The Last Place on Earth by Carol Snow Read Free Book Online Page A

everything than I did.)
    I said, “We on for a Friday night movie? My turn to pick.”
    â€œCan’t do tomorrow. Let’s say Saturday. And just so you know, I refuse to watch Message in a Bottle again.” (I wasn’t going to make him watch Message in a Bottle for the second time. I was going to make him watch The Vow for the third.)
    â€œYou got something going on with your parents tomorrow?” I asked.
    â€œUh—no.”
    â€œThen why…” I met his eyes. My stomach dropped. Just like that, I knew. “The dance?”
    He tried to smile, but he got this weird embarrassed look I’d never seen before. “Hannah Branson kept hinting that she wanted to go with me. You know, saying things and texting. So I asked her. Why not.”
    â€œYou’re going to Winter Formal. With Hannah Branson.” I had to say it to believe it. And still I didn’t believe it. Hannah was in our English class. She had highlights and a fake laugh and … that was pretty much all I’d ever noticed at that point. Her gift for gossiping and sucking up to teachers caught my attention later.
    I was angry. I had no right to be angry. And yet …
    â€œWas this before or after Rudy asked me?”
    â€œAround the same time.”
    â€œHenry.”
    He wouldn’t meet my eyes. “After.”
    I nodded, too afraid I’d cry if I tried to speak. Why would I cry? It wasn’t like I wanted to go to the dance with Henry. But still. I didn’t want to share him.
    â€œSo are you and Hannah … a couple?”
    His brown-black eyes bugged out, and then he burst out laughing because the idea was so absurd. All at once, I knew it was okay. Hannah would get him for one night, and then he’d be mine again.
    That was how it played out, too. He texted me five times throughout the evening:
    Bored.
    Still bored.
    Was I supposed to buy a corsage?
    No one told me you had to dance at a dance.
    This is no fun without you.
    We never mentioned Winter Formal again.
    *   *   *
    Forty-five minutes later, I had absorbed approximately no new math knowledge, but I found myself wondering about the latest missing person. I didn’t even know the pinch-faced drill team girl’s name.
    When the bell rang, I sprang from my seat and caught Hannah on her way out the door.
    â€œYou know the girl who sits behind you? She’s on drill? She’s out today?”
    She thought for a minute. “You mean Bethany?”
    I said, “I don’t know her name. She’s kind of…” I made a sour look with my face. Which wasn’t very nice of me, I know, but it was all in the name of saving Henry.
    â€œYeah, that’s Bethany.”
    â€œYou know her last name?” Hannah knew everyone and everything, a quality that I normally did not appreciate.
    â€œBratt,” she said. “Two t ’s.”
    â€œThanks.” I turned.
    â€œWhy do you want to know her name?” she asked, not missing a beat.
    â€œHenry wants to ask her to the dance,” I said.

 
    Nine
    â€œSUPERSIZE ME,” PETER said, grabbing a huge bag of chicken-and-waffles-flavored potato chips.
    We were at the drugstore, standing in the junk food aisle. Peter’s chauffeuring charges were putting a dent in my babysitting money.
    â€œDon’t be greedy.” I tried to snatch the giant bag out of his hands, but he pulled it away with a loud crinkle .
    â€œThis Bethany girl lives like two towns away,” he said.
    â€œAnd you have something better to do?” As soon as the words were out, I regretted them. It wasn’t Peter’s fault that he had no life. Okay, it kind of was, but it was still a sensitive subject.
    I looked away so I didn’t have to see the hurt in his eyes. “Fine. I’ll get you the big bag. But I’m not buying you a soda.”
    â€œDon’t have to. Mom already gave me grocery money for when she