Colorblind Read Online Free Page A

where I work. And Robbie’s got this place he really likes a couple miles away; it’s basically a video game arcade with a whole special section for laser tag. They also have really good pizza.” I felt like a dork as soon as I was done talking. Laser tag? Video games?
    “Is Robbie your boyfriend?” she surprised me by asking. I laughed.
    “Oh. No. He’s, like, twenty-two.”
    “Ooh, an older boy.” She grinned at me. “What’s he like?”
    “He’s not my boyfriend,” I insisted, and she laughed at my reddening face. “Seriously. He works with me; he’s a cook at this fast food place where I work the register. He’s a great guy, but… not my type.”
    “Because of the age or the geekiness?” she teased.
    “I don’t know.” I avoided the question, shrugging. “He just isn’t.” I changed the subject. “So what do you wanna know about San Francisco? What are you into? Art? Music?” Glancing to Baxter, I added, “Animals?”
    “All of the above. And I’ve never tried laser tag, but I bet I could be into it. I just wanna see everything. I’ve wanted to live here for so long.”
    I remembered she’d said that on the day we’d met, too. “Why?”
    She shrugged, but I could tell she was the one avoiding my question now. “It just always looked fun and sunny and free. I grew up watching a lot of Full House . I don’t know.”
    “Ah.” I nodded, feigning understanding. “I watched a lot of Spongebob Squarepants as a kid. Must be why I have this strange urge to live in a pineapple under the sea.”
    She shot me a look, biting on her lip to hold back a smile, and I was momentarily pleased with myself. “Very funny. I just wanted to, okay?”
    We reached the end of the street that led to the front of the neighborhood, and I glanced up and down the street. “Hmm. If we take a left here, the movie theater’s about a mile up the road. We can’t take Baxter inside, but we could grab, like, tiny five-dollar ice cream cones from the concession stands inside. Or, alternatively, we could take a right and risk our lives when the sidewalk dead-ends in about five-hundred yards or so.”
    “So my options are death or inhumanely expensive ice cream?” She frowned. “Alright. Ice cream it is. But only ‘cause I brought money and you’re pretty.” My lips parted in surprise as she veered left and let Baxter tug her along down the sidewalk. She glanced back at me and winked, then called back, “Are you coming, or do you have a boyfriend you should be with right now?”
    She turned around and continued on without waiting on my response, and I glanced down to her left arm; the one not outstretched and gripping Baxter’s leash. It hung at her side, swinging with every step she took, and as my gaze reached her forearm, I saw what I’d missed when I’d first taken in her appearance at my front door: a thin handmade bracelet encircled her wrist, repeatedly bearing, in order, the six colors of the rainbow.
    I blinked a few times, sure I was imagining things. And then, when I was finally done and the bracelet hadn’t vanished, I swallowed hard.
    This was going to be a long summer.

 
     
     
     
    Chapter Three
     
     
     
    Once we had our ice cream, we sat together at a picnic table outside a restaurant next to the movie theater. Chloe licked at her chocolate cone and I tried not to stare as she declared, “You can totally tell a lot about a person by the ice cream they like.” She eyed the vanilla cone in my hand judgmentally. “I have this theory that people who like vanilla ice cream are super safe and unadventurous.”
    I had no idea what to say to that. I was just allergic to chocolate. At last, I settled on, “Oh. I’m sorry to disappoint you…?”
    “I forgive you. Would you ever go skydiving?”
    “No,” I answered instinctively, cringing at the thought of my parachute failing. She grinned.
    “See? I’m right.”
    “What, you would?”
    She nodded. “Of course. In fact, my dad says