt but at the same time relief.I can have some uninterrupted time with Brian. I know Perry will make me pay for this later, but I am going to make it worth it. At least Carla doesn’t smell like cat pee tonight.
    I turn to Brian. ‘Did you arrange that?’
    ‘I thought it would be in everyone’s best interest.’
    Brian seems to be sincere. At least if Perry appears to be dancing with a girl, anything Gary might want to spread about the ‘staring’ incident can be laughed away. I’m beginning to see Brian in an even brighter light.
    For the rest of the night Brian is all mine. Every now and then I catch a glimpse of Perry dancing or sitting with Carla at another table. But he doesn’t bother us. At the end of the night I find out that Perry left the dance early, to find his own way home. I feel a combination of guilt and relief. I’m not entirely comfortable with that.
    When I get home, Brian walks me up to my door. We shyly murmur our goodnights and I receive my first kiss. He hesitantly, yet gently, presses his lips onto mine and for those few seconds, I feel a chill shimmer up my spine. A perfect ending to a perfect night.
    As I watch him step into the limo, watch the limo glide off into the night, I just stand for a few seconds to savour the moment. My lips still tingle from his kiss and the chills up my spine are only slowly fading away. The cold finally gets the best of me. I pull out my key to the front door and stop when I hear a noise. I look around in the dark and see someone in the shadows at the corner of the house. The snow on the ground illuminates the night enough for me to see that it’s Perry. And walking unsteadily, with a small bottle of whisky in his hand.
    ‘What are you doing?’ I say as he approaches me in his drunken stupor.
    ‘Celebrating your first boyfriend,’ he slurs and turns the bottle up to drain the last of its contents. He tosses the bottle acrossthe garden where it skips across the snow and shatters on the shovelled pavement.
    ‘You’re drunk.’
    I am completely surprised. That’s one thing we never do – drink alcohol. Mostly because his mom is such an alcoholic. Perry has always been turned off by the stuff. The night – which had been heavenly for me – had obviously been hell for him.
    ‘Come in, you can sleep it off.’
    He falls against me in his drunken stupor, nearly knocking me over with his weight.
    ‘I love you – you know that, right?’ Perry slurs.
    ‘I know.’
    I open the door and help him inside. I’m not about to scold or argue with a drunken Perry. I don’t know what to expect from a drunken Perry. I’m not too eager to find out.
    ‘You are so lucky to be you,’ he says. I stumble with him over to the couch, where he falls over the arm backwards onto the cushions.
    Before I am done wrestling his shoes off, he is out cold and snoring loudly. I cover him with a blanket, lock up the house and creep upstairs, past my parents’ room, to mine. As I slip out of my princess dress and into some flannel pyjamas, I touch the soft petals of the corsage with the tips of my fingers. I’m struggling with my good feelings of this dreamy night and my guilt over Perry.
    All the same, I drift into sleep, playing back all the moments with Brian in my mind. I omit Perry’s disruptive behaviour, of course, and my last memory as I fall asleep is the sensation of Brian’s lips on mine.
    In the morning I go down to