Linger by Maggie Stiefvater Read Free Book Online Page A

to make room for him on her side of the booth.
    â€œSo how are you?” Grace asked sympathetically, leaning her elbows on the table. I might have been imagining the leading tone to her voice, but I didn’t think so. I’d heard that sound before, when she asked a question she already knew the answer to, and liked what she knew.
    John glanced at Isabel, who was leaning away from him, in a fairly tactless way, arm against the windowsill. Then he leaned toward me and Grace. “I got an e-mail from Olivia.”
    â€œAn e-mail?” Grace echoed. Her voice conveyed just the right combination of hope, disbelief, and frailty. Just what you’d expect from a grieving girl who was hoping her best friend was still alive. Only Grace knew Olivia was still alive.
    I shot her a look.
    Grace ignored me, still looking, all innocent and intense, at John. “What did it say?”
    â€œThat she was in Duluth. That she was coming home soon!” John threw his hands up. “I didn’t know whether I should crap myself or scream at the computer. How could she do this to Mom and Dad? And then she’s just like, ‘So I’m coming back soon’? Like she just went off to visit friends and now she’s done. I mean, I’m really happy, but, Grace, I’m so angry at her.”
    He sat back in his seat, looking a little surprised that he’d confessed so much. I crossed my arms and leaned on the table, trying to override the prickle of jealousy that had unexpectedly surfaced when John had said Grace’s name with such a feeling of connection. Strange what love taught you about your faults.
    â€œBut when?” Grace pressed. “When did she say she would get back?”
    John shrugged. “Of course she didn’t say anything other than ‘soon.’”
    Grace’s eyes shone. “But she’s alive .”
    â€œYeah,” John said, and now I saw that his eyes were rather shiny as well. “The cops told us that — you know, that weshouldn’t keep our hopes up — anyway. That was the worst, not knowing if she was alive.”
    â€œSpeaking of the cops,” Isabel said. “Did you show them the e-mail?”
    Grace briefly turned a less-than-pleasant face to Isabel, but it had melted back into gentle interest by the time John turned back to her.
    He looked guilty. “I didn’t want them to tell me about how it might not be real. I guess — I guess I will. Because they can track it, right?”
    â€œYes,” Isabel said, looking at Grace instead of at John. “I’ve heard cops can track IP addresses or whatever they’re called. So they could find out the general area it was coming from. Like maybe even right here in Mercy Falls .”
    In a hard voice, Grace replied, “But if it was from an Internet café from a pretty big city, like Duluth or Minneapolis, it wouldn’t really be useful.”
    John interrupted, “I don’t know if I really want to have Olivia dragged back here, kicking and screaming. I mean, she’s almost eighteen, and she’s not stupid. I miss her, but there had to be some reason for her to go.”
    We all stared at him — for different reasons, I think. I was just thinking that it was an awfully perceptive and selfless thing to say, if slightly uninformed. Isabel’s stare looked more like an are-you-a-total-idiot? stare. Grace’s was admiring.
    â€œYou’re a pretty good brother,” Grace said.
    John looked down into his coffee cup. “Yeah, well, I don’t know about that. Anyway, I’d better get going. I’m just on my way to class.”
    â€œClass on Saturday?”
    â€œWorkshop stuff,” John said. “Extra credit. Gets me out of the house.” He slid out of the booth, pulling a few bucks out of his pocket for the coffee. “Would you give this to the waitress?”
    â€œYup,” Grace said. “See you