Everlasting Read Online Free Page A

the water.
    My gaze was on Mandy and other creatures of the deep. When I glanced away, I saw Matt was situated on his surfboard, riding high on a wave.
    My eyes flicked wide. How did he escape without me seeing him? “Matt’s awesome.”
    His arms were spread out on each side of him, legs bent just a fraction. He had this surfing thing down to a science.
    “Ha, he just likes to show off.” Mandy waved at him while he rode another wave. “But keep your hands off him…or you’ll be sorry.” Her expression pinched tight, teeth clenched, eyes loomed with a stark stare.
    My words tremored, voice shrill. “Um…you know…you know I’d never do that.” I scratched at my temple, and my stomach fluttered.
    She softened. “I’m sorry, never mind me. We’d better go get the snorkeling gear.”
    My legs weakened with Mandy’s unforeseen threat and lodged a pain deep in the back of my throat—the rough edges of rocks poking and stabbing. I wanted to lie down and rest. Stop this throbbing in my head. She wasn’t the same person that moved away four years ago.
----
    T he line to rent snorkeling gear went on forever, winding around the food huts, sprawling onto the sand. Evidently, snorkeling must be the thing to do around here.
    I wrung my hands. Why did we have to do this? Mandy didn’t know what she was getting herself into with these ideas. She wanted to teach me , who was more than a little paranoid of sticking my head in the water while trying to breathe, and also a little freaked about getting close to fish, to snorkel.
    My stomach churned, doing flops like a circus act. “I don’t know about this, Mand.” I crossed my arms tightly over my stomach. “My swimming is pathetic, and the fish freak me out. Maybe we should just leave…yeah, let’s go.” Lifting myself up and down on my tippy-toes, I inched closer to the rent-a-gear window. I pulled on her arm, one last dig at desperation. “Let’s go sunbathe…sounds like a great idea to me.”
    Mandy waved it off. “You’ll be fine. Here, take this money and order two sets of gear. I need to go to the bathroom.” My lips mumbled—jumbled up words to let her know one more time I wasn’t happy—as she hurried off to the bathrooms. She didn’t hear a thing I said.
    I took one more step, squinting into the sun and also into the unshaven face of a pudgy man at the window. “Two sets of snorkeling gear, please.”
    “That’ll be twenty-four dollars.” He handed me the gear.
    “Whew, whatta relief. Needed that.” Startled, I spun around. Mandy stood right next to me. “Well, let’s go.” We walked toward her favorite snorkeling place about two hundred yards from where we’d just been swimming and searched for a place to put our stuff.
    We found a spot next to a lady wearing a hot-pink one-piece, rubbing sunscreen onto her young boy’s face. Mandy dropped her bag to the hot sand. “Better than nothin’.”
    My stomach tickled—soft butterfly wings brushing, scrambling to be released. What am I doing? I don’t belong here. I’m not a pro like the people here. Mothers were helping their children put their gear on, and the children didn’t look scared at all. In fact, they jumped around, begging their moms to hurry up . But they had probably grown up snorkeling—had years of experience. Yep, that had to be the reason they wanted to do this so-called fish-watching. I tucked my arms close to my sides, my shoulders sagging, wanting to shrivel and disappear—just be a spectator.
    Mandy handed me a flipper. “Okay, here’s how this stuff goes on.”
    My face contorted at the silly looking mask and gigantic flippers. They were odd, to say the least, and I was a bit skeptical about putting them on. But I struggled into them, and we waded out to the knee-deep water. She put her face in to show me how to breathe. I stared at the water and took a deep breath, gathering courage. When the cool water hit my face, I gasped, fighting the urge to rip it back