County Line Road Read Online Free

looked at him but was focused far ahead as if she were looking at something on the horizon, a glimmer of something just out of reach. He wondered what it was.
    “Knowing Jeff, he already did invite her. He’s probably hitting on her, too,” Double A said. “You know her?”
    “Not yet,” Jimmy said, craning his neck to see her through a row of barricades marking a turn lane under construction. “I’ll kill Jeff if he tries anything. Damn it. Look, she’s leaving. Follow her!”
    “She’s going the opposite way,” Double A said. “Damn this paving.” His Cutlass bumped over the line between the paved lane and the torn up section that was scraped for repaving. The tires hummed loudly. “I wish they’d finish this. I don’t want any junk on my car.”
    “Oh, man,” Jimmy said. He wrenched himself around in the seat to watch her disappear down the road.
    “There’s a cop anyway,” Double A said. The tires bumped against a cut in the pavement, jolting them in their seats. The construction zone ended, and the tires rolled quietly atop the smooth pavement.
    “I wonder if she’ll go to the party tonight,” Jimmy said, slumping back into the seat.
    “You sound like me,” Double A said.
    “Shut up and drive.”
    Double A laughed at him and gunned the engine. The front end of the Cutlass rose up, and the car launched forward with a roar.
    Later, inside a furniture store called Miami Decor, Allison sat alone in the middle of a big, brown leather couch, flipping her Mustang keychain back and forth across her bare thigh. As she waited for her mother to finish the delivery details with the salesman, Allison thought about the guy in the car she’d seen. Maybe I will go to that party Jeff told me about, Allison thought, maybe that jogging guy will be there. I think that was him in the car Jeff waved to.
    When her mother finished, they left the store through the sliding glass doors, and the heat outside blasted Allison like hot air from opening an oven.
    “Ugh,” she said, putting her sunglasses on. “It’s so hot here. Couldn’t we have moved someplace cooler?”
    “You know your father got a good job here,” her mother said. “What are you complaining about? You just got a new bedroom set.”
    “Thank you,” Allison said as she clicked the remote to unlock her blue Mustang. They got in quickly, and Allison turned the air conditioning on full force. “It’s boiling in here. I should have parked in the shade, if there were any in this state.”
    Allison backed up and raced out of the parking lot into traffic. Her mother gripped the dashboard.
    “Slow down, Allison, or your father will take this car away.”
    They didn’t talk for the next 15 minutes or so until Allison had to ask for directions. “Is it this street or the next? They all look alike to me here.”
    “This one,” her mother said. “What’s wrong with you today?”
    “Nothing.”
    “Nothing,” her mother said. “I swear, Allison, ‘nothing’ must be your favorite word. You’ve been moping around since we moved. Except for meeting Cassie next door, you do nothing.”
    “There’s nothing to do,” Allison said.
    “Didn’t you just get invited to a party by what is his name, Jeff?”
    “He’s just trying to –” Allison paused. She almost said ‘get me in bed’ but she thought that wouldn’t be good to say to her mother. “He just wants a lot of girls there so he feels popular or something. Cassie told me about him.”
    “It’s too bad she’s away now,” her mother said. “Turn left here. No, here!”
    Allison braked and made a hard right turn. The car handled it fine, but her mother didn’t.
    “Damn it, Allison.”
    “Sorry,” she mumbled.
    Once at their house, her mother got out to check the mailbox, and Allison parked in the garage.
    Her mother walked through the kitchen behind her, sorting through the letters. She dropped all but one and tore it open.
    “These damn people,” she said.
    “What?”