Free The Other Girl: A Midvale Academy Novel by Sarah Miller Page A

an amazing idea! Nicholas! Take that magic snorkel out of your mouth and give me a hand.”
    Suddenly he and Nicholas were pushing everyone off the beds. Madison stood up, glowering, holding her cigarette out in front of her like it was a dog she was walking. “What the hell? I am not playing Twister, OK? I have my period.”
    “We’re not playing Twister,” Cullen said. “We’re playing spin the bottle.”
    It took some time to assemble the circle. There was some question about the carpet’s being bunched up in once place so that the bottle might never make it to one side of the circle. “Maybe that side of the circle is just ugly,” someone shouted, and twenty rich teenagers laughed out loud at the absurd notion that any of them could be considered ugly.
    “This is a perfect game for you,” Gid said to Nicholas. “You get some contact with girls without having to talk to them before or afterward.”
    “Ehh,” Nicholas said. “I prefer higher emotional stakes.”
    Pilar made a face at him. “You are esso immature,” she said.
    Nicholas said, “You may be right,” and sat down. Gideon sat down next to Nicholas, and Pilar sat down a few feet away.
    “Madison, you first,” Cullen said.
    “What? Why me?”
    “Because you need to make out with someone under thirty.” Nicholas handed her the empty Cutty Sark bottle.
    Madison tried to look annoyed, but you could see she liked having her tastes spoken of publicly. She spun.
    She got Gideon and did not attempt to conceal her distaste. “Uhhh,” she said, supersizing her eye roll and advancing toward the center of the circle on her knees as Gid did the same. Wow , he thought as they kissed, there was a day when I would have thought this was such a big deal, but now, I just feel like I’m going to the store . He went back to his place and thought about how far he’d come that he could find a girl as hot as Madison so bitchy that he didn’t want to kiss her.
    “Dude,” Nicholas muttered.
    “Sorry,” Gid said, taking up the bottle. He closed his eyes. As Gid spun, he thought, Alamo .
    It landed between Pilar and the girl next to her, a girl who, although she didn’t look like me up close, from far away looked like me a lot. We were the same height and weight, with the same hair—a pretty but unspectacular brown-haired look.
    Pilar and the other girl both stared at the bottle. It really was directly in between them. Pilar looked brazenly at Gideon.
    Gideon looked everywhere else. Cullen had appeared, shirtless, now, still in his hat. He began to chant. “Dealer’s choice, dealer’s choice!” and everyone reacted to his incredible charisma and joined in.
    Gideon wasn’t going to argue for Pilar. Besides, wasn’t he just supposed to go again, weren’t those the rules of a spin-the-bottle tie anyway, a do-over?
    But Pilar spoke up. “Eet’s pointed more toward me, ” she said. “I mean, you maybe can’t see it from that angle, but eet is.” She smiled provocatively at the other girl. “Want to fight me for it?”
    This is really happening , Gideon thought. This is really happening, and maybe Molly dumped me for a reason. Maybe I am about to get out of the car and puke right now, and I don’t even know it. In a good way .
    The girl made a be-my-guest gesture, and Pilar strutted right up to Gideon Rayburn. She has amazing posture , he thought. It was like her breasts were floating on top of her body.
    He put his hands on Pilar’s shoulders and let one hand fall a little bit down her arm. Their eyes met. In hers, he swore he saw something like lust and devotion. I might be so wrong , he thought, but I might as well kiss her as if I were right .
    I could have been in Buffalo right now , Gid thought. Whatdo I think about this? Am I sad? Am I happy? Do I just think life’s weird?
    He covered her mouth with his.
    I felt her mouth close around his, and I felt the hungry way his tightened in response. There was a flash of panic that his mouth