My Only by Sophia Duane Read Free Book Online Page B

you highlight. Not the whole thing.” She tapped a yel ow paragraph with her finger, and I realized how close we were sitting. Again, my gaze fol owed the length of her arm until her breasts took my attention. With much concentration, I pul ed my eyes away and focused them on the book in my lap.
    “So what’s the important part of that paragraph?”
    She wanted an il ustration, so I stood up for a moment and grabbed the pen from my desk. Settling back down next to her, I quickly scanned the page, underlining certain words. In less than a minute I was done.
    I read. “Ponce de León. Spanish Explorer. c. 1474—1521. Governor of Puerto Rico. Fountain of youth. Florida.”
    “That’s not a lot of information.”
    I turned to look at her, moving away from her just a little in order to see her better. “It’s al the information you need. The rest just fluffs up the paragraph. Train your mind to focus on the meat of the text and let the fil er fal away.” Her voice light. “I must like fil er.”
    I chuckled with her. She was so gorgeous when she laughed. I had to stop thinking girly things like that, so I took a deep breath and cleared my throat again. “History isn’t hard after you figure out what’s most important.” I closed the book and set it between us. “But since you can’t mark in the books at our school, let’s focus on note taking.”
    She picked up the pink notebook and handed it to me. “I’m sure it’s the same as the book. Too much information.” I flipped it open. Her handwriting was girly—al big bubbly letters. The margins were littered with doodles and designs. “Bored a lot?” I asked.
    “Not bored,” she answered. “Sometimes it’s just hard to keep on task.”
    Her notes were scattered. Some of them stopped mid-sentence; some of them were complete—probably word for word what the teacher had said. “First, do the same thing I told you with highlighting. Just write down the essentials of what you read. Do the same thing when you’re in class.
    Not everything your teacher says is meaningful. Just listen for key words and write it down. You’l have less to write and an easier time when you go to study.”
    She asked a few more questions, and I told her a few more tips. It was almost seven thirty when she said she’d better get back. I felt pul ed. I wanted her to stay, and yet I wanted to be alone so I could relax a little.
    I walked her downstairs and just as we got to the foyer, Aaron came busting in the house, changing the entire atmosphere. When he saw Olivia, the grin split his face. “Wow! Look at who’s in my house,” he said, excitement apparent. “Here I thought tonight would be boring, just me and Adam.” The insinuation was clear. He thought I was boring.
    My brother basical y circled her once, like a predator around its prey. Anything good that had been building within me from my decent interaction with Olivia was trickling out of me. Aaron was doing his thing—the thing that made most girls swoon or whatever it was girls did. “You’re not going home, are you?”
    “Actual y, I am. My grandparents are—”
    “Stay,” he interrupted her. “We can watch a movie or something.”
    Olivia shook her head. “No, I have to get home. Maybe another night?”
    “Maybe tomorrow night?” Aaron asked, ful of hope.
    Olivia sighed. “Don’t you have practice or something?”
    “Yeah, but—”
    “Then another night.” She went to the door, and with her hand on the knob, she turned back to me. “Night, Ad.” She retrained her eyes on Aaron, probably melting inside at the sight of his chiseled features. “See you later.”
    After she left, Aaron pumped me for information. I wasn’t very forthcoming. She hadn’t told me much about herself, but it didn’t seem to matter to him. He wanted to know things I’d have no earthly way of knowing, so I glazed over the questions and we played Gears of War for the rest of the night.
    When I was alone in my room, I