Total pages in book: 91
Estimated words: 87155 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 436(@200wpm)___ 349(@250wpm)___ 291(@300wpm)
Estimated words: 87155 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 436(@200wpm)___ 349(@250wpm)___ 291(@300wpm)
Embarrassed that the whole school would know about it on Monday.
Wanting to crawl into a hole and die because Ramsey knew.
Fighting the desire to punch the wall because Ramsey had known and done nothing but stare at me.
And feeling more alone than ever because I didn’t know what the hell to do about any of it.
My mom would have known though. I still missed her like crazy, but thinking about her didn’t eat me away anymore. However, it was times like that when I would have given anything for just one more conversation with her.
“Go away!” I yelled when he knocked at the door again.
“Come on, Sparrow. Open up.”
I’d long since given up on fighting the nickname. He didn’t use it in public, and truth be told, I liked it a lot when he’d whisper it real sweet when he left each night.
But that was neither here nor there at the moment.
“I think we should break up,” I told the bathroom door.
He barked a laugh that infuriated me that much more. “Quit telling jokes and come out of there.”
I yanked the door open an inch and pressed my lips to the opening. “I’m not joking. You’re the worst boyfriend in history. You just stood there while everyone laughed at me.”
His smile fell. “Thea, I…”
“Just go home, Ramsey.” I slammed the door again, putting my back to it as I listened to the boards creak under his heavy steps. I waited for the front door to close, but either he’d climbed out the window or hadn’t left at all. I was betting on the latter.
“Put these on,” he rumbled, suddenly reappearing on the other side of the door.
His voice had gotten deeper recently. It had been preceded by a few months of cracks and squeaks, but I wasn’t a jerk who laughed at him when it happened. And you better believe I would have leveled anyone who had.
Ramsey didn’t have much need for protection from me though. He’d grown several inches since we started eighth grade and was easily over six feet tall. He didn’t participate in any of the organized sports our school offered, but the two of us spent more than enough time outside playing whatever sport was in season with the other kids in the neighborhood to add bulk to his once lanky frame.
I, on the other hand, had grown approximately one inch, still had no boobs, and closely resembled the offspring of a flamingo and a mongoose. Okay, so maybe on top of this ridiculous period business, I was starting to feel slightly insecure about my relationship with Ramsey.
Whatever the case may be, I was still positively fuming as I screamed, “Go home!”
“You know, I didn’t take you for a girl who would wear pink hearts on their underwear. They’re kinda cute though.”
My eyes bulged and I yanked that door open so fast that you would have thought the room caught fire. “What are you doing!”
His eyes twinkled with mischief, but his face was serious. “I got you some shorts and underwear. Change and then come talk to me. Nora will be back soon. I gave her cash to ride her bike to the gas station and buy you some…well, whatever it is that girls need”—he pointed to my shorts but kept his gaze firmly locked with mine—“for that kind of thing.”
If I hadn’t been so embarrassed that I was contemplating how I was going to convince my father that we needed to move to California, I would have laughed. However, I was that embarrassed and suddenly realizing that the continental United States wouldn’t be far enough away for this kind of mortification. So I snatched the clothes from his hand, slammed the door, and turned the shower on.
By the time I got out and retrieved the bag of Nora’s gas station shopping spree from the doorknob, I’d cooled off a bit. Just enough for the guilt over how I’d talked to Ramsey earlier to sink in. I still wanted to lock myself in my bedroom and hide from the world, but that wasn’t how Ramsey and I worked. We were a team who faced our problems, apparently even the biological kind, together.
“Hey,” I whispered when I found him sitting on the couch, staring at the blank screen on the TV.
He immediately stood up and turned to face me. “You okay?”
I’d expected my Ramsey Stewart special grin, but what I got was the same pale-faced boy who had been frozen on the dodgeball court.
I padded over to him, studying him closely. “That depends. Are you okay?”
He gave his head a twitch to clear the hair from his eyes. “Yeah. Why?”
“Because you’re giving me the ‘oh my God, I’m freaking out’ puke face. I can’t decide if I should take this personally because of what happened or if maybe—” That was all I got out before he reached out with both hands and dragged me into his chest.