The Gathering Dark Read Online Free Page A

you get home okay? I was kind of worried. It’s not every day you get branded by Jeremy Reynolds and fired in the same afternoon.”
    “Thanks for reminding me. I’m fine.”
    The sound of Mrs. Kim harping at Susan crackled across the phone line. Even though Keira couldn’t understand a word of Korean, irritation and suspicion had the same timbre in any language.
    “Yeah, Mom. I’m getting to it,” Susan huffed.
    Keira heard Susan’s bedroom door snap shut.
    “Sorry,” Susan sighed. “Did you know they immigrated here to give me a chance at a better life and I’m wasting it on the phone while she works her fingers to the bone ?” Her voice was soaked with sarcasm.
    “Actually, I think I have heard that somewhere before.” It was pretty much the way Mrs. Kim started every conversation she had with Susan.
    “Well, at least it was you I was talking to. If it’d been Tommy, she would have hung up the phone herself.”
    Susan had been dating Tommy for almost two months and her parents were still suspicious of the whole thing. Susan spent as much time worrying about how to get around her parents’ dating rules as she did actually dating Tommy. Keira couldn’t imagine spending that much time on a guy.
    Walker leapt to mind. Keira rubbed a hand across her eyes as if she could erase his image and then sat up suddenly.“Hey, you buy your music at Take Note sometimes, right?”
    “Sure, why?”
    “Have you ever seen anyone—I mean, besides Mr. Palmer—working there?”
    “Someone like who?” Susan sounded confused.
    “A guy. Like, a guy our age. Curly hair, leather wrist cuffs, accent?” She hesitated.
    “Cute?” Susan asked.
    Keira closed her eyes, picturing Walker, his dark eyebrows drawn together in concentration as he stared at the ancient cash register. The curve of his shoulder beneath his flannel shirt. The gray of his eyes. “Yeah,” she admitted. “Cute.”
    “No, I haven’t,” Susan said, “but I’d sure as hell love to see a guy that even you will admit is cute. Maybe we should stop by. My flute teacher’s after me to find something with ‘wow-factor’ for state—like that’s somehow going to help me.” She snorted. “You wanna go with me tomorrow afternoon? Is he cute enough to go to a movie with?”
    “You know I don’t date.” Keira’s voice was harder than she’d meant it to be.
    “I know,” Susan sighed. “But can you blame me for wishing you did? God, that’s one of so many reasons Jeremy should act normal for once. Then we could go on a double date together and my mother might not follow me to the theater and sit in the back, making sure I act like a ‘good girl.’ ”
    The Movie Theater Incident was what had made Susan sodetermined to date Tommy in spite of her parents’ old-fashioned rules. Keira tried to picture Susan and Tommy sitting in a dark theater, holding hands, while she and Jeremy shared a bucket of popcorn.
    Only it wasn’t Jeremy she imagined herself with. It was Walker.
    It should have seemed ridiculous. Instead, it sent a tingle through her.
    And what? You’d miss three hours of piano practice while pretending you didn’t see Tommy and Susan slobbering all over each other? Come on, Keira.
    She sucked in a breath and shook out her hands. “After he put his cigarette out on me, there’s no way I’d even speak to Jeremy, much less go on a date with him. I’ll absolutely go with you to Take Note, though. I got some new music today, and I know we can find something there that—” She started to say, That you can play , but there was no reason to rub it in. “That’ll impress the judges.”
    “As long as it’s not too hard,” Susan hedged.
    “Yeah, yeah, I know. Hey, I should probably go—if I don’t get started on this poster for history, I won’t be able to practice any more tonight.”
    “I’ll see you tomorrow?”
    “Yep,” Keira said. She stared at the textbook in front of her and wished she were looking at her new music