The Tragedy of Loving Jamie Clarke by Rebecca R. Cohen Read Free Book Online Page B

and I can hear the mellifluous sound of his voice as he proclaimed his interest in me before I almost ruined everything. Is that pathetic? Like I’m one of those girls from some young adult romance novel whose entire world spins around their crush. The type of girl I swore I’d never be. In fact, Amber and I made a pact before we became freshmen that we would never let our worlds revolve around a guy. I wanted to make a no-boyfriends-before-college pact but Amber wouldn’t hear it. She’s never been able to resist having a guy on her arm, which has inevitably worked out for me. It’s hard to believe that I haven’t spoken to her since the date although it is more of an in-person story. But if she doesn’t get here soon I might end up telling the first person to look at me!
    “What the hell, April,” Amber says as she skips over, cradling a History textbook. “I texted you like fifty times last night.”
    “I know I’m sorry. I was exhausted. I passed out when I got home,” I reply slamming my locker shut and slouching against it.
    Amber fumbles through the stack of textbooks that have grown inside her bag. Amber is a party girl and would rather spend her time flirting with guys than doing homework or studying yet she still manages to pull in a 4.0 GPA. She hasn’t applied to any colleges yet but she is definitely bound for Princeton or Harvard.
    “You passed out? Geez, what did that boy do to you to make you so tired?” Amber retorts as she thrusts against a locker. “Oh my God, did you sleep with him?” She beams. She has been campaigning for me to lose my virginity for months.
    “No! God no. It was our first date and I’m not Liza!”
    Amber shrugs and heads toward Mr. Claymore’s Statistics classroom. “Your loss. I’m telling you, that you would be a lot more laid back if you gave into it.”
    “Okay, Amber, enough.”
    “Fine,” she shrugs as we pass by the cheerleading squad.
    “WHATCHA GONNA DO WHEN THE GULLS COME FOR YOU? BAD BIRDS, BAD BIRDS, WATCH OUT!” the squad cheers as they skip through the hallway.
    “God, they really can’t come up with a more creative cheer than that?” I snicker.
    “Not with Ms. Hailey as their coach they can’t,” Amber wraps her arm around mine and pulls me on the opposite side of the hallway. “You have Mrs. Honor now, right? Isn’t that the class you have with Mr. Romeo?”
    “Oh my God, my first class is the one with Jamie!”
    I have been so busy living in la-la land that I didn’t think about how to act when I saw him in school. I slump against the lockers. 
    “Dude, get up,” Amber demands and kicks my feet. “What’s the matter with you?”
    “How am I supposed to act when I see him?”
    “Like a normal human being,” Amber laughs. She has always been so collected when it comes to situations like this. If only I could switch minds with her for one day. “What happened on that date that has you all weird and clammy?” She asks and pulls out her phone to check the time. “You’ve got five minutes before the first bell rings to tell me everything .”
    “You mean when I finally decided to answer the door?” Amber’s eyes roll. “He kept asking me questions about myself, like right off the bat he asked me to tell him all about myself. I didn’t know what to say so I kind of babbled the entire way to the ocean walk.”
    Amber’s eyes light up with fire. Her mouth drops open and she drops to the dirty floor as though I had shot her.
    “Oh my God, April Marks, tell me you did not take that boy to The Cove!”
    The Cove is what Amber has always referred to as “the date killer.” A few years ago she brought Michael Smiths to The Cove for dinner. Amber never heard from him again after that night.
    “I didn’t know where else to take him,” I say defensively.
    “Town maybe? The beach? The movies? The town dump would have been better than The Cove!”
    “Had we gone into town or anywhere other than The Cove we would have run the