Free Harmless by Dana Reinhardt Page B

unless I was with Emma. But today it seemed like everyone had something to say to me.
    “You don't have a free period, do you? I was thinking we could go somewhere and talk.”
    What was all this about talking?
    “Uh-huh.” That was all I was managing to say. “Uh-huh.” Here I was with Silas Calhoun, probably the hottest guy at Odious, standing face to face, with nobody else around, and all I could say was “Uh-huh.”
    “I don't want to keep you from something. You look like you're in a hurry. …”
    “No. I'm not in a hurry at all. I was just going to my locker.” I figured if Langdon didn't care that I hadn't done the reading he'd probably let it slide if I ditched class too. I could stop by his office later and apologize and tell him I was too upset. I'm so sorry, Mr. Langdon, but I really didn't want to bea disruption to the rest of the class, I didn't want to get in the way of anyone else's learning.
    We left the building and walked over to this grassy slope that leads down to the athletic fields. It was warm out and the sky was a perfect blue. I took off my sweater. All I was wearing underneath was a tank top. I sat down and leaned back in the grass and let the sun warm my skin. It felt so much better to be here than in Langdon's crappy class.
    “I'm worried about Emma. Do you think she's okay? She doesn't seem to want to talk about what happened.”
    He was wearing a gray ODS T-shirt and when he put his arms behind him and stretched, his shirt pulled tight against his chest and I could see up close why everyone always talks about what a hot body he has. DJ was a lardass compared to Silas.
    “She's fine. We're all fine. Sure it was scary, but we all made it out okay. No harm, no foul. Isn't that what they say in the world of basketball?” I sat up next to him.
    “I don't know, Mariah. It sounds pretty traumatic to me. But you're probably tougher than Em. I just want to know if there's anything you think I can do to help her.”
    “Give her some space. Don't press her on it. She probably doesn't want to be bombarded with questions right now. I'm sure she'll be back to herself before you know it.”
    “I don't know.”
    “Well, I do. She's going to be fine.”
    “You think so?”
    “I'm certain of it.”
    He smiled. I was telling him just what he wanted to hear.
    “Thanks, Mariah.” He stood up and brushed the grass off his pants. He looked down at me and offered his hand. I took it and he pulled me to my feet. “You know …” He shook his head. “Sometimes it's hard to believe that you're only a freshman.”
    Now he was telling me just what I wanted to hear.

Anna
    Tammy Frost asked me if I wanted to have lunch with her. Rachel Engel saved a seat for me in Spanish class. Tobey Endo said “Hey” to me as I passed him in the hallway. Tobey never says anything to me. But on the Monday after, Tobey said “Hey” and he smiled a really nice smile at me. Instead of turning red and looking down at my feet, I said “Hey” right back to him.
    After we went to see Detective Stevens and told him our story my parents had pretty much given it a rest. I spent Sunday just hanging out in my room and listening to music and while I was lying there I thought about how I, Anna Banana, made out with a guy and he wasn't even some total loser like Ithought. He was kind of nice. We kissed for a really long time. It was just like how I always imagined it would be to kiss someone. Warm and wet and dizzy with time standing still. Then Emma and Mariah came running out onto the porch and said we were busted and we had to go home. How had it gotten so late?
    I wondered if people knew. If they could see when they looked at me that I was now someone who a boy wanted to spend his whole night kissing. And not just any boy, but a senior named Brian. He even whispered in my ear at one point that I was a really good kisser.
    I was sitting in English class thinking about what it would feel like to kiss Tobey Endo. I was sure