Summer Alone (Summer #1) by Amy Sparling Read Free Book Online

I can handle customers now.
    “You ready for lunch?” he asks once the woman’s kids are riding on the track. “I’m ordering pizza. What kind do you want?”
    “I brought my lunch,” I say, wishing wishing wishing I could get pizza.
    “What’d you bring?”
    I motion toward the purple flower print lunch kit under the counter. “A PB&J, some chips and a Sprite.”
    He blows a raspberry with his tongue and picks up the work phone, holding it to his ear. “That’s lame. You want pizza. I’m getting pizza.”
    “No, seriously, don’t get me any. I wouldn’t be able to pay for my part because I’m broke until I get my first paycheck.”
    He lifts an eyebrow in the middle of dialing a number, then drops the phone back onto the base.
    “What?” I say to his deadpan stare. “I’ll get pizza with you next time.”
    He shakes his head and picks up the phone again. “Nah, I was just confused. You’re like the first pretty girl I know who’s ever offered to buy her own food.”
    A thousand butterflies erupt in my stomach and flutter out, making my arms and knees weak. He just called me pretty. Braedon. The popular, super hot guy at school. “You okay?” he asks hesitantly, pointing his hand toward the back of the room. “If you’re going to hurl, do it in that direction.”
    “What? No, I’m fine.” I pick up my phone and look at it just for something to do. He thinks I’m pretty. Stop thinking that! It’ll make you stupid. I swallow and act like I hadn’t even noticed that he just called me pretty. “I’m going to clean off the dry erase board,” I say, moving toward the black board that still claims to be hiring part time employees. Ollie had told me I could write whatever I wanted on it, now that he’s no longer hiring. And this very moment seems like a really great time to do that.
    Braedon talks on the phone for a while but I tune it out. Suddenly, I’m ridiculously aware of every inch of my body, how I’m standing, how I’m moving. The way I do things and smile and look around and talk. If he thinks I’m pretty, I feel this internal need to make sure that everything I do is attractive from now on. I’m not even sure why. Deep down I know it’s idiotic and just plain embarrassing for me to pretend that someone like him could ever like someone like me. So he called me pretty? So what? I think all kinds of people are pretty. Doesn’t mean I want to date them.
    “I ordered enough pizza for the both of us.”
    I jump, not realizing that the guy I’m thinking about has moved away from the front counter and is now standing directly behind me. I pick up the eraser and swipe it across the neon colors on the board, eliminating the message that got me my first job a few days ago. “I told you not to get me any,” I say, annoyed.
    “It’s my treat.”
    I finish cleaning off the dry erase board and turn around to look at him. He’s doing that back of the head hair scratching thing. I’m starting to think his head doesn’t really itch. “Thanks,” I say with a smile. “I mean, I guess I can eat your free pizza.”
    “Pretty girls,” he says, shaking his head. But he’s smiling. “Impossible. You’re all impossible.”

Chapter 7
     
    Mom stares at me as I pour a cup of coffee. Yeah, I’m a coffee drinker now. I never really cared about coffee besides the random Starbucks Frappuccino until I started working at C&C. Ollie makes like four pots of coffee a day so we always end up drinking it out of boredom. He likes to experiment with different flavored creamers from all over the world. Unfortunately the only creamer we have at home is reduced fat milk.
    “What?” I say, dropping a spoonful of sugar into my cup and stirring it up. “I like coffee now. Also, we should get some sugar cubes. They’re way more fun.”
    “Sugar cubes?” Mom fills her own coffee mug up to the brim since she drinks it black. “What are you, some kind of fancy coffee connoisseur now?”
    I roll my eyes