Dating Sarah Cooper Read Online Free

for English. But it’s progress!”
    “You are so sad,” I told her with a shake of my head. Mom looked amused by the both of us.
    “Well, dating doesn’t get any easier, girls. It’s better you learn the ins and outs of it early on.”
    “Tell that to Katie,” said Sarah. “How long has it been since you and Austin?”
    “Just a couple months,” I said, eager to change the subject. “That’s not that bad. And anyway, you’ve never even dated Sam and four years later you’re still not over him. You’re way worse.”
    “I don’t give up on the things I want. There’s nothing wrong with that.”
    “There is when he probably doesn’t even know your last name and you know what his favorite song is.”
    “Hush.” She clapped a hand to my mouth, then cringed and yanked it away when I licked her palm. “Ew! Gross.”
    “You were asking for it.”
    “Sarah, are you staying for dinner?” Mom interrupted. She’d gone into the kitchen at some point, and now she peered out at us from the doorway.
    “Oh, no, that’s okay. I should get back soon. I just needed to recharge my Katie bar.”
    Mom nodded and disappeared back into the kitchen, and Sarah stood and went to go put her shoes back on. I followed behind her with an exaggerated sigh.
    “So are you gonna ask Sam to catch you up on what you missed in class today?” I asked her. She’d only gotten home from her vacation around noon today, which meant she hadn’t gone to school. We had six classes total, and I shared just a couple of them and then lunch with her. I wasn’t, however, in her English class with Sam.
    “Maybe I should. We’ll see.” Once she had her shoes on, she straightened up and faced me, arms outstretched toward me. “Hug for the road?”
    I squeezed her tight and mumbled, “I missed you.”
    “Me too,” she whispered back, and then she was waving goodbye to my mother and me and heading out through our front door.
    After she left, I helped my mom cook dinner. That was kind of our thing. I loved cooking, and every day, my mom would go to work, I’d go to school, and then right after we both got home she’d start dinner and I’d help. Then my dad would arrive and we’d eat together as a family. And I liked that about my family. I liked being close with my parents, and I liked that I could tell them anything, particularly my mom. Aside from Sarah, she was my best friend.
    Sarah’s family was different. She lived in a house much bigger than mine, and frankly they were kind of loaded. It wasn’t even because of her parents; her grandfather died around the time she was born and he was apparently very talented when it came to the stock market, so he left a lot of money behind.
    Sarah lived in one of the nicest neighborhoods in Flowery Branch, but she also rarely saw her dad because of his job, and from what I’d seen growing up with her, her mom was a little disconnected, to say the least. She cared more about the next country club event than how her daughter’d done on her English test, and that was kind of sad to watch sometimes, especially given that I had two parents that cared so much about me. So I got a lot of parental quality time and bonding, and Sarah got free cruises and an empty house to throw parties in. I liked to think that my parents picked up a little of the slack, though. Sarah was over at my house so much anyway that we were like a second family to her.
    My mom had a lot to say about the conversation we’d had in the living room as we cooked together. “You know, I remember being just as boy crazy at that age. I even had my own Sam.”
    “I’m guessing he wasn’t Dad?” I asked, grinning. My dad was kind of a dork.
    “Not even close.” Mom laughed. “He was this big, hulky guy on the wrestling team. I think the line he used to use… oh, God…” She started laughing again as she recalled, “When I finally tried having an actual conversation with the guy, he told me how many times he thought he could