Boys of Summer by Jessica Brody Read Free Book Online Page A

girl’s ex-boyfriend supposed to do in this situation? Pat her on the back? Hug her? Let her cry on my shoulder?
    She just admitted she broke my best friend’s heart . . . again. Comforting her should be the last thing I want to do. And yet I can’t just sit here like an asshole while she cries. She seems genuinely upset. It’s confusing the hell out of me.
    In all the years that I’ve seen Mike broken up and conflicted after Harper said she needed space, or felt suffocated, or didn’t want to be tied down, I’ve always pictured Harper skipping off into the sunset to find some hunky tourist to grind up against at a beach party.
    I never pictured her crying over him.
    I never pictured her heartbroken too.
    It doesn’t make any sense. If she’s this torn up about losing Mike, why did she break up with him in the first place?
    â€œI don’t know what’s wrong with me!” she says, but the sobs swallow up her words and I’m barely able to understand them. She sniffles. “Sometimes I look in the mirror and I’m like, ‘Who the hell is that? And why is she screwing up my life?’ Do you ever feel that way?” She picks up her head and looks at me. Her face is so red. Her nose is so runny. She looks nothing like the pretty, blond, breezy Harper Jennings that lives in all of my summer memories.
    I open my mouth to tell her that yes, I feel that way every single day, in every single mirror, but she doesn’t give me the chance. She barks out a sharp laugh. “You probably have no idea what I’m talking about.” She buries her face in her hands again. “God, I’m so pathetic. Why can’t I just get my shit together? Why can’t I just let myself be happy?”
    I can’t fight it anymore. I have to do something. I reach out to put my good arm around her shoulders, but before I can make contact, she suddenly leaps to her feet. “I’m sorry. You must think I’m such an idiot.”
    â€œActually, I don’t,” I say, but maybe it comes out too softly, because she barely seems to acknowledge that I spoke.
    â€œDon’t tell Mike about this, okay?”
    And there’s his name again. There’s the reminder of what this is all about.
    She has broken Mike’s heart a thousand times. She doesn’t deserve my arm around her, telling her it’s going to be okay. She doesn’t deserve my sympathy.
    â€œOkay,” I mutter. Not because I’m on her side. Not because I owe her anything. But because I know that telling Mike about this will only make it harder on him. It will only make it that much more difficult for him to move on.
    And I think it’s about damn time he moved on.

CHAPTER 8
    MIKE

    I fight to break free from the grasp of whatever is pulling me under the water. It’s too dark to see what I’m dealing with, but I can’t shake the hunch that it feels human. Like a hand. No, an entire arm. It snakes around my chest and yanks me back hard and fast.
    My head dips under the surface and I hold my breath, but I’m too late. I swallow a mouthful of seawater and immediately start coughing.
    â€œDon’t worry!” a voice says from somewhere behind me. It’s unmistakably female. “I’ve got you. You’re going to be okay!”
    I feel myself being dragged from behind. Confused, I try to turn around, but her hold on me is too tight. I struggle to break free.
    â€œRelax!” she screams over the rush of the waves. “I’ve got you!”
    â€œI don’t need you to get me!” I call back, finally breaking away with one final shove. “I’m not drowning!”
    I tread water and use my hands to spin my body toward my unwelcome savior. It’s a girl I’ve never seen before. She’s cute, in an elfish sort of way. Her short dark hair is wet and plastered against her forehead. She pants and pushes itclumsily away,