Bitter End by Jennifer Brown Read Free Book Online Page A

each other.”
    Bethany and I locked eyes over his head and then giggled. For now, Zack didn’t need to know that I was totally crushing on
     Cole.

CHAPTER SIX
    I was still glowing from the phone call and Bethany’s excitement for me when I got to school on Monday. Something about saying
     it out loud made my crush on Cole seem more real. I found myself looking around everywhere I went, hoping I’d see him and
     we’d get a chance to wave at each other. Maybe say hi. Maybe lock eyes. Which all seemed kind of goofy and oh-so-middle-school,
     but that was the way I’d started feeling when I was around Cole—like crushes were new to me.
    But by seventh period, when he didn’t show at tutoring, it was obvious that he was absent, and I felt a little deflated. By
     Tuesday, when he still wasn’t back, I started to get anxious, and by Wednesday I was trying hard not to take it personally.
     I sat in the lab by myself, writing poems and wondering where Cole was.
    It’s not like it was a huge deal, of course. It’s not like wewere a couple, or even that I knew for sure he was into me. It was hardly the end of my world, not seeing him.
    But when I got to The Bread Bowl Wednesday night and he was sitting in a booth in the corner, all by himself, that wave of
     crush rolled up over me again. I tried not to look too excited when I saw him. He waved. I waved back. I clocked in and took
     my place at the register and tried not to look up at him too often.
    He had the Ray Bradbury book with him and was slowly sipping a cup of coffee with the book propped open in front of him, but
     I tried not to get too excited when I realized that every time I looked up, he was looking at me, too, instead of at the book.
    After the dinner rush, Georgia sent me on break, and I decided to casually stop by Cole’s table.
    “Hey,” I said, trying not to look too awkward. “Where’ve you been?”
    He hesitated, glancing down at his book. “Family stuff,” he said. “I’ll be back tomorrow, I promise. That’s why I’m trying
     to get caught up tonight.”
    “Oh,” I said. “How far behind are you?”
    He grimaced. “Really far. You on break or you off?”
    “On break,” I said. “I don’t get off until eight.” My turn to grimace.
    “So you’ve got a few minutes?” he asked. Again with that smile. I nodded, feeling goose bumps rise on my arms. Something about
     that smile. It occurred to me that the tenderness I felt when Cole smiled at me was something I’dnever really felt before. Dad never smiled, and Celia only frowned. Beth and Zack smiled at me all the time, but their smiles
     didn’t feel like this. Their smiles felt like laughter. Cole’s smile felt like warmth. And like it was meant for only me.
    There were a few moments of awkward silence between us, during which time I mostly focused on the sweat that I could feel
     trickling down my back. Suddenly I was afraid that if I were to look down, I’d have giant pit stains and would die of embarrassment
     right on the spot. I cleared my throat. My fingers drifted to the dream catcher and pushed on the beads.
    Then finally he shut the book and slid out of the booth. “Come with me,” he said. “I have something to show you.”
    He brushed his hand up against mine as he walked past me, digging his keys out of his jacket. I followed him out to the parking
     lot.
    He led me to an old blue muscle car—one I’d seen in the school parking lot without even registering whose it might be—and
     popped the trunk.
    “You showed me your poem,” he said over his shoulder as he walked, “so I figured it’s my turn.”
    He reached into the trunk and pulled out a guitar case.
    “Sit down,” he said, motioning to the curb. I sat, wrapping my arms around my knees.
    “You play guitar?” I asked.
    “A little,” he admitted. He laid the guitar case on the sidewalk behind me and thumbed open the clasp. He pulledout a gleaming acoustic and sat down next to me, laying it across