What She Left Behind Read Online Free Page B

“Hey, that’s my kind of girl. High five!”
    I slap his hand back. Mine feels kind of tingly afterward.
    “Hey, Alex!” shouts Jared from the sidewalk. “Ready to head back?”
    “Go on ahead,” he says, waving. “Catch you later.” He winks at me. “Why don’t we sit at a picnic table?”
    I shrug, as if I haven’t been dying for him to suggest it.
    Alex sits down, facing the street. I sit next to him so I can watch the street too. He probably thinks I’m coming on to him. Maybe I am. Where is my mom?
    “How about algebra for this afternoon. Can I copy yours?”
    “Didn’t do it.” He still has that smudge on his chin. Can’t he feel it?
    He looks at me suspiciously. “You always do your homework. You just don’t want me to copy.”
    “Not last night.” You don’t do homework when you know you won’t be in class.
    “So which do you like better, geometry or algebra?”
    It isn’t the sort of question I expect from Alex. I look around to see if there are any teachers he’s trying to impress. Not a one. “Algebra, definitely.”
    “Why?”
    “If you follow the rules, you get the right answers.”
    “Not me, man. If they had geometry two instead of algebra two, I’d be acing it.”
    I raise one eyebrow.
    “What? You think I’m not capable of good grades?” he says, a touch defensively.
    “Are you?”
    “If I like the subject, I am. Gotta love those geometric proofs.”
    I make a face. “I hate proofs. They’re too much like the puzzles my dad always makes us do while we’re on vacation.”
    “So where do you go on vacation that you have time for puzzles?” Alex crumples his napkin into a ball and tosses it from hand to hand.
    “We used to rent this cabin—Ramona’s Retreat—about an hour away on the Au Sable River. Way out in the middle of nowhere. Even more in the middle of nowhere than here. One of those places where there’s no street signs, just a bunch of markers with arrows pointing the way to various cabins.”
    “You’re kidding—my folks own a cabin near there. I remember the signs for it. The name kind of sticks out. Our sign just has our last name on it.”
    “Yeah, yours and pretty much everyone else’s.”
    Alex drops his napkin ball under the table and bends to retrieve it.
    A silver car approaches. I hold my breath.
    Not Mom’s car. I let my breath back out and check my watch. What does “lunch” mean ? Does my mom have any clue as to whenmy lunch is? Suppose she already came before I got here. She’d come back, wouldn’t she?
    I pull out my cell and dial my mom.
    “Who are you calling?” asks Alex.
    I ignore him.
    The call goes straight to voice mail. Figures. My mom doesn’t completely embrace technology and almost never turns on her phone except when she’s making a call. I put the phone back in my pocket and check my watch again.
    “You seem worried about the time,” Alex says. “You want to head back?”
    I shake my head. He still has that blob of ice cream on his chin.
    “It’s only ten minutes before fifth period. You’re not planning on skipping, are you?”
    Alex must see the “I’m about to puke” look on my face, because he stops grinning, leans in closer, and asks, “Is something wrong?”
    I shake my head and try to smile so he’ll get up and leave. What I really want to do is hold on to his hand and make him stay here so I won’t be alone.
    And because I like him.
    “No, everything’s fine. I just don’t feel like going back yet.”
    “Well, okay then. I guess I’ll be the good student for once.” Alex gets up and stands there awkwardly a few moments.
    I hand him a napkin. “You’ve got ice cream on your chin.”
    He wipes it off, stuffs the napkin in his pocket, and starts walking. “Don’t worry,” he says, looking back over his shoulder. “I won’t say anything.”
    The wind starts to blow. We really should have had hot chocolate today, not ice cream. I wish I had worn a sweatshirt. At least there’s one in my