Eternal Spring A Young Adult Short Story Collection by Various Read Free Book Online

intensity she found it
uncomfortable not to look away. Yet she couldn’t. “I will love you until the
day you die.”
    Robyn shivered at his touch, despite heat from the nearness. She felt
like a scorpion’s prey – paralyzed, standing as still as a statue, almost
in a trance. “But…what would Eric say?” she finally whispered.
    His gaze clouded over as suddenly as the vast desert sky before a
midsummer monsoon. “I don’t give a damn what that animal would say.”
    “But--”
    His lips grazed hers in the lightest of kisses, sending a thousand
watts of energy racing down her spine and cutting off any stray thoughts she
might have had about his rival. “Hope springs eternal. Just like my love for
you. Robyn Bell, do not deny your destiny. You are mine. Today, tomorrow,
forever.”

 
    Le sigh. Was there anything more romantic?
    “Are you reading that stupid book again, Dani?” Analisa San
Miguel’s voice snapped me out of my reverie. Why doesn’t she just splash a
glassful of cold water in my face while she’s at it? That might actually be
less jarring. “We’ve been backstage for what, two minutes at most, and you’re
already at it?”
    “Take that back!” I said, playfully batting her in the arm
with the hard box of my toe shoe as she leaned over her outstretched leg to
work out the kinks after our dress rehearsal. “I can’t believe you called it
stupid. Bethany Beyer is a literary genius.”
    Okay, perhaps a bit of hyperbole. But, cynic though she was,
even Analisa couldn’t deny that the Midnight saga was an international sensation.
Originally aimed at the teen market, the little-known indie e-book catapulted
into the public eye when one of the ladies on The View mentioned she’d read it while
post-op from giving Mother Nature a little help during her latest ride on the
nip-tuck-go-round, claiming she’d discovered the fountain of youth in a
self-published Young Adult paranormal romance novel. Suddenly Midnight was
on everyone’s TBR list – daughters, moms, and grandmas alike. In fact,
the average reader’s age was more than double that of the main characters.
    Well, the human characters, at least.
    Almost overnight Bethany had landed an agent, a seven-figure
advance, and a movie deal, and was being called “one to watch” in both the
indie community and New York publishing circles alike. Because she was a recent
graduate of Mountain Shadows Academy of the Arts, all my friends back home in
Sparta thought it was “OMG, so cool!” that I went to the same high school as
her. Of course, I’m just a freshman, so I’ve never met her because she’d
graduated last June before I got here (plus the dancers and writers only have
academic classes together – nothing in their majors), but my
upperclassmen friends had.
    Her prose was more than a little melodramatic and could
probably benefit from a nice long waltz with a red pen, but a million readers
can’t be wrong. It had that certain je ne sais quoi and tapped into our fears and
dreams on a purely visceral level, with raw, emotional angst.
    Oh, and vampires and werewolves. You can never have too many
fangs.
    “The Eric-Robyn-Jackson love triangle is classic!” I
continued.
    “Sure, it’s right up there with Catherine, Linton, and Heathcliff,”
Maya Sapp said as she scrubbed off stage makeup so thick even Lady Gaga would
call it a no-no.
    “Who?”
    An incredulous expression marched across Analisa’s face.
“Um, Wuthering
Heights ? Emily Bronte?”
    I shrugged. “I haven’t taken sophomore lit yet, duh.”
    Maya laughed. “Not a big loss, Spevak. I couldn’t stand that
book. Talk about a drama llama. And Heathcliff…hello? Controlling much? I kept
rooting for them all to just die out there on the moor. Put us out of our
misery already! Instead the book just kept going on and on and on…”
    “What?”
    “I mean seriously,” Maya said. “Catherine was TSTL. How she
could put up with that crap, I’ll never know.”
    Analisa