17 & Gone by Nova Ren Suma Read Free Book Online

was used to a boy tasting.
    But being kissed by Luke wasn’t what
    I was used to. He didn’t use his tongue at
    first, and that made Abby want him to.
    He teased with his lips, pressing his
    mouth to her neck. One side of her neck,
    below her ear, then the other. Then down
    her neck, down and down to her
    collarbone, and lower, to between her
    breasts, which is when I realized her
    shirt was wide open. Then he brought
    his lips up again, climbing, climbing,
    and his tongue entered her mouth, finally,
    and she tasted him, I tasted him, and he
    tasted us. It was sweet, a faint and
    faraway sweetness, and it was much
    wetter than I expected, so much so, I had
    to wipe my mouth off after. So did she.
    He wanted more than the kiss, but the
    night wasn’t over yet. Up above, at the
    top of the hill, was Abby’s borrowed
    bicycle. I know this like I knew the grass
    was tickling the backs of her thighs
    because she had on shorts, but it was too
    dark to see if they were the red ones
    with the white racing stripes or another
    pair of shorts. If this was the night or
    another night.
    And then his mouth left hers and she
    had a moment to catch her breath. She
    pulled back, dropping her weight to the
    soft ground, the grass wet with dew from
    the night, and gazed up to the darkened
    sky over her head. All those stars: the
    very same ones I was seeing almost five
    months later.
    This was what Abby remembered.
    She liked returning to it to keep herself
    from thinking of what came after.
    — 8 —
    JAMIE was shaking me. He had me
    by the shoulders and was calling my
    name, his voice cracking, like this had
    been going on for a long time. He’d
    taken my coat—which had somehow
    detached itself from my body—and was
    holding it over me, like a blanket. My
    skin was slick with chilled sweat
    underneath the wool coat, my chest
    sticky with it, and my buttons were all
    undone, my shirt flapping open. I put the
    buttons back together as quickly as I
    could and wrangled myself out from
    under Jamie’s grip, so I could stand up
    by myself.
    I was at the bottom of a hill that was
    covered in snow. There was no bicycle
    at the top, and no Luke Castro.
    “Did we just—” I said, motioning at
    my mouth, then his mouth. My lips felt
    swollen from kissing, wet.
    “What? No!” Jamie said, standing up
    beside me and trying to help me get my
    two arms into my coat. “You were
    freaking out. You ran. You started
    stripping in the snow, then you fell down
    the hill. Don’t you remember?”
    I didn’t know what would be
    worse . . . if I told him I did, or if I told
    him I didn’t.
    I was saved by a harsh light in my
    face. Not Abby’s memory of a blazing
    summer’s day come to distract me, but
    an actual light, vivid and aimed straight.
    A police officer was waving a
    flashlight at Jamie and me. “Those your
    two vehicles out by the front gate?” his
    voice shot out.
    Jamie hesitated. Then he said, “Yeah.
    The car’s mine. The van’s hers.”
    My hands were cold; that’s what I
    was thinking. And my ears. So cold. I
    must have lost my hat when rolling down
    the hill, and my scarf somewhere, too.
    My legs were soaked and streaked in ice
    and snow. I had ice in my hair; I had ice
    up my nose.
    “This is private property,” the officer
    said, averting his eyes while I adjusted
    my coat and cleaned myself up. “There
    are signs up all over the fence.”
    Now that he was closer, his light
    bright enough to illuminate the whole
    area, I tried to make out the name on his
    uniform, but I couldn’t. He was a dark
    blur, the brim of his hat keeping his eyes
    in shadow.
    “We were just going,” Jamie said,
    taking me by the elbow.
    But I was realizing something: the
    opportunity here before me. Abby
    wouldn’t want me to pass it up. I found
    my voice. “Officer . . .” I waited for him
    to give his name.
    “Heaney,” he said, after a long
    moment.
    “Officer Heaney, we’re actually here
    for a reason”—I felt Jamie tense