How to Outswim a Shark Without a Snorkel Read Online Free Page B

ten-year-old, including my favorite Peter Pan T-shirt with the hole in the armpit, even though it was so-o-o comfortable.
    Okay, I might have kept that one. But I promise not to wear it in front of people, okay?
    â€œBut it’s so short!” I said. “Are you supposed to see my thighs like this?” I squished a finger into my leg, watching as the skin turned white, then slowly left behind a reddish fingerprint.
    Technically I didn’t pick out this skirt. Sugar bought it for me last week, but I think she forgot that I would be wearing it instead of her. Unfortunately, I look less like a model and more like a twelve-and-a-half-year-old who’s got a weird pickle-shaped sunburn on her knees.
    Liv lifted her eyebrows smugly. “Trust me. It stays in the keeper pile. Kevin will love it! How is it going with him, anyway?” She disappeared off screen and returned with her mouth full. Her cheeks stuck out like a chipmunk.
    I shrugged. “It’s fine, I guess.” I squinted at her. “Liv, it’s practically midnight there. What the heck are you eating?”
    She grinned, showing off the mess in her teeth. “Izza eez an eat fie!” she mumbled.
    I raised an eyebrow. “Oh, well that makes it clear.”
    She swallowed her bite. “It’s a cheese and meat pie. They love these things down here. Pies for breakfast, pies for lunch. Pies, pies, pies,” she sang. She took another big bite and held it closer to the screen. “Want fum?”
    I scrunched my nose and stepped out of the view of the computer, slipping out of the skirt. Once my robe was pulled on, I sat back down. My skirt sat in a pile on the center of the floor, like a swishy black hole that was sucking out my ego.
    â€œOkay. So quit changing the subject now,” she said, leaning back in her chair. “Tell me how Kevin is. Has he put the moves on you yet?” She giggled like a madwoman, her eyes shining like giddy little pixels on my screen.
    I frowned. “I told you! He’s fine. We all had a good time at the dance, and he’s coming over later to hang out with Daz. So he’s fine. I’m fine.” I shut my mouth before I rambled too much.
    â€œThe ‘fine-itis’? Come on. You’re a terrible liar. Your lips always do that thing when you lie.” She squinted at me, squishing up her lips.
    My hand whipped to my face. “What thing? They do not!”
    She smirked. “Sure they do! You think in a lifetime of best friendship I don’t know your lie face? You do this.” She pursed her lips together again, sticking them out like a duck. “You look like you’re slurping spaghetti when you lie!”
    â€œOkay, okay !” I yelled. I made sure my lips were loosey-goosey. “I guess I was sort of confused about the dance.”
    â€œBecause he didn’t tell you he loved you and give you a giant smackeroo on the lips?”
    â€œNo!” I said. I hid my lying lips. The truth was I was sort of afraid of kissing him. Or anyone, really. But that didn’t make me stop wondering if he wanted to.
    â€œI just don’t know what he’s thinking, you know? I hate that feeling.” I stared at Liv’s face on the screen. “We did slow dance four times. That counts, I think?” I thought back to the dance and how Kevin had gone to get me punch like guys in the movies do for their dates. “Maybe he only sees me like a friend?” I said.
    â€œLeilani says that when a guy likes you, he will make sure you know it,” she said. “Maybe he’s working up to it?”
    I rolled my chair away from the screen, making a face. Leilani was Liv’s new friend, and I couldn’t help but get a little peeved when I heard her name.
    Lay-lah-nee.
    They met when Liv moved into her new house, and she plays the flute and never seems to care that she’s yanking my very best friend away like some sort of kraken. So