Temptation: A Novel by Travis Thrasher Read Free Book Online

a circle of girls. At first I think it’s just some kind of school function, but then one of them tells me this is an intervention.
    I wonder if my mom’s there, but no. She hasn’t managed to be responsible enough to make it into my dream.
    “I just wish Chris had the guts to actually stay in touch with someone,” Poe says to me.
    I notice that since she’s moved, she’s become even darker, like The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo dark.
    “I just wish Chris knew what he wanted when it came to girls,” Kelsey says.
    She’s got gigantic glasses on and one of those contraptions for braces that I’ve only seen in movies, the kind where it looks like you’re in a neck brace and have wires all around your head.
    “I just wish Chris had gotten to me in time,” Jocelyn says. “We all know that record he set in hurdles wasn’t really a record at all.”
    Jocelyn doesn’t look like herself at all.
    That’s ’cause you’re forgetting what she looked like. Isn’t that right, Chris?
    “Why are you all talking about him in the third person?” Lily says, standing up and taking my hand. “Come on, Chris. Let me take you out of here.”
    “All Chris ever does is ignore me,” a permanently smiling mannequin says to me as I stand up.
    Suddenly I hear a Lady Gaga tune blaring.
    What was in that burger I had at lunch?
    Then I see my mom’s aunt Alice next to the mannequin. She looks puzzled as she says, “Rah-rah-ah-ah-ah-ah!”
    As I take Lily’s hand, I wake up and find myself no longer stuck in a bad romance.
    It’s just me and my crazy mind and my narrow bed and the window I’m so used to seeing right next to it.

16. End of the Discussion
     
    The next day Lily shows up late—like half an hour late—and she looks like she had a long night. Not the way my mom might. No, Lily still is a morning shot to the system, but she’s wearing a designer white cap and shades as she strolls in front of the class.
    Where’s she going?
    I’m sitting where I’ve been sitting, in front of her regular seat across from Harris. But she strolls by us and heads for the other side of the room.
    “Well, good morning, Miss Lily,” Mr. Taggart says as he stops whatever rambling nobody was listening to. “Did we interrupt your beauty sleep?”
    “We’re all terribly amused,” she says as she sits in a desk near nobody.
    All of us look at each other. Harris shrugs and then keeps thumbing his phone.
    I look over at her and wait for some kind of glance or nod or anything. I see her head look my way, but I can’t tell if she’s looking at me from behind her sunglasses.
    Does it really matter anyway, Chris?
    But it does. Because deep down—well, yeah, deep down there’s this crazy little hope.
    Mr. Taggart sometimes reads from his notes. We’re covering several subjects, and sometimes he drones on without ever seeing if we’re paying attention, like a machine on an assembly line automatically squirting jelly into jars. But they haven’t been able to make machines that pump information into kids, not yet, so Mr. Taggart is trying his best to correct that reality.
    Harris is still texting, and I see Lily working her phone as well. They might be talking. Then again, so is Roger. Shawn is sleeping, his round chubby cheek so soft he’s probably using it as a pillow. I look at Gin/Jen/Linn. She’s listening to Mr. Taggart, making me wonder what she really and truly is doing here. Then there’s Brick, leaning back in his seat and just staring ahead with his mouth open and his eyes fixed on the nothingness of life.
    Harris laughs. Then I see him glance over at Lily, who nods.
    I gotta get a phone. And service. And connected.
    But that would mean I’d need a job. And yeah, I don’t want to go down that road again. Especially now that I can’t even find the blasted road.
    During break, Lily doesn’t move from her seat. She’s still got the sunglasses on and still looks like she doesn’t want to be bothered. I head out to use the