Free One True Thing by Piper Vaughn Page B

sure.”
    “Well, go out and find this boy! Have fun.
    Make love under the moon or something.”
    “M-Mom!” I sputtered. Sometimes the things
    that came out of her mouth shocked the hell out of
    me.
    She chuckled. “Sometimes I worry more
    about you than Archer, love. Just have fun. I don’t
    want you to waste your youth being so serious.”
    “Me neither.”
    I hung up the phone in an odd mood. My mom
    had given me permission to ignore Archer’s
    problems and try to find my own happiness. I
    supposed I didn’t need her permission, but it felt
    good to have it all the same.
    Now I just had to follow through.

    Chapter Five
    Dusty
    “HEY, Dusty, did you want me to—oh… are you
    going out somewhere?”
    I paused in the middle of slicking on some lip
    gloss and glanced at Rue in the mirror mounted
    above my dresser. He stood in the doorway of my
    bedroom dressed in a black cami and a pair of
    black shorts smattered with rainbow-colored
    hearts, his dark hair tucked under a purple
    kerchief, green eyes a bit wide with surprise.
    “We were about to fire up the grill,” he went
    on after a moment. “Will you be around for
    dinner?”
    I shook my head and recapped the lip gloss,
    tossing it into my makeup drawer. “No, I’m
    meeting up with Archer, actually. We’re having
    Indian food.”
    “Oh.” Rue’s eyes got a little wider. “I thought
    you hadn’t heard from him since that first time….”
    I shrugged lightly. “He called earlier this
    week. I’m gonna give it another shot, see how
    things go.”
    Rue was silent for a few seconds. “That’s
    cool,” he said eventually. “You look good, by the
    way. Is that a new shirt?”
    I grinned and turned to face him. “Yeah.”
    New shirt, hair perfectly styled (without a single
    dark root to be found since I’d remembered to do a
    touchup during the week), septum ring removed. I
    did look good… even if it was a little weird
    seeing myself without the piercing anymore. I
    could get used to being without it, though, if
    Archer wasn’t a fan. It was a small enough thing to
    change, if there was potential for us becoming
    something real. But first, I had to see how this date
    went, see if that feeling came back to me the
    moment I saw him. I hoped it would. My belly
    quivered just remembering it.
    “Well, have fun,” Rue said. “You need a lift
    anywhere?”
    “No, thanks, hon. I already called a cab.” I
    glanced at my watch to do a quick time check.
    “Crap, it should be here any minute. I’d better go
    wait outside so it doesn’t take off.”
    I gave Rue a brief hug, stopped in the
    backyard to say good-bye to Erik and Alice, and
    made it out the door just as the cab I’d called was
    pulling to a stop at the curb. I settled in the
    backseat and sucked in a deep breath, nervous,
    hopeful despite my misgivings. My life was so
    close to being complete. There was really only one
    thing missing.
    Please let this date end better than the last
    one….
    THE Indian restaurant where Archer asked me to
    meet him was a total hole-in-the-wall. Walking in,
    I was a bit dubious—it looked a lot like a fast food
    joint, and the decor was minimal at best—but I
    wasn’t the type of person to dismiss a place out of
    hand. I’d worked at The Bean, after all, which
    hadn’t exactly been a beacon of cleanliness. On
    top of that, Archer was already there waiting for
    me in a corner booth, smiling broadly and
    gorgeous as ever, so I couldn’t say I had any real
    complaints.
    It wasn’t until I saw him, though, that I
    realized how much tension had been building
    inside me during the cab ride from my house. I’d
    worried that I’d get there and he wouldn’t be, that
    he’d blow me off even after being the one to call
    and ask me out. His presence unknotted the tight
    ball of anxiety in my gut, the ever-present fear of
    rejection that I tried to fight and usually lost
    against. It was a relief to be able to let it go.
    Archer’s smile went from friendly to