Nome: Meet me at Midnight
Autor: Jessica Pennington
Lançamento: 2020
ISBN 13: 9781250187666)
Páginas: 336
Edição: Inglês
Eles têm uma relação de amor e ódio com o verão.
Sidney e Asher deveriam ter se dado bem. Duas estrelas da natação forçados a passar seus verões em um lago juntos soa como o casal perfeito. Mas é a mesma coisa todos os anos — entre churrascos e passeios de barco e fogueiras impostas pela família, Sidney e Asher passam os dias de verão procurando as melhores maneiras pregar peças um com o outro. E agora, depois do último ano, eles estão determinados a tornar o verão mais épico até o momento.
Mas seus planos vão por água abaixo repentinamente quando sua rivalidade faz com que suas famílias sejam expulsas de suas amadas casas do lago. Uma vez em suas novas acomodações, Sidney espera que a guerra de pegadinhas continue como de costume. Mas então ela recebe um bilhete - me encontre à meia-noite. E Asher tem uma proposta para ela: unir forças para um último verão de pegadinhas épicas, contra um inimigo em comum — a mulher que os expulsou.
A trégua entre eles deve tornar as coisas mais simples, mas seis anos atormentando um ao outro não é tão fácil de ignorar. Mais ou menos igual a atração incontestável que cresce entre eles.
São três horas da madrugada boladona de mais uma dia de quarentena. Mas eu precisava vir correndo fazer essa resenha. Acabei de terminar um dos livros mais fofos que eu já li. E olha que é raro eu ler "livros fofos" nesses últimos meses. Enfim, "Meet me at Midnight" é mais um livro que eu tive o prazer de recebido da NetGallery para ler e resenhar ele. Achei que levaria meses para terminar, porque atualmente eu to lendo livros da faculdade e não os livros que eu quero (não to reclamando, mas achei que ficar de quarentena ia me deixar colocar a leitura e as séries em dia, infelizmente, aluno EAD não tem quarentena. Ou felizmente, assim as matérias não se acumulam igual minhas sei lá quantas séries e quantos livros esperando a madame aqui lembrar que eles existem).
A história é sobre duas famílias, cuja as mães são melhores amigas, passam os últimos 5 verões em Five Pines Resort, nas Casas A e B. A família de Sidney já havia passado um verão no local e sua mãe achou que seria legal que as duas famílias passassem os verões juntas. Mas não era tão legal assim para seus filhos, Sidney e Asher. Ambos são nadadores e este é o último verão antes de eles iniciarem suas respectivas faculdades.
Desde o segundo verão juntos, eles fazem pegadinhas uns com os outros, como colocar maionese no shampoo de um ou grudar os chinelos dos outros no chão. Eles não lembram bem o porquê dessas pegadinhas terem começado.
Ao longo do livro, as pegadinhas continuam até que Sidney ultrapassa o limite com uma. Isso faz com que as famílias sejam expulsas do Resort antes que as férias tenham acabado. Sid e Ash então se sentem culpados por terem feito a família ser expulsa depois de tantos anos. É quando eles se juntam para procurar outro local para ficar.
Felizmente, seus pais encontram uma casa na mesma região que estava para ser vendida, mas eles conseguem negociar para que o dono alugue para que eles fiquem pelos próximos dias. As duas famílias dividirão a casa e Ashers e Sidney serão roommates. Não só roommates, mas também dividirão um banheiro.
Entre um plano para se vingar de Nadine, a dona do Five Pines Resort e recados no espelho do banheiro, Ash e Sid resolvem dar uma trégua nas pegadinhas para tramar contra Nadine.
Mas essa trégua traz reviravoltas nessa relação amor e ódio entre eles. O primeiro verão deles juntos havia sido bom. O que teria causado toda essa briguinha entre eles?
Uma comédia romântica sobre dois adolescentes competindo entre si quem faz a melhor pegadinha e um sentimento estranho entre eles.
A publicação do livro está prevista para dia 07 de abril de 2020 e vocês podem adquirir o livro na imagem abaixo:
“(...)when 6 a.m. rolls around it’s not familiar, it’s painful. So painful. Like my eyelids will need to be surgically separated if they’re ever going to function properly again.”
——-
“Asher is already stripping his T-shirt up over his head, kicking his legs to propel himself up out of the water. The edge of the wet cotton slaps me in the face as he throws it into the boat.
“Gross,” I mutter. “It’s lake water. You’re covered in it,” he says, rolling his eyes.”
———
He holds his breath and sinks down into the water, coming up with his shorts in his hands. As the fabric sails over me and into the boat, I’m suddenly aware of the fact that he’s now effectively in only his underwear a few feet away from me. I spend at least fifteen hours a week around guys dressed in no more than Asher, so I don’t know why I feel heat creeping up my neck now. Maybe because it’s weird to be near your nemesis while he’s naked. Almost naked.
“Well, there you go,” he says. “You got what you wanted.”
I raise my eyebrows, unsure what he’s referring to.
“I’m practically naked over here.” My nemesis is not only naked, but also a mind reader, and I want to scream at him to get out of my head, but all I can manage is: “Ugh.”
———
“Whatever, Sidney. Next time you want me to take my clothes off, you can just ask.” He dips down into the water and surfaces a foot away from me. “Quite frankly, I’m tired of you objectifying me like this. I’m not just a pretty guy in a Speedo. I’m a person.”
———
“Asher slings an arm up over the boat, facing me. His feet graze mine in the water as they lazily flutter there. Hair wet and glistening, the last little rivulets of water drip down his tanned face, sliding from his chin down to his chest. When he braces himself against the boat all of his muscles tighten, and something in my chest does the same.
“What are you doing?” I don’t mean it to sound so breathless, so alarmed.”
———-
“Sidney?” His voice is whisper soft, so close his breath tickles my ear. I should move away, should find some sort of inhuman strength to hurl myself into this boat, but I can’t. For the first time in forever, I feel like I’ve forgotten how to swim.
The water is chilly this far out, but I don’t feel the cold at all now—my entire body feels like it’s on fire. “Yeah?”
His hand slides down the length of my calf to my foot, and he leaves it there, softly cradling my arch in his palm. “I’m helping you into the boat.” There’s a hint of a laugh in his voice.
I find that inhuman strength I wished for when I push my foot roughly against his hand and propel myself up and into the boat. Unfortunately, it isn’t graceful, sexy, or defiant. I flop into the boat much like my heart is flopping in my chest.”
————-
With a quick kiss on my head she walks past me, toward her bedroom. “You look nice.”
“Thanks.” Her words help unwind the little ball of tension still spooled in my stomach, but also, she’s my mom, so it hardly counts. She’s genetically programmed to love me and think I’m beautiful.
—————
“There are only inches between our faces, and I can feel every one of them sliding away as his hand meets my cheek. He brushes a piece of hair behind my ear, letting his palm brush my cheek, before stroking two soft fingers lazily down to my chin, like he’s in no hurry. Like we lie on the grass touching each other all the time. Voice whisper soft, Asher says, “How much do you hate me right now?” His eyes close. He’s going to pass out again, and it’s hard to decipher whether I’m hopeful or worried.
I don’t know if I’ve been holding my breath, but my chest feels like it’s going to explode in the two seconds it takes his eyes to open again. And when they do, he leans forward, and with no hesitation, presses his lips to mine. I’m not sure if it’s seconds or minutes that the heat of his lips caresses the chill of mine, but when he pulls away, it’s with what sounds like a little sigh. Then he rests his palm on top of mine between us, closes his eyes, and like nothing absolutely ridiculous just happened here, he falls back asleep.
—————
We’re almost a week into vacation, and Asher and I aren’t strangers anymore, but we’re not friends yet. I think that’s my fault. Because Asher is probably the cutest guy I’ve ever met. He’s funny, and nice, and the kind of guy that wouldn’t give me two minutes at my school. He’s even a swimmer. On paper, Asher Marin is pretty much my dream guy. Which means that when he comes within five feet of me alone, I forget what words are.
——————
The air is blowing his hair into what looks like a mohawk and it’s such a funny look for him, I’m having trouble taking my eyes off of it. With his hair off of his face it’s easier to notice the bright blue eyes, and the way his cheeks are red from the sun. He is pretty. Obnoxious and arrogant, but pretty. I’ll give him that.
“You look like a dog with its head out the window,” I say, my eyes drifting past him to the shoreline.
“I feel like one.”
————
I can almost imagine she’s that girl I met my first summer here, and not the competitive psycho she actually is. Her sunscreen and water bottle are on the
—————-
“Did they find a house, too?” I say in Mom’s direction, before they reach the deck and it becomes rude to ask.
“They did,” Mom says, her voice full of relief.
(....)
“Where?” I ask as Sylvie steps out onto the deck, followed by Greg and Asher.
Mom pushes her hair back from her face and looks to my dad, who takes a step toward my mom, like they need to be a united front. But a united front for what?
Asher pushes through the door from the three seasons room and his lips are tipped up in the faintest hint of a smirk. He looks like he’s about to sneak off to find my purse and fill it with earthworms. But he stays right where he is, just outside of the door, and greets me with a tip of his head. “Hey, roomie.”
———
I’ve always thought Nadine’s statue collection was the weirdest thing ever. I swear their eyes follow you, like creepy little concrete Mona Lisas.
———-
Where the stairs descend past the row of dense bushes, I come to a stop, practically throwing myself onto the ground beside them. Asher is two seconds behind me, and we’re lying on our stomachs behind the bushes, in a row: Asher, me, and the elephant—I’m going to call her Edith—next to me. If we had rifles we’d look like something straight out of a WWII movie. Well, except for the elephant.
———
I’m feeling very Bonnie and Clyde right now, like we’re standing on the edge of a cliff, being closed in on by the police. I think that’s what happened.
————
I was debating if I should apologize. I’m not even sure why or what for, but this quiet and calm Sidney freaks me out just as much as the Sidney who swapped my cologne out for bug spray.
————-
I was prepared for our swim this morning to be a no-go, but when I hear Sidney shower at exactly six, I figure I’ll be optimistic and at least show up, totally expecting to find a hostile Sidney on my hands. But what I actually find is a message on the bathroom mirror. It’s written in bloodred lipstick and if it weren’t for the actual words, it would look like something straight out of a horror movie, the way the red slashes almost seem to drip down the glass.
Meet me at 6:30 in the kitchen
—S Curious
———
I stare at the plate like it’s the first time I’ve ever seen food. Like I’m an alien visiting from another planet. Which is pretty close to how I feel, because it’s definitely the first time Sidney has made me food. Unless it was laced with something. She must see the look on my face, because she smiles. A big, gleaming smile, like I haven’t seen on her in years. Not directed at me, at least.
—————
“I know, but if I don’t drag you somewhere better, you’ll just sit in the backyard like a mosquito buffet.” We’re pushing through the living room and Asher is smiling and nodding at people as we pass. “I’d have to help Kara identify your remains by the time she got here.”
————-
Apparently drunk Sidney is even more paranoid and neurotic than sober Sidney. But she’s also a lot nicer and kind of adorable. She’s first-summer Sidney again, the one who didn’t constantly scowl at me, or assume I was mocking her.
———-
We’re just barely pulling ourselves out of the awkwardness of this fragile truce. And who knows if we’re even capable of continuing that when we’re both sober. Are there enough chocolate-chip pancakes and conquerable territories in the world to make that happen?
—————-
I turn my head to face him, ready to tell him I know exactly what he wants. And I’m not getting up to make breakfast for anyone tomorrow. It will probably be lunch before I wake up. But when my eyes meet his, I don’t say anything. Because he’s not looking at me like he wants pancakes. I should move—every reasonable cell in my body says that I should—but I don’t want to. And before another breath can pass between us, his lips are on mine. Maybe I’m in shock, or just nearing exhaustion, but all I can think is that Asher Marin is kissing me. Again. Totally not drunk. And I’m just . . . frozen. My lips are still.
(....)
When Asher pulls back, there’s a worried look etched across his face. The loss of his lips definitely doesn’t make me happy. I don’t know what I want, but that isn’t it. And before I can even process it, or tell myself what an idiot I am, my hand is sliding behind his neck. My lips are on his again, and we’re kissing.
————
I have a horrible track record with guys, but I don’t keep them around long enough to smash their hearts. Months is heartbreak territory. It’s crying - in - your - room - wondering - what - you - did - wrong territory. How - am - I - going - to - face - him - every - day - or - see - him - with - someone - else territory.
—————
Asher Marin isn’t just some guy who wanted to kiss me. Twice. He’s the guy who has been finding ways to get into my head, and get back at me for years. There’s no way there isn’t something else going on here. You were so so stupid, Sidney.
—————-
He rolls his eyes.
“You don’t recognize it?” “Why would I?” But then I look at it again—the strange purple-blue color of the little stones that hang from it. At the delicate silver chain and charm of entangled fish that dangles next to the biggest stone. I hadn’t noticed the charm before. It catches the light and sparkles, and my stomach slowly plummets to my feet as recognition hits me.
“Yeah.” He smiles but he’s not happy. “You should recognize it, because two summers ago, you were basically obsessed with it.”
I pull my eyes away from the necklace and look at Asher, whose face has gone from angry to sad.
“My mom wouldn’t buy it for me. She was on that kick about limiting our material possessions and focusing on experiences, and I had already spent all my money on that stupid wakeboard I never used.” The words trail off as I reach a hand out toward the box.
Asher moves it back just a hair, and I retreat. “Right,” he says.
“I don’t . . .” I shake my head at the little box, at the way he’s looking at me while he holds it. “Why do you have it?”
“I have it because I was on that miserable shopping trip with you, and I saw how much you wanted it.” He looks away from me, his eyes fixed on something to my left, and then sweeping across the ceiling to land on the other side of me. “So I bought it.” There’s a pause, a long stretch of dead air where I think about bolting for the door. “And every year I told myself I was going to give it to you.” He swallows and his throat bobs. “But every year it was the same, with the pranks and . . . all of it.”
——————-
Asher walks around me, and I can feel him step up behind me. His arm brushes my shoulder, and his hands stretch in front of me, the silver chain hanging there. I’m frozen in place, but it feels like my whole body is lightly buzzing. Asher’s fingers brush my neck as he clasps it and pulls my hair out from beneath the tangle of metal. The necklace is cold on my skin where it falls low on my chest, and it feels heavy, even though it’s dainty and delicate. But I can feel it—the necklace and his words—hanging there, around my neck, pressing in on me and making it hard to breathe.
————————-
It’s the second date. The second time she’s gone out on a date with another guy after I’ve kissed her. She’s basically screaming what she wants at me; I don’t know why I can’t just listen.
—————
“Ask me how much I hate you right now.”
She closes her eyes for just a second. “How much do you hate me right now?” It doesn’t have the teasing edge it usually does, her voice is nervous, almost shaky.
“I don’t.” It’s such a cop-out. I should have told her the whole truth—I like you. I’ve always liked you—but I can’t bring myself to do it without knowing if she’s going to lose her shit and stop talking to me myself to do it without knowing if she’s going to lose her shit and stop talking to me the rest of the summer. So, baby steps.
————
But I also didn’t expect that the kitchen would be empty when I walked in at six-thirty. I’m not sure at what point it became our thing, but not having breakfast with Sidney feels wrong. And not just because I had to eat cereal and not pancakes.
——————-
I’ve royally screwed this all up. The kiss, the necklace, the second kiss in my bed—obviously it’s all too much. Not to mention that first kiss, the night of the party. There’s a good chance I’ll go to my grave without admitting that—drunk or not—I remember every second of that kiss in the grass.
———————
“You asked me on a date. I get to call dibs on things like golf ball colors. And veto things. I also get to claim a bite of your dessert. I don’t make the rules.” Asher snorts like I just told a joke. “Technically, you
—————
It goes against every instinct I have to let Sidney snoop through my room, but I know this is part of winning her trust back. Letting her see the real me—the me she doesn’t get to see ten months out of the year. The me that doesn’t hide the fact that I’ve pretty much been in love with her since the first summer we met.
—————-
“I thought you had to get Todd’s present. Or was this just a trap to get me to realize how sweet and sensitive you are, with your keepsakes and your secret photos?” She sets her hands on my chest. “Because I already knew you were more sensitive and romantic than me.” One finger taps just below my collarbone, and all of this touching is a huge relief. We almost feel like the old us again. Well, the new old us. “You’re nothing but marshmallow fluff in here, Marin.”
————
As we approach, he looks at me like I’m a zoo animal. A really exotic one he can’t believe he’s actually seeing in person. I half expect him to try to pet my head or something. His face might break in half he’s smiling so big. Asher, on the other hand, is trying not to smile and failing.
————-
“It’s a lot weirder to pretend I haven’t had a crush on you for a million years.” He kisses my temple and smiles. “But anyone who really knows me knows I’ve had a thing for you for forever. If I wasn’t all over you, they’d wonder what was wrong with me.”
—————
“Dance with me anyway?” He sets his red cup on the ground, and when he pulls me toward the mass of moving bodies, I don’t struggle. I throw my hands up in the air, and I don’t care how ridiculous I look, because Asher is smiling at me like I’m a present on Christmas morning. And as the fire rages on, so do we. We jump and twist, and when a song gets slower, so do we. As the night fades into early morning we are tangled limbs and warm lips, slow hands and swaying hips. And it’s hard to figure out where I end and he begins, but I don’t want to anyway.
————-
“You scare me more.” “Yeah, but I scare you because you think I’m the person you know most likely to be able to hide a body. You scare me because you’re basically one big heartbreak waiting to happen. You’re like all of my relationship fears wrapped up in one pretty package.”
—————
I can totally see myself falling in love with Asher. I know it’s coming, the way I know I’ll take another breath. Loving Asher Marin feels like an inescapable inevitability.
——————-
Could I actually stomach weeks of that? Him treating someone the way he’s treated me? Being witness to it? The notes on the mirror, and the temple kisses; the way he’s always idly touching me, like it’s a reflex for him. The way he winks at me over the kitchen table when he knows I’m the only one looking. I definitely couldn’t handle it, which means I’d avoid him. And the thought of not seeing him at all? It’s hard to even imagine now.
————-
We lie in bed for another hour, until Asher leaves for the bathroom, and I contemplate how I went from coming here under duress to leaving with a boyfriend. Asher insists I shower first, and down the hallway, as I groggily stand in front of the sink, Will you be my girlfriend? is scrawled across the mirror in what has become our color. Red. The color of love notes, cherry Kool-Aid, and bleeding, broken hearts. The tube still sits on the counter—a much more expensive brand than our usual tube, obviously stolen from his mom. Sorry, Sylvie.
——————-
“How are you two liking the house?” Mom is looking at Sylvie and Greg, but it’s obvious she’s talking to me and Asher. “I know you were skeptical about sharing. The house. The bathroom.” She does look at me now. “But it seems like it worked out.” Yes. Somehow, against all odds, this has all worked out.
——————-
While I’m mentally panicking, Asher says, cool and calm, “Sidney isn’t as bad of a housemate as I would have expected.”
I smile and roll my eyes. I don’t even have to pretend when I say, “Ditto.”
Mom takes a bite of her burger and when she puts it down on her plate I can feel that something is coming. But there’s no confrontation. There’s just a glance exchanged, from Mom to Dad. An eyebrow raise from Sylvie, and a nod from Greg.
It’s Sylvie who speaks first, her shoulders rising a little as she announces, “We’re buying the house.”
————-
Sidney: Talking about this isn’t going to fix us.
Fix us? Inside the bathroom, I knock on her door, loudly once, then quietly, when I remember it’s the middle of the night and we shouldn’t be awake.
Asher: Open the door so we can talk.
Sidney: Talking isn’t going to change the fact that this summer has been one giant disaster.
Asher: I wouldn’t call what’s happened this summer a disaster.
Sidney: I would. And if we’re smart we’ll cut our losses.
Asher: You’re not breaking up with me by text from the next room. Dock in 15.
———————
“You think this can’t work because . . . well, for no reason really. You’ve just decided it won’t.” I look out at the lake and back to her. “I think this won’t work, because we’ve been together for a few weeks, and you still don’t trust me. You keep trying to sabotage this. You’re looking for problems where there aren’t any, and you’re already one foot out the door.” I pull on the hem of my T-shirt because I feel like I’m boiling over with angry energy. “This is over, because even if I could talk you down from this, I don’t know how I can trust that you’re not going to do the same thing six months from now. Or two years from now.” I take a step back on the dock. “So”—I throw my hands up like Sidney has me at gunpoint, which is how it feels—“I surrender. You win, Sidney. It’s over. Just like you knew it would be. So like always, your plan worked.”
————-
(...) but none of it can distract me from the words that won’t leave my head: some people just aren’t meant to be together. People like Asher and me. We’re not doomed because he’s out to get me, we’re doomed because he was right last night: down the road I’d screw this up somehow. At least now it’s done with, before things go too far, before we hurt our families or each other more than we already have. But if it’s the right decision, then why does it still hurt so much?”
————
Something like fear and panic wash over him in an instant. “Oh god.” He looks up at the house and back to me. “You’re not. I mean, Sidney’s not. She’s not pregnant or something, is she?”
“She’s not—what?” I try to physically shake away the confusion and shock that has slapped me in the face. “What are you talking about?”
Dad is visibly relieved. “I’m sorry, I just—the way that you looked. I thought this was something big. Something bad.”
“And your first thought was that I knocked up Sidney?”
Dad winces. “This isn’t my finest parenting moment.”
“You knew we were together, though?” I wince. “Dating together, not accidental-pregnancy together,” I clarify.
“I know. We know.” Dad glances up at the house again. “Your mom thinks it’s adorable you think we don’t. Maybe don’t tell her about this little freakout, okay? Not unless you want to go back to an open-door policy around the house.”
“We broke up last night, so that won’t be a problem.”
————
And as much as I didn’t want to think it, I knew that thing was Asher. Asher was summer vacation. He was my favorite lake, and the best two months of the year. I wanted to be mad at him, to stay angry, but he was right; once a few days had passed, and the shock of my almost-arrest wore off, things didn’t seem so dire. It didn’t seem so plausible that he had fabricated an entire summer of magical moments just to one-up me. But I also knew it was too late.
——————-
I look down at my bare toes under the water, the dark pink polish I put on last night. “This is really nice.” I don’t deserve it. I never deserved him—sweet, perfect, hopeful Asher—and I certainly don’t now.
“I’m just being a decent human who doesn’t want to see another person die.” It’s exactly what I said to him that night at the lake, when he was drunk.
“How am I going to die?”
“Well, you could drown.” His voice is deadpan, his face serious. “You’re not that great of a swimmer.” He smiles and I poke him in the side with my elbow. We haven’t been this close in what feels like centuries. That old feeling is back, the buzzing nervousness of him being close to me, able to touch me at any moment. But he’s not going to touch me at any moment, I remind myself. He’s trying to be a friend. Because I asked him to.
——————
I ride the ball standing up, and sitting, and at one point Ellie jumps on with me, before dismounting because it made her dizzy. I’m standing on the giant silver ball, one leg in the air behind me like a ballerina, when a voice cuts through the air. “You could get arrested for that, you know.” My foot wobbles a little when I realize whose voice it is. “Or fall and break something.” I look to where our team is huddled to one side of me. His hands are shoved in his pockets. “Twist an ankle maybe.”
“Maybe I shouldn’t jump this time,” I say.
Asher climbs over the fence until he’s a foot away from the ball. “Jump.”
I stare at him, at his arms stretched out for me.
“Do you trust me?”
I don’t say anything, just let myself fall off of the giant silver ball, until I’m safely in his arms, my feet barely hitting the sand.
He looks at me like I just fell off of a ten-story building.
“You came.”
“First record-break of the season.” He smiles and looks at me conspiratorially. “Of course I came.”
Maybe it’s the way Ellie’s drink is making my skin prickle and my head slowly detach from my shoulders like a balloon on a string, but instead of pulling away like I know I should, I wrap my arms around Asher. His body stiffens against me, and he doesn’t move for a second, but then his hands rest on my back, and he’s squeezing me. Suddenly, this night feels complete. And that’s scary, because the one thing I can’t guarantee in my life right now is Asher Marin.
—————-
Is a pickle even a vegetable? Is it legal to vaguely label food like that?
————-
It’s weird that we have this shared thing. It feels a little like we’re a divorced couple, and the house is our kid. She was right about that—how awkward it would be going to the house if things went south between us. Except that she’s the one that forced that situation into existence.
————-
Showing up at her dorm with three random rocks might seem like a giant excuse to see her. And while I wouldn’t mind that, I’m also not sure I’m ready to dive headfirst into full-blown friendship with Sidney. I thought I could—that maybe, with time, I could look at her differently. But after the way she looked at me at the wrecking ball, I’m not sure my heart can handle it. It’s bad enough that eventually I’m going to have to see her at parties, and eventually I’m sure with other guys. I wish I was a better person—the kind of person who could be happy for her happiness. Maybe I will be, someday, but I’m not there yet.
——————-
I’m pulling Mom’s red baking dish out of a cupboard when I notice another pop of color. At the edge of the kitchen, there’s a rock painted with a cluster of little white flowers and a few feet to the right, there’s another, leading into the hallway. I pick them up, and see another partway down the hall, just outside of the laundry room. And another, just outside of Sidney’s bedroom. The door is open, and inside there are three more rocks in a triangle. If they were breadcrumbs—which is what they feel like—they’d be leading me to the bathroom. That door is closed, but not latched, and when I nudge it open with my toe, I half-expect something to jump out at me. Or to be hit by something. At the very least, I expect something to spray all over me. But the door swings open harmlessly, and the room is empty. No shaving cream covering the floor. Not a single menacing thing. Except that on the mirror, in slashes of red, there are four words:
MEET ME AT MIDNIGHT
I can’t decide if it’s better or worse than finding the bathroom filled with bees as I’m doused in lemonade. It just feels like two different kinds of torture. So I get into my car, leaving the pile of rocks on Sidney’s bed, and I drive back to school.
—————
“Hey, Sidney?” “Yeah?”“I really really don’t hate you.” “No?” She leans into me, presses her lips to mine, and pulls away far too quickly. “That’s good, because I’m pretty sure I’m in love with you.”
——————-
“Yeah, but you love how twisted I am.” “I think it’s more like I love you, and you just happen to be twisted.”
—————-
“How much do you hate me right now?” Asher shakes his head against the blanket, and I don’t have to see his face to know he’s annoyed. He hates when I ask him that, when I tease him about how horrible we used to be to each other.
—————-
“Okay, how much do you like me right now?”
He raises his eyebrows at me and I know what he wants.
I smile, and lean down to his ear, resting my face there when I do. “How much do you love me right now?” I don’t mean for it to be a whisper, but out in the dark it’s hard to do anything but.
He looks at me and smiles. “It’s hard to quantify.” “Try.”
He turns his face from the sky to me.
“More than all of the stars . . .” His lips touch mine, gently and quickly; it’s not our first kiss or our hundredth, and it’s certainly not our last. “And then some.”
Comentários
Postar um comentário