Rock Bottom by Jamie Canosa Read Free Book Online

that didn’t want to send the wrong message to his friends we were going to be hanging out with. In the end, I compromised with a pair of jeans and a tight fitted powder blue halter top that matched my eyes perfectly. It was one of my favorite outfits, but casual enough not to look like I was trying too hard—which I most definitely was.
    My bedside clock read ten-fifty when I scooped up my white wedge sandals and carried them with me out into the hall. Heart pounding a mile a minute, I slunk through the house like some kind of cat-burglar on the prowl and out the front door.
    I released a breath I hadn’t realized I’d been holding when I reached the sidewalk and my parent’s bedroom window was still dark. Exhilaration swept aside my paranoia. I couldn’t believe I’d actually done it. I felt . . . liberated. Possibly for the first time in my life. Like I was breathing all new air. It was a rush.
    Headlights flashed, drawing my attention. Elijah’s car sat parked a couple houses down. My feet practically flew over the pavement to reach him and I threw myself inside.
    “What’s that look about?” He laughed at what I’m sure must have been the euphoria on my face.
    “I’ve never done this before.”
    “Snuck out?”
    “Anything. Anything my parents or teachers or guidance counselors didn’t want me to. It’s . . .”
    “Freeing?”
    “Yes!” He understood. “Exactly. Wait . . . was that predictable?”
    He laughed again and turned the ignition. “No, Ry. Everything about tonight has been entirely un predictable.”
    “Good. I want to be unpredictable. I want to be crazy, and free, and . . .” I buckled my seat belt as he pulled away from the curb because I didn’t want to be that crazy, “have fun!”
    “Alright, then. Let’s go have some fun.”
    Elijah turned left on Main and continued across town. Slowly the upper-scale neighborhood I came from faded behind us. As we rolled into the rougher, more run down side of town, the night seemed to come alive.
    Instead of sleeping soundly inside their darkened houses, people were everywhere. Sitting on stoops, talking or listening to music, children chased each other up and down sidewalks, dogs wandered freely in search of scraps. Elijah braked to let a couple of guys who were tossing a football around under the light of a street lamp get out of the way. I was enthralled. Normally, I’d be sound asleep by now. How much of life had I been missing out on tucked away beneath my cozy sheets?
    When we pulled up in front of a two story house with a questionable looking balcony, panic reared its ugly head again. “Are you sure this is okay? That I’m here?”
    “Of course it is.”
    “It’s just . . . your friends and I . . . we don’t exactly . . . know each other very well.”
    “Then you’ll have plenty to talk about tonight.”
    “Elijah.”
    He halted in mid-reach for the door handle at the note of fear in my voice. Shifting around in his seat to face me, he cupped my chin and looked me right in the eye. “Hey. No one’s going to care that you’re here. They’re not as bad as they want people to think they are. Mostly, they’re just a bunch of idiots who will more than likely be thrilled to see a new face. No one will bother you. Not with me. But, if you’d rather go somewhere else—”
    “No.” Elijah’s lips were so close to mine that his breath fanned over my face with each word he spoke, eliciting tingles everywhere. There was no denying that the chemistry we shared was more than just academic, and if I was going to explore that at all, I’d have to at least give his friends a chance. “Let’s go.”
    “You’re sure?”
    I gave him my best go-get-‘em smile and nodded with more confidence than I really felt.
    “Okay. Stick with me. And, Ry?” I stopped with one foot on the sidewalk to look back at him. “I know you’re looking to be ‘crazy’ or whatever tonight, but you don’t have to do anything you don’t want to.