Knee Deep by Jolene Perry Read Free Book Online

shouldn’t keep having this conversation. I’m not going to talk you into anything.”
    “Yeah. Okay.” But I’m starting to wonder if there will ever be a time when I actually feel ready, or if I’ll just need to jump in.
    “Is he worth the trouble?” she asks.
    My chest drops. Of course this is what Mindy would say. “I’m overreacting. That’s all.”
    “Well, you already know I think you’re both crazy for thinking you two will always be together.” Her brows go up as she starts up her car.
    “I know.” I sigh. Mindy will never understand about Shawn and I because she’s not after that kind of relationship right now, and doesn’t think I should be either. But how would I feel in ten years married to someone else? And Shawn married to someone else? I know exactly how I’d feel. I’d feel like I missed out on having the guy who knows me best. I can’t imagine a life without him. I’ve known him too long. Anyway, the added stress from his dad won’t last forever. It can’t.
    “Ready to sneak back into school?”
    “Notebook?” I ask.
    “We checked it all off the other day, remember?” She takes another long drink of her smoothie. “I think we need more stuff, Ronnie. It seems kind of lame that it’s only a month into the school year and we’ve both already done our thing.”
    “You’re right.”
    “Maybe we should just be better about finding things?” I hear her suck the last bits of drink from her cup.
    “Yeah, I guess.” Only I have enough stuff making me uncomfortable right now. Theater. Shawn. His angry dad. The whole sex thing.
    “And if you go on your little weekend trip…” She gives me a ridiculous wiggle of her brows before dropping her cup on the floor of her backseat. “…we’ll have something else to add.”
    “It’s a good thing no one ever rides with us.” I drop my cup where she dumped hers and it rattles as it hits the empty soda cans, coffee cups, slurpee cups…
    “No room.” She smirks as we pull back into the student lot.
    Just as she turns off the car, I spot the truant officer coming our way.
    Wait. This is perfect. I’ll get suspended. Weekend problem solved. I’m buying time. My heart thumps crazily in my chest. “Get in the back.”
    “What?” Her eyes widen.
    “Hide under the crap you have back there. I’ll jump out of the driver’s side and take it.” Why won’t she just do it?
    “But…”
    “This solves my weekend problem, okay?” I’m starting to get desperate. There’s a Jeep in our line of sight now, but for how long?
    Our eyes catch. She gets it. She knows this is my way out, and normally she’d never let me do this for her, but right now, it’s for me.
    “I’m so putting this in the book for you, Ronnie.” She giggles as she clambers through a summer’s worth of cups on the floor and grabs a picnic blanket to conceal herself. Clever.
    “Awesome,” I say, as I climb out and start to walk. My eyes catch his, a new guy this year, and I know I’m busted but she’s safe. And in a weird way, I feel safe now, too.
    I must be messed in the head if I’m looking for ways to get out of spending a weekend with my boyfriend.
    ***
    I WAS FIFTEEN…
    … it was the summer of eternal promises and lots of kissing.
    Mom had been excited for weeks by the time we got to the beach house we were sharing it with the Carsons—which, for me, meant Shawn. After writing all year and having a few phone conversations—and a couple of shared kisses before he left—I was a wreck for weeks before our trip.
    But as soon as he climbed out of the car, his dark hair in need of a cut and his Hawaiian print shorts slung low on his waist, I almost forgot how nervous I was.
    He jogged up to me first thing and threw his lanky arms around me. I was taller than him that year, but he didn’t mind a bit.
    The second my brother Ben saw us standing so close, he kept a narrowed eye on Shawn. But Shawn didn’t seem to be deterred, and before the sun set on his