The Creeping by Alexandra Sirowy Read Free Book Online

around the bonfire, but he’s not with any of them. Maybe I should yell his name? No, my voice won’t travel over the blaring music. And that would really get people talking about us.
    There’s a group of twitchy-looking boys about ten yards removed from everyone else. While the rest of my classmates are half-nude, these boys are in glasses and long sleeves; beads of sweat clinging to their temples. They’re like the boys who wear T-shirts at the public swimming pool to hide their concave chests. One is actually sporting a sweater-vest—the kind with wooden buttons my father wears.I sidle up to them. I don’t mean any offense, but they are the only guys present who look like they’re friends with Sam. Four moon-shaped faces—three with acne and a fourth with sideburns that defy my understanding of how facial hair grows—gawk at me. The boy nearest actually scurries back, giving the impression of a shivering daddy longlegs, dodging my tennis shoe’s sole. “Are you here with Sam Worth?” I shout to be heard over the music. “SAM. WORTH. Have you seen him?”
    â€œHe left with Anna Young,” Sweater-Vest pipes up, brazenly holding my eye contact while his friends stare at their shoes.
    I want to ask, Who the hell is she? But in my head it sounds more scorned than it should. I flash an awkward smile and mumble, “Okay,” and shuffle away from social Siberia. I fumble through my bag for my cell. A text to him will be better than nothing. Before my fingers can jab the touch screen, someone yanks on my arm, tugging me around to face them.
    â€œOmigosh, you have freakish drunk strength,” I gasp at Zoey, rubbing my arm where her fingers dug into my skin. Her hair is disheveled, and a mist of sweat shines on her chest. She’s still wearing her bikini, and I feel an overwhelming urge to drape the hoodie I keep in my purse over her. “What’s wrong? You look like a possessed pixie,” I shout over the music. She’s furiously chewing her bottom lip; her eyes are almost watering with concern. I can smell the vodka on her breath. In a flash Michaela is there, towing Cole by the hand. How on earth did Zoey get Michaela’s attention on the dance floor?
    â€œYou’re not going to believe who is back in town,” Zoey yells,placing both hands on my shoulders. I don’t know if she means to hold me up or steady herself. “Jeanie’s big brother.” Michaela gasps, and a few junior girls turn to watch us, obviously jealous of whatever drama we’re enduring. Zoey pivots to face Cole and zips through the details. “He’s a total psycho, went off his rocker after Jeanie disappeared. Their parents sent him to some reform thing, but when he came back in middle school, he basically stalked Stella. Then he got sent away again because her dad complained to the cops. The last time he came back he got some barista pregnant and ran away. He was watching us at the cove today.” I hear every one of Zoey’s words, but they’re difficult to process. Every little bit I make sense of, my brain rewinds, and I find myself unable to get over the fact that Zoey got Michaela’s attention in that crowd of grinding dancers.
    Michaela laces her fingers in mine, and Cole sympathetically squeezes my shoulder. Of course it was Daniel there at the cove today. I knew he looked familiar. I guess I haven’t seen him all up close and personal since I was twelve and he was fifteen. The last time he came back, when I was a freshman, Dad threatened to file a restraining order and the Talcott family became more reclusive than Bigfoot. I never saw Daniel again, although Zoey swore she could feel him watching us.
    â€œWait for it,” Zoey says dramatically. “He’s here tonight.” Michaela not only gasps this time, she staggers backward like the words have a physical weight that barrels into her. Cole’s eyes look