Hurricane Kiss by Deborah Blumenthal Read Free Book Online

out to stay in shape.
    â€œImagine running six miles and then showering before an eight o’clock class, and then after class going to practice for three hours,” Sari said.
    â€œIf things are going well,” Kelly added. “The other day Briggs made Ryan run another five after practice.”
    â€œThey call those ‘suicide runs,’” Sari said.
    That didn’t leave much time for studying or a life. But River must have kept his grades up because you had to, to stay on the team.
    The poster on Briggs’s office door summed it up best. Beneath his picture it said: “I hate losing more than I love winning.”
    Everyone thought it was funny.
    RIVER
    My dad is losing it now. The control freak can’t stand feeling helpless.
    â€œIt’s got to start moving,” he says, surfing for traffic updates or anything to explain why in five hours we could have walked farther. Finally, we hear something. A few miles up, there’s an intersection with traffic lights. The number of cars alone is slowing things to a crawl.
    â€œCan’t they just turn off the lights and let traffic pass through?” Jillian asks.
    â€œThat would make too much sense,” my dad says.
    I drop half a pill down my throat. He sees it and turns back to the road clenching his jaw. Some days I think about downing the whole goddamn bottle. At least the craziness would go away. Forever.
    Jillian’s texting again. Must be killing her dick boyfriend to know she’s in the car with the big, bad wolf. That’s something to smile about anyway.

Chapter 7
    14 HOURS TO LANDFALL
    JILLIAN
    Text from Aidan.
How’s it going?
    Boring. U?
    Better if you were here. Xo.
    Aidan opens doors for me, takes me to dinner and the movies, and even does sweet things like buy me ladybug earrings for my birthday and perfume from Victoria’s Secret.
    â€œIt’s sweet, and so are you,” said his card to me on my birthday. Kind of Hallmark-y, but cute.
    And it was cool to go to the basketball games and sit in a reserved front-row seat to watch him play, seeing him glance out at me as if he were playing for me alone. Sometimes he’d wink at me before a free throw, as if to say, “Watch me ace this,” and then look back at me and smile after he made the basket.
    What I don’t tell anyone is that when we kiss and he says, “I love you,” I don’t always say it back.
    â€œDon’t you love Aidan?” Kelly once asked me.
    â€œI totally like him. If you love someone at first sight, it usually goes downhill from there.” I’d read that somewhere. It sounded reasonable.
    Kelly rolled her eyes. “Who came up with that theory?”
    Right or wrong, I was the only one of my friends who hadn’t seriously hooked up with anyone. So when Aidan came along, he seemed perfect. He liked me, he wanted to be with me, and he had a brain—aside from math, that is—and a great body. What more could I want?
    Most of the girls and all the gay guys in school have crushed on Aidan, but he doesn’t seem to be aware of it, or he pretends he isn’t. I’m the only one he’s interested in.
    When he found out my mom was staying in Houston to cover the storm, but I was leaving with River and Harlan, he freaked.
    â€œRiver?”
    â€œAnd his dad.”
    Aidan hates River, despises even hearing his name ever since the picnic—almost six months ago. If I just mention him in passing, Aidan’s face will turn cold.
    â€œDon’t go with them … come with us,” he said, insistently. “We have an Expedition, there’s so much room.”
    â€œYou’re acting like I’m running away with him. His dad is driving. They’ll be dropping me off. I’ll be fine.”
    â€œIt doesn’t bother you?”
    â€œWhat?”
    â€œBeing with River,” he said, like I was a moron.
    â€œYou’re making it into this whole big