This Girl: A Novel by Colleen Hoover Read Free Book Online

a teacher here.”
    Gavin looks past me and waves at Mrs. Alex through the window and smiles at her. “She’s still watching you. Maybe you should flex your muscles; give her a little gun show. Or at least give her a nice view while you’re walking away.”
    The thought of Mrs. Alex admiring me from behind makes me a little too uncomfortable, so I change the subject and walk toward my first-period class. “You and Eddie going to Club N9NE tonight? I haven’t seen you guys there in a couple of weeks.”
    “Maybe. Why? You doing one?”
    I shake my head. “No, not tonight,” I say. “We’ll be there a little after eight, though. My sitter isn’t available until seven-thirty, so we’ll probably miss the sac.”
    He stops in his tracks just as we reach my classroom door. “We? Who’s we? Does Will Cooper have a date?” He cocks an eyebrow and waits for my reply.
    I don’t usually hang out with students outside of work, but Gavin and Eddie have been showing up at Club N9NE every now and then for a few months. We sometimes sit together, so I’ve gotten to know them pretty well. When you’re teaching at twenty-one years old, it’s sort of difficult to completely cut off socialization with people who are practically your age.
    “So? Who is she?” he says. “Who’s the elusive girl that may just be the end to Will Cooper’s dry spell?”
    I open the door to the classroom and lose the smile as I switch on teacher-mode. “Get to class, Gavin.”
    He laughs and salutes me, then heads down the hallway.
    •••
    “THANKS AGAIN, MAYA,” I say as I head through the living room. “There’s cash on the table. I ordered pizza about fifteen minutes ago.” I grab my keys and shove my wallet into my pocket. “He’s been talking backward a lot so just ignore it. He’ll talk frontward if he has anything important to say.”
    “You paying me double?” she says, falling onto the sofa with the remote in hand. “I didn’t agree to watch that other kid.”
    “He’s just the neighbor,” I say. “He’ll go home soon. If he doesn’t, then yeah . . . I guess I’ll pay you extra.” I’ve turned to head outside when the boys make their way back into the house. Kel stops in the doorway and puts his hands on his hips, looking up at me.
    “Are you my sister’s boyfriend?”
    I’m thrown off by his directedness. “Um, no. Just her friend.”
    “She told my mom you were taking her on a date. I thought only boyfriends took girls on dates.”
    “Well,” I pause. “Sometimes boys take girls on dates to see if they want them to be their girlfriend.”
    I notice Caulder standing beside me, taking in the conversation as if he’s just as curious. I wasn’t prepared to have to explain the rules of dating right now.
    “So it’s like a test?” Caulder asks. “To see if you want Layken to be your girlfriend?”
    I shrug and nod. “Yeah, I guess you could say that.”
    Kel laughs. “You aren’t gonna like her. She burps a lot. And she’s bossy. And she never lets me drink coffee, so she probably won’t let you have any either. And she has really bad taste in music and sings way too loud and leaves her bras all over the house. It’s gross.”
    I laugh. “Thanks for the warning. You think it’s too late to back out now?”
    Kel shakes his head, missing my sarcasm completely. “No, she’s already dressed so you have to take her now.”
    I sigh, pretending to be annoyed. “Well, it’s just a few hours. Hopefully she won’t burp a lot and boss me around and steal my coffee and sing to her really bad music and leave her bra in my car.”
    Or hopefully she will.
    Kel walks past me into the house. “Good luck,” he says, his voice full of pity. I laugh and shut the door behind me. I’m halfway to my car when Lake opens her front door and walks to the driveway.
    “You ready?” I yell to her.
    “Yes,” she yells back.
    I wait for her to walk to my car, but she doesn’t. She looks ready. Why is she just