His To Shatter by Haley Pearce Read Free Book Online Page B

knowing I had
done the best I could possibly have done. The ball was in their
court. I climbed back on the subway and headed downtown, eager to
get home and relax. It wasn’t until I got onto my very street that
I noticed I had a new voice mail. I must have missed a call while I
was underground on the train. I brought my phone to my ear as the
voice mail began to play.
    “Hello Ms. Cleary,” said a voice. It was the
receptionist from Corelli. “We’re pleased to offer you the summer
internship in Paris.”
    I didn’t hear the rest of the message—I was
cheering too loudly. Every scrap of self-consciousness left me as I
leapt into the air right there on the sidewalk, jumping and
shouting in utter glee. I fumbled with my phone, nearly dropping it
to smash on the sidewalk. My feet carried me up to my front door,
straight up the flights of stairs. I felt like I was walking on air
the whole way.
     
    * * * * *
     

Chapter Four

    * * * * *
     
    “I got it!” I screamed as I wrenched open the
front door of my apartment. “I got it, I got it, I got it!”
    Dara’s tousled head poked around through the
doorway of her bedroom. I’d clearly caught her in the midst of a
post-coital nap. Her big drowsy eyes blinked at me, comprehension
still a moment away. Ashlee jolted out of her room as well, looking
far more alert than Dara. Her audition had her adrenaline as pumped
up as mine.
    “What did you say?” she breathed, crossing
her fingers.
    “I got the internship,” I repeated. I was
surprised to find that my eyes had filled with happy tears. “I’m
going to Paris!”
    My friends fell upon me in a wave of
clamoring limbs and ecstatic cries. We threw our arms around each
other, vibrating with joy, jumping and dancing and throwing our
heads back in laughter. I was beside myself with excitement and
gratitude. Not only had I just won the internship of a lifetime, I
was lucky enough to get to celebrate it with the two best friends a
girl could possibly ask for.
    “What’s going on?” said a voice from the
hallway. I looked up and Kyle emerging from our bathroom.
    Three best friends , I amended in my
thoughts.
    “Our little girl is going to Paris!” Ashlee
squealed, wrapping her arms tightly around my torso.
    Kyle let out a wordless howl of delight and
flew across the room to us. He snatched me up from the others and
twirled me around in the air. I laughed with abandon, so touched by
my friends’ happiness on my behalf.
    “We have to celebrate,” Dara insisted.
“Everybody, put on your Sunday best. We’re hitting the bar!”
    Ashlee and Kyle roared their approval of
Dara’s plan, though I felt just a tad deflated. I wasn’t exactly a
bar fly kind of girl, given my family’s history with booze. I would
tag along when my friends were headed out for the evening, sure,
but it would never be my first choice destination. I usually ended
up playing den mother when a big group of us went out—not exactly
my idea of a good time. Still, my three friends were looking at my
expectantly, and I couldn’t very well say no to them. I smiled as
gamely as I could, and headed off into my room to get dressed for
the night.
    Despite being a little put off by the bar
outing, my entire body was positively vibrating with delight. I
replayed the interview over and over again in my head. It was hard
to believe that the whole thing had gone down just that afternoon.
The whole day had been so utterly surreal that I halfway feared I
was dreaming. As I stripped off my sleek interview outfit, I
pinched the tender skin of my upper arms to make sure I wasn’t
dreaming. My life hadn’t exactly been exciting up until that
point—but were things finally starting to turn out?
    I dug through my closet, looking for
something suitable to wear out on the town. I could hear my trio of
companions chattering excitedly behind my closed door. They all got
changed and dressed with their doors open, not caring if someone
saw them getting naked. I had always