Stay(2)

"Are you and Dillon gonna double date with me and Luke tomorrow?” Lynn asked as she raked her fingers through her wet hair.

“Maybe.” I’d have to come up with some real excuse. Saying I wanted to stay in to finish a book had been my reason for skipping out on a double date the weekend before.

“Maybe?” Lynn echoed. “Try not to die from excitement, Addie.”

“I’ll try and contain myself.”

“Oh come on! Just give Dillon a chance. It would be so perfect if you dated my boyfriend’s best friend!”

“I know,” I agreed. “And this will be the third chance I’ve given him.” Dillon was a nice guy. He was outgoing, like Lynn and Luke, and attractive. But he didn’t like books and said reading was boring. It would never work between us.

“You could at least use him for the night,” Lynn added. “You know what happens after the third date.”

I considered it for a second then shook my head. “I can’t do that to him … or me. I have higher standards for myself than that.”

“Your loss,” she said with a shrug and threw her blonde hair over her shoulder. “If I wasn’t with Luke, I’d tap that.”

I laughed. “You’re so full of shit, Lynn.”

She looked at me innocently then laughed too.

“What are you talking about?” Arianna piped up from the back seat. “What happens on the third date? I think I know. Isn’t that when you—”

“Nothing happens,” I interrupted. Ari was too young for this. “Nothing fun.”

“You have an odd definition of ‘fun,’” Lynn teased. I glared at her.

“Are you talking about boys?” Ari asked, suddenly more interested. "You know Addie secretly hopes to find some Prince Charming type of guy, like in one of her books."

"It's not so secret," Lynn said with a laugh.

"So," I said, changing the subject to our planned trip to Wizard World in Chicago later in the summer. I hated talking about my relationships—or lack there of—with Lynn. It made me depressed, and it wasn’t that I wasn’t looking. Honestly, I felt like there would never be anyone right for me. Maybe I was holding out for my knight in shining armor and didn’t want to admit it to myself. “We need to decide on a theme for our costumes ASAP. Batman characters or Disney princesses? Personally, I’d go with Batman.” We talked about our costumes and the rest of the fun stuff we had planned for the summer, making the long drive to the city go by quickly.

We parked and got out, taking a few minutes to fix our hair. I grabbed my cell phone and called Dad as we shuffled into the flow of people headed toward the parade.#p#分页标题#e#

“Matt said to meet him at the end,” Lynn informed us. “And,” she continued, scrolling through her text messages, “it ends on Mackinoff Drive. So let’s go a block before that. We can still see the parade and then easily find him.”

“Good idea,” I affirmed and let her lead the way. The further we got from the heart of the festival, the more run-down the buildings became. The street sides were hardly occupied so far down; we easily found a spot and sat down on a bench while we waited. I stretched my long legs out, wanting to soak up as much sun as possible before I was beach-bound tomorrow for Lynn’s family’s annual Memorial Day cook out. Next to Lynn, who went to the tanning salon four times a week, I was ghostly pale. I had intended on going tanning a few times with her, but I had spent my 'fun money' allowance on books. I pushed my sunglasses low on my nose, trying to avoid an awkward tan line.

I saw a blur of black out of the corner of my eye. It was moving fast and headed right toward the street that ran perpendicular to the one we were on. It wasn’t blocked off for the parade. I whipped my head around to see a girl race into the street, jumping off the sidewalk with such haste that she didn’t take the time to see if the coast was clear.

A horn blared and tires squealed as a car slammed on its breaks. Holy shit. My heart skipped a beat. The car missed her by just a foot. It wasn’t going fast being so close to the parade route, but it was fast enough to cause some damage.

“Did you see that?” Lynn stood and put her hand to her face, shading her eyes. “That was close. Dumbass isn’t looking where’s she’s going.”

“I think she’s crying.” I narrowed my eyes, watching her race across the street. She kept her head down and her arms wrapped around her chest. It was odd to see her in a long sleeved sweater in eighty-degree weather. When she was parallel to us, she whirled around, looking behind her as if she was scared of being followed. Whatever she saw made her pick up the pace. She dodged behind a building and out of sight. My eyes lingered in her direction, waiting to see if anyone else would accompany her down the alley.