Gemini by Sonya Mukherjee Read Free Book Online Page B

course. Of course it had. How could it not?
    â€œHave somewhere to be?” Juanita asked Max, seeing him look toward the door.
    â€œW-well, I did plan—”
    â€œYou planned what exactly?” Juanita said sharply.
    I drew back, pressing my shoulder into Hailey’s so hard that I could feel her bones. It was rare for Juanita to take this tone with anyone, but I had heard it a few times before, when she’d felt the need to defend me and Hailey against other people’s hurtful behavior. That was when her claws came out.
    I didn’t want a fight. I didn’t want anyone to make any points. All I wanted was for Max to leave, and as quickly as possible.
    Max looked at her uncertainly, and before he could come up with any response, Juanita took a quick swerve in her tactics. Her smile turned mischievous. “What are you so nervous about anyway?” she asked, teasing him. “Never been alone in the dark with four girls before?”
    â€œEr, no, I just—”
    â€œOh, for God’s sake,” I burst out, “stop trying to mess with his head. He doesn’t have to go to the stupid observatory.”
    Juanita raised her eyebrows at me. “Oh, now it’s the stupid observatory?”
    â€œLeave him alone,” I repeated lamely.
    My gut twisted. Why didn’t he just leave? Why couldn’t this just be over now?
    â€œIt—it—it’s okay,” Max said. “I—”
    I was such a fool. The truth was that from the moment when Max had smiled at me in class that morning, there had been a part of me that had imagined—what? Surely not dating him, but . . . Having him smile at me again? Having him become my friend? My incredibly cute friend who made my breath catch with every one of those thousand-kilowatt smiles?
    But even that had been a fantasy. I’d imagined that just because he was so good-looking, he must be extra good inside too. See, that’s the thing about our species. We can kind of tell the difference between looks and personality, but only kind of. We’re always getting the two things mixed up in our heads, even when we know better. That’s part of what makes it so hard for people to accept me and Hailey, and it was that very same flawed thinking that had made me fantasize some kind of connection with Max.
    But here he was, completely flustered by Hailey’s simple suggestion that he come out with us as a group, and after all, the chances were that he was just another skittish, reputation-protecting jock. He was probably afraid of what people would say if he went up there with us.
    â€œIt’s too bad,” Hailey said. “You didn’t seem so scared of us when you first walked in.”
    For a long, drawn-out moment the whole Sandwich Shack fell absolutely silent. Bridget’s eyes were wide, and her mouth had fallen open in shock.
    Juanita waved a hand in Max’s direction. “Oh, forget it,” she said. “Just forget it.”
    Max said, “I j—”
    â€œI said forget it. We’ll see you around.”
    She waved at the door. I was frozen, waiting for him to leave so that maybe, just maybe, I could finally breathe again.
    He looked like he wanted to say something. But whatever it was, he didn’t say it, and then the moment passed. He stood up, and as he did, his face seemed to contort into a strange, rigid anger. I pulled back in alarm; it was as if he’d turned into a different person from the wind-tousled, broadly smiling guy who had walked in here just a few minutes earlier.
    Max turned to look at each of us, one by one—Juanita, Bridget, then Hailey, and finally me. With his eyes on me, he opened his mouth as if to speak, but no sound came out, and then he shut it again. He seemed to be as mute with fury as I was with fear.
    He shoved his chair too hard into the table, with a loud screech and a clatter. He turned away, grabbed his backpack from the floor, and