The Secrets of Boys Read Online Free Page A

Larissa?” Cassidy asked. The thought of her current best friend and her old best friend hooking up suddenly seemed like a great idea. Maybe the beer was drowning the neurons in her brain.
    “I think I saw her making out with someone in the kiddie pool,” Joe said.
    So much for that, she thought.
    Eric tugged on her arm a little. “Come on, we don’t want to miss the first futon in the fire pit.”
    Cassidy glanced over at Joe, who was looking a little dejected. He put his hands in his pockets and leaned back on his heels as if he were trying to plan his exit.
    Cassidy felt kind of bad that Eric wasn’t being friendlier to him. It was unusual, actually. She rarely saw Eric be anything but warm and jovial.
    “I’m probably going to head out,” Joe mumbled.
    Cassidy frowned. “Not yet. You’ll miss the bonfire.”
    “It’ll never match the first time I saw jocks douse a bunch of stuff in lighter fluid, though,” Joe joked. “Why put myself through the disappointment?”
    Eric barely cracked a smile. “See you later.” Then he tugged on Cassidy’s arm harder and pulled her away before she could even say good-bye.
    As they stood in front of the crowd that gathered near the fire ring, Cassidy felt a surge of annoyance rise in her.
    Why was Eric being so pushy and weird? And where on earth was Larissa? She was the person who had orches-trated this whole evening and she had abandoned Cassidy to go off somewhere and get it on with God knows who. Then there was Joe. She was having a nice time with him, just like she always had, but now she was sure that he thought she was a loser for allowing Eric to pull her away.
    Soon a ruckus emerged from inside the house. A large group of husky guys began dragging furniture out into the backyard. The crowd chanted, “Chet! Chet!
    Chet!” as a burly boy poured something that smelled like gasoline onto what looked like a Pier 1 Papasan chair. Within seconds, Cassidy felt the heat from four-foot crackling flames on her skin and heard Eric and everyone else yelping for joy.
    She wished she could be more excited. Summer was practically here. That’s what this celebration was all about. But Cassidy couldn’t muster up enough enthusiasm to cheer with her fellow partygoers. All she did was think about how she would sketch this moment—and that the only color she would use was gray.

Chapter Three
    From: [email protected]
    Sent: Wednesday, June To: [email protected]
    Re: Seersuckaaaaaaaaaaaaa!!!!
    Dude C, I am so psyched about our summer jobz!
    Talked 2 Fumiko & she said we’ll be working 9–5m–f for $11/hour + we get a 30% discount =
    sweet! My ass will be the best dressed in Malibu this summer. No, not Nicole Richie—me!
    So psyched. Can’t wait. So psyched. Can’t wait.
    xoxoxoxoxoxoxo,
    L
    Even though she’d drawn her window shades as tight as they would go, bright yellow sunlight still filtered into Cassidy’s room around their edges, ruining the calming effect of her favorite blue lightbulb. She really should have avoided those farewell Jell-O shots at the party the night before. They’d already ruined what was supposed to be a beautiful Saturday at Zuma Beach with Eric. After hiding under a floppy sun hat and rubbing her temples all afternoon, she had finally begged off to go home and chill with a Norah Jones CD and her sketchbook. She was trying to draw the gnomes inside her head, who were bashing away at her skull with their tiny gnome hammers.
    She was so wrapped up in sketching that she didn’t get up to answer her cell until the third ring.
    “Cassidy,” her mother’s voice came leaping through the receiver. “Did you forget we had scheduled dinner tonight?”
    “Of course not,” Cassidy lied. “I was just on my way down.”
    She could hear the phone snap shut on the other end of the line. As an efficiency expert, her mom didn’t believe in saying good-bye to someone she was going to see again in five minutes. She also believed in schedul-ing