Any Red-Blooded Girl by Maggie Bloom Read Free Book Online

in
hand.
    “Sure,” I said. What the hell. Even if it was
still a bad idea for him to meet my parents, I saw no good reason
why I couldn’t meet his parents. After all, they had to be at least
halfway decent to have such a wonderful son.
    Speaking of parents…
    I turned my attention to dreaming up excuses
to feed Mr. Tightwad and the Mental Hygienist when I returned to
camp. Because even though they could be pretty gullible, they’d
never actually believe I’d spent two hours in the bathroom like I’d
threatened to.
    I was thinking wild animals. Maybe I could
convince them that a bear, or a coyote, or even a rabid raccoon had
cornered me and held me hostage.
    Mick squeezed my hand. “Hey, we’re here. This
is it,” he said.
    “Oh, sorry. I guess I spaced out for a minute
there.”
    He grinned, like he found my flakiness
endearing. “That’s all right. You ready?”
    Ready? How ready did I need to be? Suddenly
that one little word made me nervous. “Ready as I’ll ever be,” I
said with a jittery laugh.
    Then my new boyfriend and I strolled right
into the heart of his family’s compound. And I must say, the place
was—in a word—interesting. Spanning the perimeters of at least
three or four campsites were numerous trucks, SUVs, and campers
that had all seen better days. Total, I counted seven ragged
vehicles. But what stood out most about the place was the incessant
buzz of activity.
    At the back of the compound, the redheaded
twins I’d seen the day before were Hula-Hooping with oversized,
glittery hoops. To the left, a plumpish woman about my mother’s age
was cooking something delicious on a big charcoal grill. And at a
dilapidated picnic table by the woods, the two young guys I’d
tripped over at the rest area were hunched together over a laptop
computer.
    I was still drinking in the scene, when Mick
reached for the door of a small RV. “Ladies first,” he said,
stepping aside.
    “What? No. You go,” I pleaded. Honestly, the
thought of coming face-to-face with my boyfriend’s parents for the
first time in such a confined space made me physically ill. I mean,
at least if Mick took the lead, I could hide behind him to avoid
direct scrutiny.
    “If you insist,” he agreed. “But don’t say I
didn’t offer.”
    We climbed the single metal step to the RV’s
living room, but it was immediately clear that the place was empty.
Mick’s parents weren’t home after all.
    “This is it. Home sweet home,” he joked. “You
like it?”
    The entire RV was probably smaller than my
bedroom. “Oh…yeah…I like it,” I said tentatively. “It’s…”
    Shit. I couldn’t think of one nice thing to
say about the cramped, disheveled space—not that I thought I was
better than Mick or anything. It wasn’t that . It was just
that no specific feature of his home was jumping out at me as
something to compliment. And on top of everything else, I was
starting to get a superiority complex (if there even is such a
thing). Because suddenly I felt very privileged and totally guilty
and undeserving.
    “I know,” Mick said, saving me further
embarrassment. “It’s not much to talk about, is it?”
    I shrugged indecisively.
    “Would you like a drink?” he offered, opening
a small built-in refrigerator in the kitchen. “We have iced tea and
water.”
    “Yeah, sure. I’ll take some water,
please.”
    He handed me a cool plastic bottle. “If you
come over here, I’ll show you my bed,” he said in a teasing,
seductive tone.
    “Ooh. Your bed?” I giggled. “I don’t know if
I should. That sounds a little dangerous.”
    “Don’t worry. I’ll be a perfect gentleman,”
he promised. “Cross my heart.” He boldly swept his hand across his
chest in a giant x pattern.
    “Well, if you promise…”
    I followed him to a small alcove near the
back of the RV, where he sat down on a couch that was tucked
against the wall and patted the cushion next to him.
    “I thought you were showing me your bed,” I
said,