Back When You Were Easier to Love by Wing Smith Emily Read Free Book Online Page A

long enough for my entire world to change. Six weeks was long enough for me to start at a school where the lyrics to the school song sounded suspiciously similar to a Mormon hymn. Six weeks was long enough to become best friends with an outgoing Husky Ambassador and have people to sit with at lunch every day. Six weeks was long enough for me to fall for a boy with a brilliant mind and secondhand shoes. But, according to my parents, six weeks was not long enough to merit a trip back to California.
    I was okay with that—really. It gave me a chance to have a party and invite Zan. We could hang out together like a real couple. It would solidify us: ZanandJoy. JoyandZan.
    Mattia loved the idea and invited everyone she knew. “This is such a great way for you to fully adapt to your new environment!” she squealed, like the psychology-major-in-training she was. She’d already set up a Facebook page to track the party details by the time I thought to double-check with Zan.
    “Next Friday?” Zan said when I told him. He furrowed his brow, concerned. “I have class Friday, remember?”
    Zan was technically a junior at the same university where my dad taught, as well as a junior at Haven High, so between the two schools he practically always had class. “Yeah, but class only goes until six, right? Plenty of time for you to get back and freshen up.” I smiled at him. “And wrap my birthday present, of course.”
    “Of course,” said Zan. “Except that this is the last class before midterms and some of us are having a study group after. It could go pretty late.”
    “You don’t need a study group—you’re way smarter than anybody else in that class. You just don’t want to go to a Haven party,” I teased. Six weeks was long enough that I’d already experienced Haven parties, where activities often included Disney movies. Refreshments consisted of two liters of Sprite and peanut-butter cookies with Hershey’s Kisses on top.
    “Well,” he said, “I don’t want to go to a Haven party.” He gave his signature almost-smile, eyebrows raised. “But I would, for you. I wouldn’t even bother with the study group in the first place, except this prof has a weird testing-style. I really need to do this.”
    “I understand,” I said. And being familiar with the world of academia, I did. Not that I wasn’t disappointed. It hurt like losing a contest you had no real intention of winning. You expect to lose, but there’s still that sinking-in-the-chest when you find out.
    I wanted him to be there, but the rules of life dictated otherwise. I needed him to know I understood that. I wasn’t some ditzy Haven girl who didn’t get it. “I’ll save you a cookie,” I told him.
    I never thought the party would become what it did—a word-of-mouth party—and I was surprised at how happy it made me to fit so well inside this strange, small new world. I could have Zan. I could also have a party where a girl I didn’t know was on the karaoke machine in the family room, belting out some song I’d never heard.
    A happy medium—that was the best birthday present I could have gotten. Zan and I could mock Haven all we wanted in our own private moments. We could plan our escape. But I could still have friends, too.
    People were playing board games in the living room—Twister, Cranium, Taboo. I was in the kitchen, refilling a bowl of tortilla chips. Mattia and Kristine were at the dining-room table with a few guys, playing a card game involving spoons.
    “Happy birthday.”
    I stopped pouring, turned around, and there was Noah Talbot.
    “Thanks.” I don’t know why I was surprised to see him. It was a word-of-mouth party, after all, and besides, he was Zan’s best friend. I mean, as much as a guy like Zan, who prided himself on being too good for Havenites, could actually have a Havenite best friend.
    “Here,” Noah said too quickly, shoving something at me. “This is from Zan.”
    I just stared at him. True, he was Zan’s