Summer of Sloane Read Online Free

mention of the word “girlfriend,” and I feel Penn grip my left arm as my father takes my right.
    “Oh, no you don’t,” my dad says in a low voice. “I think you’ve already done enough.” They force me to walk forward, making a wide berth around Tyler, just in case.
    “Sloane, whereya goin’? Man, I love youuuu.”
    Everything inside me deflates. How can I suddenly feel so sad when I’m still so angry? Everything is such a mess, and I can’t stop the constant static noise of all these feelings—betrayal, frustration, and one hundred percent complete confusion. I wish I knew how to turn them off.
    My dad releases my arm and motions for Penn to keep following the nurse. I turn to see him trailing the Hudsons out into the waiting room as Tyler becomes fascinated with his own fingers mere inches from his face. He’s still repeating “I love youuuu, I love youuuu…” as he turns the corner and disappears out of sight.
    “Jackass,” my brother whispers as he guides me into one of the rooms. I know he’s only saying that because of what happened. After all, Tyler and Penn have always been pretty tight.
    Penn is unsure of where to put his hands to help me onto the bed in the middle of the room, so he gives up and takes a seat in one of the hard, straight-back chairs. I somehow manage to climb up myself just as Dr. Craig comes in. He and my mom were good friends, and even though she is no longer a doctor here, they still keep in touch.
    “Well, well, well, would you look at what the cat dragged in?” His smile stretches wide across his face as he comes to stand in front of me. “And what, may I ask, have you gone and done to your hand? You didn’t tuck your thumb in when you threw the punch, did you?”
    I scowl back and forth between him and my brother, daring Penn to say one word. “Why does
everyone
keep asking me that?”
    With a knowing smile—proving that this has to be a guy rule I didn’t know about—Dr. Craig lifts my hand, his fingertips a little on the cold side, as he gently flutters them from my wrist to the tip of my thumb. And I’m not gonna lie, even that slight contact hurts.
    He immediately orders a set of X-rays and walks me back to the lab where they take them. He makes small talk about my mom, asking how she is and sharing old memories from when they worked together to help pass the time.
    As soon as we’re finished, he walks me back to my room, but excuses himself to check in on another patient. Penn and my father are talking in hushed voices when I enter, but then all goes quiet when they see me.
    “Really? Please, don’t stop talking on account of me.” I’m suddenly feeling light-headed, so I clamber back up on the plastic mattress and lie down.
    My dad hesitates for a moment before launching in. “The Hudsons say Tyler got McKinley pregnant. Is that true, Sloane?”
    I look away, and both of them let out a string of expletives that would make even a trucker blush. So it seems Penn didn’t know the whole story. And that’s probably a good thing, since he would’ve broken more than Tyler’s nose, and I would’ve spent my summer alone in Hawaii, while he spent his in juvie.
    My cell phone buzzes with an incoming text, then buzzes quickly again.
    “It’s been doing that a lot,” Penn says. He nods toward my bag sitting on the chair next to him, but I shake my head no. It buzzes again before Penn reaches in and turns it off.
    And I know word has gotten out.
    With the rate gossip flies around the halls at my school, I can only imagine how everyone is chomping at the bit to hear the juicy details of what happened…but I also know very few actually care if I’m okay. Those that do will leave a message, and at some point, I’ll talk to them. Just not now.
    I wonder if any one of those incoming texts might be from Mick, with an answer to my “why.” With a real reason for doing what she did. Something, anything, that will help me understand how I came to be sitting here