Free The Summer Before Boys by Nora Raleigh Baskin Page A

not?” Eliza was pointing to the empty last row. “No one will notice us here and we can leave early.”
    â€œFine,” I said.
    â€œI’ll get us some popcorn,” Eliza said. She slipped off and I plopped down in the folding chair, my heart sinking.
    â€œThought you might be here.”
    I turned around and it was Michael. It was him. Right next to me. His whole body, his face. Everything looked sort of muted in the dusk, with the light from the screen, like a movie in a movie. I struggled to keep my brain working. My body had already betrayed me; my breathing was too fast, and I could feel an odd sensation rise to the surface of my skin. I shivered.
    â€œYou cold?” Michael asked me. “It gets colder up here at night than down in town. The mountains, I think.”
    â€œNo,” I said but as soon as the words came out of my mouth I wondered if I should have answered differently. Had thatsounded unfriendly? Did it sound like I wanted to be left alone?
    I didn’t.
    I had planned this exactly. It was an imaginary story and it had come true and now I didn’t know what to do.
    â€œI mean, I’m fine. Are you cold?” I said. I looked at his face and then looked away.
    â€œMe? I’m never cold.”
    The sounds of the movie, the chill starting to replace the heat in the air, the grays of light and shadow. The grass under my feet was damp with wetness seeping into my sandals. I could feel that he was next to me as if some power in the universe had made this happen.
    But Eliza would be back any minute. And all this would be over.
    â€œI have a cell phone,” I said suddenly.
    Did that sound like I was bragging? Did that sound like I wanted him to call me? Did he even hear me?
    â€œYeah, so? I have one too,” Michael answered, reaching into his back pocket.
    I didn’t know what to say now.
    Then Michael asked, “So what’s the number? I’ll call you and you’ll have my number too.”
    It was like my heart squeezed into a little ball, exploded, and flooded my body. Michael plugged in the number as I gave it tohim. My cell phone vibrated almost instantaneously. He flipped his phone shut and it stopped but his number appeared on my screen.
    â€œMaybe I can call you then sometime?” he asked me.
    I nodded.
    â€œOr text you?”
    I shrugged. “Whatever.”
    I thought I was surely getting better at this by the minute. By the time Eliza returned, Michael had left. I could barely let the popcorn touch my mouth. I wasn’t hungry at all. I stared at the big screen and the flickering images but I don’t remember what the movie was about. When Eliza said we should probably start heading back, I agreed. There were no cars on the road and it was completely dark. We couldn’t see the hotel behind us anymore and I could barely see the road ahead of us. We started to run.

twenty-two
    I saw Peter later that same day, the same day he told Mrs. Jaffe and me that his dad had come home, come home different. I saw him on the playground with his friends. I recognized one of the other boys that Peter was throwing a ball around with. He lived on the same street as I did but I didn’t really know any of Peter’s friends. He was in the sporty group, all boys who played Pop Warner football in the fall and did Little League in the spring. Alexandra Joyce was the only girl in that group and only because she could pitch and they had to let her on the team.
    But even Alexandra Joyce didn’t get to play ball during recess.
    Peter looked up when Eliza and I walked by the patch of grass next to where the boys were playing. He didn’t talk much to me outside of Mrs. Jaffe’s room and I knew after today he probablywanted to forget everything he had said. I knew I would. But I waved my fingers at him and he waved back. Then when I was almost out of earshot I heard Peter shouting out to one of his friends. I could hear the grunt