Snared by Stefan Petrucha Read Free Book Online

the boy’s locker room as a prank, and she’d seen more than a couple of the boys undressed, including Michael Chandler. Chandler was a big mean jock who liked to beat up the younger kids, and Kate got a full monty look at him. In her words, his unit was like a pencil eraser in a nest of black thread. But Michael Chandler wasn’t the point. The point was, Lindsay completed her turn with a huge grin on her face.
    And the boy was in his window, looking out at her. She froze, absolutely froze solid when she saw him.
    â€œDid it work?” Kate asked. “Lindsay? Hey? Is he there?”
    â€œUm…uhm-hmm.”
    He was definitely there. The boy smiled back and lifted a hand in greeting.
    Lindsay tried to return the wave, but her arm felt like it weighed a hundred pounds. He was just so good-looking. He looked like a movie star, only better because he was real and present and separated from her by nothing but a piece of dirty glass. Through the binoculars, she thought his eyes were the color of sky, but they were lighter than that, so light. So amazing.
    â€œLindsay? What is going on?”
    â€œI’ll call you back.”
    â€œWhat? Hold on—”
    Lindsay killed the signal and put the phone in the pocket of her jeans. The boy next door lifted a finger in the air: one second. He disappeared for a minute, bending down like he was putting something away, then reappeared. He stood up. He was so tall. Lindsay noticed that like the men she saw in the yard that morning, he too wore a black T-shirt, but his was way too big on him. It hung like a tent from his shoulders. He was way too tight-bodied for such a mammoth shirt. Nervous, she looked up and down the band of sand, to the backof the houses and then to the front and the beach and ocean beyond. People were gathered on the sand in front of her uncle’s house. Towels and chairs sat beneath a dozen different people, but none of them mattered. Not now.
    She looked back at him.
    He was waving for her to come closer.

4
    Todd Lombard was Lindsay’s first real boyfriend. He was a slender boy with short blond hair, green eyes, and too much brain for his own good. He was Einstein smart and would have been considered a total geek if he hadn’t been the star of her middle school’s soccer team. Todd was cute and fun, but he was also a little crazy, and not in the fun, let’s-raise-some-hell kind of way. Todd heard voices. They told him to do things. They told him jokes, causing Todd to burst out laughing in the middle of algebra or social sciences. Fortunately Lindsay broke it off six months before his parents sent him away to a school in the next county that was able to handle “special” kids like Todd.
    Her second boyfriend was normal enough. Too normal. David Carter was also blond and also a soccer player, but he was as dull as a Josh Groban record. All he ever wanted to do was sit around playing video games. When they did go out, they went to movies, usually the ones inspired by video games.
    And those two made up Lindsay’s romantic history. Neither were bad guys, but they weren’t exactly the stuff of great romances either. Still, she had felt an electric charge when they first asked her out. It started in her chest and spread out, shooting up to her scalp and down to her toes. She felt that kind of charge now, walking toward the boy’s window, but the voltage was cranked way up, and she didn’t know how she could stand this kind of feeling if it went on much longer.
    The boy was still smiling at her. His eyes twinkled like he wanted to tell her a secret, but he did not move forward to open the window. She thought that was odd. He stood back from the wall, waving her closer but made no move to slide back the glass that separated them.
    Maybe he’s sick, she thought. He could be contagious. He might even be dying. God, wouldn’tthat suck? It would be kind of romantic, but in a completely awful