Hello LAlaland (Lost in LAlaland) by Madi Merek Read Free Book Online

remember me.
    “Um . . .” I trailed off, blinking myself out of my haze and retrieving my perfectly straight schedule from the brand new Trapper Keeper in my arms. I cringed as Anthony pulled it from my hand, wrinkling the top as he handled it harshly, and unfolded the other piece of paper he already held.
    “Oh, good!” he said as triumph lit his eyes.
    “What’s good?” I asked, looking at him quizzically.
      After another moment of studying the paper intently, eyes flickering back and forth between the two pages, he surrendered mine back to me. “Well, we have almost all the same classes. How crazy, huh?”
    Blanching, I stared up at him and then down to my schedule. How in the heck was I going to survive day after day in the same classrooms as this boy? My heart rate picked up another notch, hammering staccato in my chest.
    “Come on,” Anthony told me, plucking my Trapper Keeper from my arm and tucking it under his arm along with his own notebook. “I’ll walk with you to class.” I had no choice but to follow—I wasn’t yet an independent woman who could put her foot down and demand to have her own way.
    As the school year dragged on, I soon learned that Anthony was a chatty guy. He loved to talk about sports—something that I was completely uninterested in at that point—but he would also ask me about myself and what I liked to do. Sometimes, ingenuous fantasies would pop into my head and I would let myself imagine that we could be a couple. Something would always manage to dash that hope, however.
    We didn’t share all classes over the years, but somehow we’d always managed to have at least a couple together. Mine became more tailored to my newfound passions like history, literature, journalism, photography, drawing, and drama, drama, drama. My inner artsy-chick was beginning to spread her wings.
    During our junior year, we shared our fourth period class—philosophy. Anthony would often try to make conversation with me during class, but our teacher was very strict and, after three trips into the hallway to sit against the wall like a second grader, Anthony eventually learned better. When we received the graded midterm tests back, Anthony pointed to my A and then to his D- and begged me to tutor him.
    I’d been so nervous about our first tutoring session. Anthony had planned to arrive at five in the afternoon, and at 4:52 p.m., I was still staring at the contents of my closet, throwing outfit after outfit onto my bed. Nothing was right. When my mom came upstairs and announced Anthony’s arrival, I knew I had to decide on something. I grabbed a pair of shorts that Marci had told me I looked “fuckable” in and paired them with a teal tank top.
    He was placing his textbook and binder on the table when I made my way downstairs, but he stopped abruptly when I entered his line of sight. I noticed how his skin paled and his eyes glazed over, but I just assumed that he was nervous about the class and concerned I might not be able to help him.
    Anthony stared at my form until I finally reached his side. When his gaze swept from my hair, which I had thrown back into a messy ponytail, to my freshly painted toes—after pausing on my boobs for a few moments too long—his once pale cheeks flushed scarlet.
    “Um,” he finally croaked out, reminding me of the way he sounded the first day we’d met. “Aren’t you going to be cold, bab—uh, Wini?” he asked.
    I wasn’t sure what he’d been about to call me—probably some other girl’s name—but I just shrugged and took the chair in front of him. When he didn’t make a move to sit beside me right away, I lifted my head to look at him and noticed that he was focusing in on my cleavage. I guess that puberty did have its positives, but I adjusted my top to cover my boobs. That snapped him out of his trance, because he coughed harshly, though it came out as more of a wheeze, sat stiffly beside me, and slid his chair as far under the table as he