American Girl On Saturn by Nikki Godwin Read Free Book Online

the dishwasher before coming back over to the table. She has the sympathetic Mom-face on.
    “Girls, it’s probably a good idea for you guys to skip Lauren’s party tonight,” she says. She holds up her hand to stop Aralie before she bursts into objections. “I know you’ve had this planned for a while, but your dad called this morning and said he’d just feel a lot better if you guys stayed here tonight. There’ll be other parties.”
    Really, there won’t be. These are my post-graduation parties that’ll only happen once because I’ll only graduate high school once. It sucks, yeah, and I don’t like it, but I think Aralie is more upset than I am – and she doesn’t graduate for another year.
    My sister jumps up from the table and follows Mom back into the depths of the kitchen.
    “What are we supposed to say? ” Aralie asks. “It’s not like I can say, ‘Sorry Lauren, I’m hiding a boyband in my house’ or something like that.”
    Mom sighs. “Tell her Emery is sick with some flu virus, and it’s contagious. You and Chloe have been exposed, and your parents won’t let you leave the house. Blame Dad and me.”
    I lean past Benji to glance into the kitchen. Aralie leans back against the fridge.
    “It’s not fair that I have to miss out on my life because someone wants to shoot Jules. Really, I can’t blame them!” Aralie yells before pushing off the fridge and running upstairs.
     
    Two hours later, I’ve sent all the appropriate ‘Sorry, Emery is sick, and we’re contagious’ texts. I got roped into it after Aralie’s tantrum. I have yet to see Milo today, although I know he’s downstairs. He and Tate didn’t bother getting out of bed until long after I was back in the safety of my bedroom. I’m tempted to go downstairs just to see what he’s wearing. Probably a T-shirt. But those T-shirts hug his body like I wish I could.
    Yeah, definitely not going downstairs after a thought like that.
    But that doesn’t stop Emery from coming upstairs. Her footsteps are fast and swishy, so I know it’s her. I race to my door and pull it open before she has a chance to bang on it.
    “You’re getting faster,” she says. She smiles a normal smile, thankfully, and looks around the hallway. “Are you gonna watch the premiere with us?”
    I rack my brain for whatever premiere she’s talking about, but I’ve got nothing. She knows it too because she opens her mouth immediately.
    “For ‘Music Up, Windows Down!’” she shouts in my face.
    “Oh! Their new song!” I’m almost as excited as she is when it clicks.
    I can totally play this cool. I can pretend I’m watching it because Emery made a big deal out of it and begged me to. It’ll be a good way to break the ice again after last night. Thank God for my little Saturnite.
    “Yeah, I guess,” I say, practicing the whole ‘play it cool’ thing.
    Emery hugs me and tells me that she’s going to ask Aralie. I doubt she’ll have much luck with the middle sister, but it gives me a chance to slip downstairs and blame baby sister for making me watch the premiere.
    The guys are in our second living room – the one with the huge sectional, flat screen TV, and Dad’s surround-sound system. Dad has the Xbox and all of his boy toys in here. I only use it for the flat screen. We just refer to it as Dad’s game room.
    Jules has his arm draped over Benji’s shoulder glancing through another tat too magazine with him. I wish I’d grabbed my cell phone. That’d be an awesome shot for those goofy Jenji memes. Tate curls up to himself in the corner of the sectional.
    Noah waves me over. “ Wanna squeeze in with us?”
    By ‘us ,’ he means himself and Milo. Hell freaking yes, I want to squeeze in. Noah makes this way too easy for me. He slides away from his beautiful band mate and allows me to squeeze into the space between them.
    “Nice seeing you here,” Milo says.
    My cheeks blush, and I pray they’re not as flaming as they feel. I glance