All of It by Kim Holden Read Free Book Online

forth.
    “You know you’re on your own today,” I say, taunting. “How do you think you’ll fare without me?”
    He responds without hesitating, “Oh, I think I’m going to need you for a few more days … possibly even weeks or months.” His smile makes me melt.
    “I think I can handle that.”
    My hand is still in his as we approach the front doors of the school and I can feel every eye on us. At this moment I feel like the luckiest girl in the world and I don’t care. Let them stare I think. He drops my hand only to open the door.
    “Thank you,” I say quietly. I look at his face as I walk through the door, unable to take my eyes off him. His confidence is irresistible.
    He puts his arm around my shoulder and we proceed to our lockers. Everything is moving in slow motion. I swear I even hear background music. Wait, when did this turn into a 1980’s John Hughes film?
Because it’s freaking awesome.
    He actually walks me to my classes all morning. It’s his turn to play tour guide. He has my schedule memorized. Mr. Super Memory asked me once in passing yesterday and easily committed it to memory … naturally.
    The morning is a blur. I can’t focus. It’s fuzzy. I watch the clock during English class, waiting and waiting as the seconds tick by slowly—no, not slowly, but painfully. The bell sounds and I let out a sigh of relief. I can breathe again. It’s lunchtime.
    I hurry to my locker. I know I’ll beat him there because he has to walk across campus from the gym. I put my books away and steal a look at myself in the small mirror hanging in my locker.
    “You look beautiful.” The whisper comes from behind me. I feel his warm breath on the back of my bare neck and a shiver runs down my spine. I take a deep breath and it takes my mind a second to catch up.
    I turn to look at him and he doesn’t move an inch. The hallway’s crowded so we’re almost touching. His smile is alluring and playful. “Are you
hungry
?”
    Maybe it’s my imagination, but the way he enunciates
hungry
seems to insinuate more than the obvious reference to lunch. It’s almost dirty. It makes me blush. My heart begins to pound in my chest. And I seem to have lost the ability to string a few simple words together into this little thing referred to as speech. Instead I stare.
    “Hey! Veronica! Tracking you down.” I don’t know how but I pry my eyes away from Dimitri. There’s a small hand gripping my right arm and it turns me with a sudden jerk. “Need help. Homecoming. You in?”
    I feel like I’m underwater. I hear sounds, but not words. The voice doesn’t register until I look into her eyes. “Piper? Piper! What? I’m sorry … homecoming?”
    She’s frantic, and the words are coming quickly, tumbling out helter-skelter, “Homecoming.
Damn
. Two weeks away. Shitloads to do.
Damn
. Meeting after school tomorrow. Damn meetings. You coming? No Chloe. Bitch.
Damn
. Monica’s coming. Need you, too.” She’s never been a fan of complete, grammatically correct sentences.
    Piper’s always high strung; you can feel the electricity coming off her at any given moment. I suspect she runs on batteries. I asked her once and she didn’t deny it, so my suspicions remain. She’s a tiny bundle of energy, with bright red hair to match her intensity. She’s a bit scatterbrained, the type of person whose mouth moves faster than her brain can formulate full thoughts. To be completely honest, there are multiple, severe, legitimate, diagnosed medical disorders dwelling within her, which wage war against the multiple, severe, legitimate, medications being pumped into her on daily basis. To say her mental health is no picnic is an understatement. It’s unfair that one person should deal with so much. She struggles. Socially, this means she’s usually very direct and blunt. She doesn’t give herself a chance to edit anything before it escapes her mouth. The upside is you always know where you stand with Piper. Piper is Piper and I