Free Blood Type by Melissa Luznicky Garrett Page B

approval in the department store. I dressed up the outfit with a pair of small diamond studs and matching bracelet.
    Unfortunately, there was nothing to be done about my hair in such a short amount of time. I had let it air-dry after last night’s soak , which meant it was a mess of dark curls this morning. Given that John had already seen it at its worst yesterday after getting drenched in the lake , I thought it didn’t really matter. I scooped the bulk of it up in to an intentionally untidy knot, leaving a few wispy tendrils to frame my face. It was the best I could do in such a short amount of time.
    My stomach growled just then, and I remembered I had eaten nothing for dinner the night before. I shoved my feet into a pair of sandals and then rushed down the stairs to the kitchen for a banana and a glass of orange juice.
    I had just finished brushing my teeth and was applying the last of my makeup when the doorbell rang. My heart skipped a beat, and my palms seemed to instantly sprout a leak. I took a deep breath, checked myself in the mirror one last time to make sure I looked okay, and then answered the door.
    “Z-Zach,” I stuttered, too shocked at seeing him to say anything more. In my hurry to get ready for my day out with John, I hadn’t spared Zach a single thought. And considering how we’d left things the night before, he was the last person I expect ed to see.
    Zach held out a bouquet of sunflowers in front of him. “Hi Blake,” he said, a hint of wary shyness in his voice. “These are for you. You look really nice, by the way.”
    He looked mostly good himself in tan shorts and the navy polo from Banana Republic that my parents had given him for his last birthday. And yet his normally expertly styled hair was a bit disheveled, and his eyes were red and grainy looking, like he’d been up half the night.
    I took the flowers from him and laid them on the table just inside the foyer. “Thanks, Zach. They’re really pretty. But, um, what are you doing here?”
    Zach dug his hands in his pockets and shifted from one foot to the other. “I wanted to see you. I thought we could, I don’t know, talk?”
    I glanced nervously over his shoulder, anticipating John’s arrival at any moment. Zach had picked THE worst moment to show up unannounced. “Well, this really isn’t a good time . ”  
    “But your parents and my parents made plans to meet up for brunch so that we could have some time alone to talk and work things out,” he said, as if that made it all right. “Didn’t your mom tell you?”
    My mouth fell open, and yet I shouldn’t have been so surprised. I was pretty sure the whole thing was strictly my mom’s idea, anyway. Apparently she would stop at nothing to see Zach and I get back together, and we hadn’t even been broken up a full day.
    “That may be the case, Zach,” I said , “but this really is not a good time. I’m actually getting ready to go out.”
    His eyebrows pushed together. “Go out?”
    “Yes.”
    “With who?”
    I squared my shoulders. “With a friend.”
    “Olivia?”
    At that precise moment, John pulled into the driveway. I closed my eyes and sighed, hoping that when I opened them Zach would have magically disappeared. No such luck.
    Zach didn’t say anything as John got out of his car, but simply stood in stony silence as he watched John amble up the walkway.
    “Hi Zach,” John said cheerily, as if their being on my front stoop at the same time wasn’t at all weird.
    Zach glanced at me and then back at John. “What are you doing here?”
    John extended his hand. “John Kelly. Nice to meet you. We had Spanish III together. ”
    Zach eyed the hand with barely contained contempt, refusing to shake it. “I know who you are.” He turned to me then. “Are you serious? You broke up with me for this guy?”
    When standing next to each other, I could see how Zach might clearly think himself the winner. He stood taller than John by a good six inches and had