Total pages in book: 106
Estimated words: 103104 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 516(@200wpm)___ 412(@250wpm)___ 344(@300wpm)
Estimated words: 103104 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 516(@200wpm)___ 412(@250wpm)___ 344(@300wpm)
His eyes close, his thick dark lashes lowering briefly. “Oh, Tulip. You can’t make my life hell.”
“I’d like to see you walk in my shoes.”
His gaze goes down to my Converse. “No thanks.”
“Asshole,” I say, my jaw tight.
“Yes.”
“Major asshole. Like the biggest dick at this school, and I don’t mean size-wise. I mean douchebag of major proportions. I can’t believe girls actually want you. You’re disgusting.”
“Yes.”
“And the truth is, you’ve probably peaked as a quarterback in high school. Someday you’re going to be a lonely, middle-aged man with deep-seated commitment issues. You’ll be in AA, hooked on porn, crying over your Chinese takeout—”
His hand scrubs his mouth, and at first I think he’s pissed; then I realize his shoulders are shaking.
“What’s so funny?” I snap.
His eyes spear mine. “You.”
I reach out and ruffle his hair. It’s silky under my fingers, and I flinch back, feeling branded.
I just touched him.
What is wrong with me?
He freezes at the contact and jerks away. “Don’t touch me.”
I will my pounding heart to slow down.
Mrs. White clears her throat as she approaches our table. “Well, I’m glad to see you two getting along.”
I scoff.
“I’ve got some movie choices for you,” she continues. “You’ll need to watch it together and work on the essay. Is that going to be a problem?”
“No,” Knox says tersely.
I groan inwardly. “I can’t wait to work with Knox. What do you have for us?”
She smiles, seemingly clueless about the thick tension that’s hanging over our desk. “Ah, well, I have two here, either Star Wars or Dirty Dancing. Which one?”
“Star Wars,” I say.
“Dirty Dancing,” he says at the same time, and I gape at him.
“Seriously? You’d pick ‘Nobody puts Baby in a corner’ over flaming swords and Jedi, and hello, aren’t all guys into starships and killing? Are you male? Use the Force, Knox. It must be Star Wars.”
He gives me a haughty look. “Flaming swords aside, there are aspects to Dirty Dancing we can write about. How Baby brings her family together—”
“Pfft,” I snort. “What about Luke Skywalker and Princess Leia? Chewie and Han Solo? That’s a family for you, not rich people vacationing in the Catskills—”
“—two socioeconomic groups, the vacationers and those employed at Kellerman’s—”
“God. You even know the name of the hotel. And now you want to throw out big words like socioeconomic. Surprising—I always assumed you were a bit dim.”
“You’re supposedly the brain. That’s your label, mine is jock. Keep up with the big words, Tulip.”
“If you call me Tulip one more time—”
“It’s a heck of a lot better than what everyone else calls you.”
“—I will smack your face.”
There’s silence as Knox and I stare at each other.
He shakes his head. “You’re mouthy.”
“Get used to it.”
Mrs. White holds her hand up, her eyes bouncing from me to Knox. A little titter comes from her. “I never expected you to be so vehement about your options. Is everything okay?”
Oh, I’m not backing down now. I nod. “Yes.”
Knox sighs.
She grins. “Good! I love the, um, enthusiasm. Let me see… Oh, I have it. There’s a number in my head and each of you gets to pick between one and ten. Whoever guesses closest to the one in my head gets to choose—”
“One,” Knox says, interrupting her while glaring daggers at me.
“Five,” I snap.
She gives me a sheepish look. “I picked one. Sorry, Ava, it’s Knox’s choice, so Dirty Dancing it is. I’ll leave it up to you to decide on the topic, but I like Knox’s idea about societal differences, or perhaps a discussion of how the romance in the movie has managed to capture the hearts of several generations?”
“Societal differences,” I call.
“Romantic aspect,” Knox says over me.
We glare at each other.
Are you for real? my eyes say.
Oh yeah, his gleam back. And this is going to be so much fun.
She laughs. “Whichever you want. Maybe you can come up with something more original. You need to have it watched and notes turned in two weeks from now.”
She walks off, and Knox faces the front. “She always picks one, by the way. I beat you.” A dark chuckle comes from him.
I bristle. “Romantic aspect over lightsabers? And here I thought you were a dude.”
‘“Patience you must have, my young Padawan.”’
I stare at him. “Oh, you jerk! You just did that just to get at me, didn’t you? It wasn’t about the movie—it was about you being all Let’s make Ava uncomfortable.”
He grunts and lets out a long-suffering sigh. “Everything isn’t about you. Patrick Swayze was my mom’s favorite actor, and Ghost was the one movie she’d watch over and over.”
My ears perk up. “Was?”
He clamps his lips tight.
“What?”
“Nothing,” he mutters.
I narrow my eyes at him. Oh, it’s definitely something.
I pick up my pen and twirl it around. “Keep your secrets then. I don’t—”
“My mom died when I was twelve.” He rubs his hand over his mouth, as if he’s surprised the words came out.