Free Freak by Francine Pascal Page A

Dust Magnets—minus her own brother, of course—was in love with Kai. They’d all been shamelessly flirting with her for the past hour, buying her drinks, making her laugh. And the kicker was, it didn’t bother Ed in the slightest. He wasn’t jealous. He wasn’t proprietary. He wasn’t anything.
    Kai was a cool girl, but there was just no sparkage.
    â€œOkay, you have contemplative face,” Kai said, touching her fingertip to the top of his nose, which was wrinkled in concentration. “What’s wrong?” She’d curled her black hair into a million perfect tendrils and they bounced around her face as she shifted in her seat, resting her elbow on top of his shoulder.
    â€œNothing,” Ed replied. “Just can’t wait for the music to start.”
    Kai’s face lit up. “I know! Steve is so excited! They’re totally pumping up the amps. They’re going to bring this place to its knees!”
    Yeah. Wailing in pain, Ed thought.
    He looked at the door as he had been every time it opened, not knowing whom he expected to see, but hoping it was somebody, anybody, with whom he could share his pain. This time none other than Sam Moon walked in, followed by a horde of friends. He looked around and almost immediately spotted Ed.
    Sam lifted his chin and Ed did the same, acknowledging his former nemesis in the battle for Gaia Moore’s heart. Then he looked away. He knew Sam wasn’t going to make pleasantries and neither was he. But seeing the guy did make Ed wonder.
    What was Gaia doing tonight? And wherever she was, was she half as bored as him?
    The Chick Stare
    SAM GRIPPED FOUR BOTTLES OF beer between his fingers as he carefully wove his way around tables and chairs and feet—not to mention the dozens of bags and backpacks that had been stowed on the floor. His roommate, Aidan, had found a table up near the stage with their other friends, the better to support Johnny Chen, the drummer of the band who had not only wheedled all of them into coming, but also into wallpapering their entire neighborhood in Brooklyn with those hideous green flyers. Johnny was Aidan’s former roommate at NYU. They’d lived together as freshmen, hated each other as sophomores, and now that they were living in separate boroughs and hardly ever saw each other, they were best friends.
    There was a whole long story involving a girl they’d fought over and a fishing trip in which they’d gotten marooned at sea, but Sam had never quite followed it. All he knew was, Aidan and Johnny were now friends and that was why he was here.
    Why Ed Fargo was here was an entirely different question. Sometimes New York was entirely too small for comfort.
    â€œThanks, man,” Aidan said as Sam placed the bottles down in the center of the imbalanced table. “What do we owe you?”
    â€œForget it. We’ll settle up later,” Sam said. He leaned his shoulder blades into the cane-backed chair and heard an ominous crack, so he sat forward again. His friends had left him a seat facing the stage, so he had to crane his neck all the way around to see Ed. Which, for some reason, was very important to him.
    Because you want to see if Gaia’s going to show, Sam admitted to himself. Over the past year he’d grown accustomed to admitting these things to himself.
    He took a slug of his beer, then hunched his shoulders, elbows propped on the table. He turned his head slightly, making like he was just checking out the door. Ed was still sitting on the same couch with some pretty Asian girl practically straddling him. Sam smiled and turned around again.
    Apparently Gaia wouldn’t be making an appearance.
    â€œSo, I heard this band rocks,” Jeff Miller said, already sucking the dregs from the bottom of his bottle.
    â€œYeah? I heard they suck,” Aidan replied.
    â€œThen why’d you make us come here?” Charlie asked.
    At that moment, Johnny came down