Still Point by Katie Kacvinsky Read Free Book Online Page A

gave me a fast, apologetic frown before she caught up with her mother.
    I chewed on the black polish of my fingernail and snuck a look at my mom. I was waiting for her to kick me out of the room before she lost all her friends.
    â€œDo you hate me too?” I asked quietly. My eyes started to burn. I felt like I’d let down everyone tonight, and she was the last person who deserved it. Before I had time to doubt, she reached across the table and grabbed my hand.
    â€œMrs. Thompson has the compassion of Genhis Khan,” she told me. “She doesn’t want her daughter to be influenced by you—well, as far as I’m concerned, those women don’t deserve the privilege of your company anyway.”
    I squeezed her hand back, so relieved that I laughed. “I thought you were friends.”
    â€œFriends don’t treat each other like that.” My mom looked at me. “They don’t get up and walk away just when things get hard. I know you didn’t do this, Maddie. And even if you did do it, honestly, I don’t care. I’m proud of you. You’ve never done anything wrong. Maybe we’re the ones who are doing it all wrong. I don’t really know anymore.”
    My mom let go of my hand. I sat back in my chair when the emcee came onstage to introduce my dad. I snuck a look at the security guard, and he was holding his phone under the table. He pointed to his screen, and I glanced down. There was a message there. It read, “Tell Maddie, I never got the chance to tell her something. It’s three words. They’re too personal to say over a screen. But she knows what they are. ~J.”
    The guard and I shared a smile before the lights dimmed.

May 24, 2061
    Parents show you life is a paved road. Friends show you the road isn’t there yet, it’s waiting for you to carve it out. Parents show you life is a handbook, with rules set in place. Friends show you how to break the rules you’re handed.
    With my dad I always felt like I was living life in the passenger seat, watching it go by. Justin always put me in the driver’s seat. He never gave me directions, he just showed me how to accelerate. The steering was up to me.
    Family has the greatest influence, but friends make the greatest impact. That’s something I’ve learned over the last year. Influence and impact mix together, like ingredients that shape us into who we are. Influence only goes so far. It lays the foundation. But impact disturbs the foundation. It makes it crack or sink or rise, maybe topple altogether to start over again. I guess that’s why parents are so protective about what kinds of friends we make when we’re young. They seem to be in on this secret.

Chapter Five
    â€œYou’ve been home for forty-eight hours, and you’ve already managed to have two guns pointed at your head,” my dad informed me during breakfast the next morning. He was dressed in his usual uniform of a business suit. My pink hair was tied up in a ponytail. I felt like a color photo displayed next to something black and white.
    This was a conversation I had hoped to avoid. I had the naïve wish that my dad would let what happened at the benefit the night before be a blip in my otherwise perfect behavior. I watched the wall screen in front of the table, where the morning news was on.
    My dad cleared his throat. He wasn’t going to ignore the topic. I busied myself with stirring loose pieces of cereal off the sides of my bowl until they all swirled together in the center.
    â€œTechnically, I’ve been home for seventy-two hours,” I said. “And technically, those guns were pointed at Justin’s head.” I asked him a question that had been bothering me all morning. “Why didn’t you just have Justin arrested last night?”
    Dad set down his coffee. “And give him the publicity he wants? That would have been doing him a favor. If we tried to arrest him,