Twice Shy Read Online Free Page A

that, she'd paint.
    She was half-done with a watercolor of tiger lilies when a throaty rumble shook the house. A car horn sounded. She pushed back the curtain with a pinky finger and saw a maroon '87 Caprice Classic idling in the driveway. Dylan . She wiped her hands on a towel and went outside.
    He turned down the music as she approached the car, tiptoeing bare-footed through the gravel. The titanium pin in her pinky ached, dull and distant, and the rocks pricked the bottom of her feet.
    "Hey," he said. "I'm sorry about earlier."
    "Mmm," she said. She didn't much feel like giving him the satisfaction. "You almost got me fired."
    "I said I'm sorry."
    "I heard you."
    He sat there, staring at the steering wheel . She waited. He didn't say anything. She leaned her elbows on the door and put her head in the car.
    "What do you want, Dylan? I'm busy."
    "Will you go to the dance with me?"
    Ani cleared her throat. "Excuse me?" You didn't just ask me to go to the dance with you. No. Nuh-uh. That did not just happen. She tried to think of excuses, and her mind went blank.
    "Fey's going to be there, helping her step-dad DJ."
    "Oh," Ani said. Thank God. "And why do you need me there?"
    He threw up his hands. "I can't go by myself. Fey won't give me the time of day, and Keeg and his friends will leave me alone if I'm with a girl."
    "Or they might go Carrie on both of us."
    "Yeah, I won't let that happen. Will you come?"
    She sighed out the breath she'd been holding. "Shit. Yeah. Um… On two conditions. One, we never, ever talk about last night."
    He nodded. "What's two?"
    "Tomorrow you apologize to Travis for swearing in his store."
    "Oh, please," he said. "He's a total douchebag."
    Ani tsk -ed. "Suit yourself." She pushed away from the car and picked a few careful steps back toward the house.
    "Hey!" Dylan called. "Wait! Okay."
    She turned around. "Okay, what?"
    "Yeah, okay. I'll do it."
    "In person. While I'm there."
    He hesitated. "Deal."
    Dammit. "Okay. Give me five minutes." She walked inside and shut the door. It took longer to convince her mom than to pick an outfit.
     
    *  *  *
     
    Dylan's car smelled like old french-fries. She was glad to have big chunky boots between her feet and the garbage on the floor. She noticed a smudge of yellow paint on her knuckle and sucked it off.
    Dylan manhandled the gearshift into reverse. "You smell delicious," he said.
    Ick.
    She looked out the window. "It's incense from the Lair. It clings to your clothes." And masks the nerd-funk.
    He backed out of the driveway. "Well, you still smell nice."
    She sighed for effect. "If you hit on me, the deal is off. Stay focused."
    He put the car in drive and hit the gas, too hard. The trombone-blast of his decrepit exhaust system echoed through the neighborhood. "I was trying to be nice," he said through gritted teeth.
    "Well, don't. This isn't a favor, this is quid pro quo ."
    "Quid what?"
    "Never mind. What's the game plan?"
    "Uh… Game plan?"
    She put her hand to her head and closed her eyes. "Yes. Game plan." She turned to look at him. "You want Fey to like you. She thinks you're a creepy obsessive fairy-chaser who went emo to get in her pants."
    Dylan blushed. "Ouch."
    "Yeah, so what's the game plan?" She glanced at the speedometer. He was going sixty in a thirty-five. Never a cop when you need one.
    "Um..." He took a hard left at twenty miles an hour. "Will you dance with me to make her jealous?"
    "Not a chance."
    "Why not?"
    Because you're a creepy obsessive fairy-chaser who went emo to get into Fey's pants. "Because then we really will be fresh meat. Besides, it wouldn't make her jealous. Emo kids don't dance at dances. They just hang in the back and look miserable."
    He laughed, short and mirthless. "You're pretty jaded."
    "Yup," she said.
     
    *  *  *
     
    They walked into the gym together, but not so close as to look romantic. Nobody seemed to notice either way. The room was dark and the bass cranked so high that the floor shook. Ani didn't