Gettin' Lucky by Micol Ostow Read Free Book Online

wear a T-shirt that said I HATE WHAT YOU’RE WEARING—was probably pretty sincere.
    “Yeah,” I agreed, grinning, “it sounds like people are into it.” False modesty was a waste of time, anyway.
    “So,” she continued, still looking at me with the voodoo eyes, “will you do another?I mean, will you do one for me every week?”
    I blinked. Writing the feature for Kelly had been fun, sure. But to write one every week sounded strangely like … responsibility. “Um, I mean—every week?”
    She ran her fingers through her hair, pushing her bangs out of her eyes. I noticed that her fingernails were a glittery baby blue. Alana and I had always been diehard devotees of the classic French manicure. “Look,” she began, “I tallied the hits on the site. The thing is that I got thirty more than usual—and that was just last night. I’m sure it was because of the horoscopes. People love that crap.” Her eyes widened as she caught my expression. “That’s not what I meant,” she said, smiling sheepishly.
    “ I love ‘that crap,’” I reminded her.
    “I know.” She nodded, biting her lip. “And it shows. You did a great job.” She paused. “Why don’t you keep doing a great job. Please?”
    Her eyes twinkled, and I had to laugh.
    “Fine,” I said, watching out of the corner of my eye as Alana and Katy shoved past us and into the classroom. “I’ll do it. But we should get inside. We’re going to be late for class.”
    I was wary of chatting with Kelly for too long, of her suddenly realizing the truth of why I was so a-okay fine with spending my nights tapping away at my computer. I mean, she knew about me and Jesse. And Alana and Jesse. And me and Alana. The whole freaking school knew, after all. But I didn’t need for Kelly to know that ever since the breakup, my most meaningful conversations had taken place with my dog. That would just be too pathetic.
    A boy sidled up to Kelly and nudged her. “The second bell rang. You’re going to be late.”
    I knew the boy. He was in our film class, which—duh, explained why he was encouraging Kelly to get inside. His name was Elliot Something, and the only person I ever saw him talking to was Kelly.
    Kelly rolled her eyes good-naturedly. “Chill out,” she said, sighing dramatically. “Missing the first three seconds of class would hardly be the end of the world.”
    “No, we should …,” I said, trailing off nervously. I wasn’t eager to get sent to detention for being late. Though detention was served at lunchtime. It would give me a good excuse for not hanging around thecafeteria. “Anyway, I’ll do it,” I promised. “I can get the horoscopes to you on Mondays.”
    “Sweet,” she said, winking at me. To Elliot, she said, “Cass is going to take over the whole star-sign crap on my website.”
    “Cool,” Elliot said, barely meeting my eye. “People are really into that.” He nodded in my general direction, then led Kelly into the classroom without further comment.
    After a moment, I followed them.
    I worked on the horoscopes all weekend long. In fact, I was working on them at times when I should have been working on homework, but whatever. I figured there was always extra credit.
    Kelly liked my second “feature,” as she called it, and invited me to the library during our study hall to work on her website. She showed me the counter that indicated how many hits the site had gotten. She was right—it was through the roof since we’d posted horoscopes. Mostly I was just impressed by how many people visited the site at all. Kelly asked me what I did on weekends, and I had to admit that lately, I’d been alternating between hikes withMaxine, working on the horoscopes, and Lifetime movie marathons. Which made Kelly laugh, but I think it was more with me than at me. At least, I hope it was.
    “You should work on the horoscopes this weekend,” Kelly said, pulling her hair into a ponytail and peering at the computer screen.
    “I will,” I