The Perfection Paradox by LaurenVDW Read Free Book Online Page A

teammate and
captain.
    “ You can just
tell…” Emily mused, still not picking up on her friends’
frostiness.
    She returned
to scanning the cafeteria absent-mindedly before giving a squeal of
delight when she saw Hunter stride through the cafeteria doors with
Ryan and Taylor. She jumped to her feet, strutting in his
direction. She pretended to glance around the cafeteria and bumped
into him softly as she past him.
    “ Sorry!” she
expressed falsely, “Oh, Hunter ! I haven’t seen you all
summer! How are you?” She asked with exaggerated
enthusiasm.
    “ Hey Em, I
had a pretty crazy summer, how about you?”
    “ I had such a boring summer”
she answered, rolling her eyes dramatically “Basically stayed home
researching colleges to apply to this year.”
    “ How’s your
mom?” Hunter asked.
    “ She’s fine,
same old crazy mom” she said, sounding a bit crazy
herself.
    Hunter
smiled, “good to hear… Well I’m heading for some lunch with the
guys, so I’ll see you around Em” he explained. Emily smiled back
and watched him join the lunch line with his friends. She returned
to her seat feeling dazed, it had been months since she’d seen him,
and she’d really missed having him around.
    Hunter’s
family and her own had been close when her father was still around,
and when he left, Hunter had grown very protective of
her.
    Since high
school had begun this protectiveness had dwindled somewhat as their
lives took different paths, but Emily had loved him since the day
she met him when she was seven years old.
    Emily
remembered a time when Hunter hadn’t been ashamed to be seen
talking to her for longer than twenty seconds. She remembered
before high school, before Kennedy, before looks and popularity
mattered, when she and Hunter had just been a girl and a boy
growing up together. Water fights and ice cream in the summer time,
picking strawberries in faded dungarees in the fields around
Rosewell. Snowball fights and hot chocolate in the winter, pink
noses and Christmas carols. A childhood spent together. Before
Emily’s father had left.
    Emily
remembered when Hayden had taken her, Hunter and Haley for a drive
in his beat up ford convertible. The summer air had been hot as it
blew on her face and tumbled her hair. They had winded up through
the hills outside of Rosewell, until Hunter’s brother pulled into a
clearing overlooking the town below. It was twilight and the night
sky was a splash of pink and blue. There wasn’t a cloud in the sky
and the sun was setting in the distance.
    They sat
there for what felt like hours, old familiar songs blasting from
the taped up cassette player next to the steering wheel. The songs
reminded Emily of her father, of sitting in the back of his car on
her way to school.
    As the sky
darkened and night fell, clouds tumbled across the heavens.
Seemingly out of nowhere, dark clouds blocked out the fading hues
of sunset. They ravaged what was left of the clear night sky.
Somewhere in the distance thunder growled. As if someone had
flicked a switch, the heavens opened and rain poured down,
pattering softly on the tarnished leather seats of Hayden’s beloved
car.
    He swore
loudly as he sprung out of the car and struggled to pull the roof
back over the seats. After thirty seconds or so of puffing and
panting he gave up and climbed back into the driver’s
seat.
    “ It’s
jammed!” he shouted over the growing cacophony of rain and wind. He
reversed quickly and accelerated down the road they’d come from,
squinting through the rain. Lightening flashed across the sky,
highlighting the ugly claws of the surrounding trees. She’d never
felt as small as that moment, when lightening filled the heavens
and there was nothing to protect her, like there was nothing on
earth but that lightening and the wet rickety car.
    Emily buried
her head in her arms, jumping every time thunder sounded through
the sky. The leather seat was already filled with water and all
their clothes were soaked