Meet Me at the Boardwalk Read Online Free Page A

you.
    I am not a great surfer is what I’m getting at.
    I made a dumb decision. I took the wave, thinking I could clear the top of it as it crested—and actually get airborne—then use gravity to propel me down the tube as it curled over me. The problem was the wave was cresting already. My heart was pounding and I was perched on my board, shooting upward at too high an angle…and the very, very last thing I remember, before lying on the beach in agony, coughing up seawater, was a glimpse of Megan—staring in horror as the wave swallowed me up and hurled me down to the ocean floor…
    Whatever.
    Enough about all that.
    At least I was off my crutches now. I still had a limp. And my left leg continued to ache after six months in a cast and two hours of physical therapy a day. Woo-hoo!
    But time to look ahead. School was out in three weeks,today was the first day of the season, it was a beautiful morning, and Megan and Jade were waiting for me. I tried to avoid peering at the surfers as I limped down the boardwalk. Funny: My surf buddies always used to rag on me for being a “girl’s best friend.” It had always pissed me off. Not anymore. None of them had ever visited me in the hospital, except Mr. Browning.
    “So, Miles, are you ready to party, or what?” Jade said by way of hello.
    Party? “You’re not on drugs, are you?” I asked.
    “Ha! I just asked Meg that exact same thing!” She smiled behind her bug-eyed shades. “Great minds think alike. But actually the last thing I want to do this summer is think. No thinking at all.”
    “No thinking, huh?” I shot an anxious glance at Megan. “Great plan, Jade.”
    Megan shrugged.
    “So…what’s with the fancy dress?” I asked Megan. “ Is there a party?”
    “My mom had an interview early this morning, and she made me tag along.” She shook her head, her cheeks pink. “You read the Register , right?”
    I nodded glumly. “Yeah. I don’t believe it.”
    “Don’t believe what?” Jade asked.
    Megan chewed her lip, afraid to answer.
    I could relate. Saying something out loud makes it a lot more real. (Try saying: “I broke my leg in three places,” and mean it.)
    “Some real-estate big shot is coming to town,” I explained in the silence. “The rumor is he wants to tear down the boardwalk to make room for something else, something bigger and different. Nobody knows what, though. Or at least nobody claims to know anything.” I turned back to Megan.
    “If my mom knows anything, she’s not telling me,” Megan muttered.
    Jade sighed and arched an eyebrow. “Oh, come on, you guys. That’s just gossip. Meg, your mom said the same thing about the petting zoo a few years ago, when those penguins escaped. You honestly think this town would let somebody tear down the boardwalk? Nothing’s gonna happen. And even if it does, we don’t need this crummy boardwalk anymore, because now we have a new place to meet—and for once it belongs totally to us: the Jade Cohen party house.”
    My eyes narrowed. I was used to Jade’s high-speed and nonsensical monologues, but this one was more deranged than most. “The Jade Cohen…what?”
    “My dad’s leaving the house to Turkey and me this summer,” she said, rubbing her hands together mischievously.
    “Are you serious? That’s so cool!”
    Jade laughed. “Well, yeah, it will be, because I’m planning on locking Turkey in the closet with her law books and feeding her scraps, so she doesn’t bother us—”
    “Oh, my God, you guys!” Megan grabbed each of our arms and yanked us close together. “That’s him. That’s Arnold Roth, the real-estate guy.” She jerked her head toward the beach.“And look at him. He’s already plotting major destruction. I’m serious. Look at him!”
    “Where?” Jade and I whispered at the same time.
    I followed Megan’s gaze over the railing to a secluded spot of sand, maybe thirty yards from where the first sunbathers were starting to crack open their cheesy beach