Saving Face (a young adult romance) by T.J. Dell Read Free Book Online Page A

occurrence.
                “What?”  Alyssa shouted through the glass just
to emphasize that she was still angry with him.
                “Open the window Lyssa.”
                “No.”
                “What did you mean?”
                “Duh.  I mean I’m not opening the window.  Go
home Brent.”
                “No, before.  You said ‘when you go away
to college’ why not when we go away?”
                Alyssa opened the window so they could stop
screaming, but she didn’t let him in.  Nope.  She left Brent kneeling on the
roof, in the cold even though it meant letting all that cold air in through the
window.  She was working on principal here.
                “I just don’t think I’m going to college that’s
all.  I’m gonna get a job or something.”
                “You heard back from Penn State?”
                “No.  I didn’t apply.”
                “We filled our applications out at the same
time.  Can I come in?”  Brent shivered dramatically.
                “No.  You may not.  I didn’t send it.”
                “Lyssa, what is going on?  It’s due in like four
weeks!  Please tell me you are just proof reading the essay again.”
                “Can we not do this now?  I’m freezing and I
want to close the window.”
                “You’re telling me.  If I knew you were going to
make me sit out here I would have at least put shoes on.”
                For the first time Alyssa noticed Brent’s bare
feet on the rough shingles.  She moved aside and let him climb over the window
sill.  “I just don’t think college is for me.  I’m not sure what I am going to
do yet, and I’m not good at anything like you are.”
                “Do your parents know?  Whatever, that doesn’t
really matter.  You are sending in the application Lyssa.  You are good at lots
of stuff, and how do you plan on deciding what to do with your life anyway? 
Can’t you decide while you go to school?”
                “It doesn’t matter.” Alyssa hadn’t meant to tell
him about the application.  Her half-plan from the day she decided not to take
the application to the post office was just to let him and everyone else think
she didn’t get in.  Now it seemed to be less than half of a plan.
                “Are you going to tell me what’s going on?” 
Brent was staring at her.  Alyssa realized she must have been quiet for awhile. 
Well it was her room and she had asked him to go home.  So she could be quiet
if she wanted to be quiet.  “Lyssa?”
                “I’m not smart.  And that isn’t me asking for
pity or for praise.  You know what my grades are like.  And college is really
hard.  What’s the point?”
                “Who the crap told you weren’t smart?!”
                “SSSHHH!!!!  You’ll wake up my parents!”
                “Is that where this is coming from?”  Brent
didn’t have a lot of patience with Alyssa’s mom and dad.  They were less
traditional then his parents—even if they were still happily married.  They
weren’t bad parents they just weren’t as involved as Ms. Carter was when they’d
been growing up.  But they were good parents—she had rules, and a curfew, and
she was punished when she disregarded them.
                “No.  I told you.  I just don’t think I have the
grades to get in that’s all.”
                “You’re grades are good enough.  And you are
smart.  You just aren’t studious.  I can help you with your study habits if you
would feel better.”
                “Can we talk about this later?”  Alyssa was
tired.  The inside kind of tired.  When you don’t want to sleep, but you don’t
really want to be awake