Read Online All You Need Is Love by Emily Franklin - Free Book Online

What can I say?”
    “That you’re a spitfire of intellectualism and funk…” Chris suggests.
    “With a face that could sink ships?” Chili adds. Then she throws up her hands. “Wait. I meant that in the good way — like I’m so pretty that they’d go off course.”
    “Don’t worry, we got it,” I say. “And you don’t sound at all full of yourself…” We laugh and she displays her face on her hands so we can fake-fawn all over her.
    “Here,” I say. “Popcorn for all.” More than half of the students at Hadley are spread out on the lawn in back of the science center. The tall, flat concrete side of the building is where the Spring Screenings are projected, and everyone takes their sleeping bags or sheets and submits to the dewy night. A couple of seniors have pulled their actual mattresses all the way from the dorms, and Jacob, apparently not one to blend in anymore, has thoughtfully erected (ahem) his entire bed, frame and all. He sits in the center of it with a few friends while I am on the damp earth between Chris and Harriet Walters, whose boyfriend Welsh is off trying not to get busted for chewing tobacco, which Harriet finds so repulsive that she refused to even walk with him while he dips.
    “Question: how sad is it that we’re all buzzing at the thought of our curfew-extension?” Chris asks.
    “Just think — another year from now and we’ll be heading to college, where there’s no lights out rule,” I say.
    “Hey, do you have any pledges for the Avon Walk?” I make my fingers take a fake walk on my hand and Chris adds his to my little mime show.
    “Some,” he says. “Not as many as I’d like. But I have a scheme to get a whopper of a donation.”
    “Oh, yeah?”
    “Yeah,” Chris says and turns his attention back to the big screen. “But I’m keeping it under wraps for right now.”
    “Okay — well, when you feel like letting me in on your big plans — both the Walk and your plans for your so not obviously hidden crush on the nameless one, let me know.” I don’t say Haverford because Chris hasn’t told Chili about his feelings for her brother in case it freaks her out. I think, too, that he’s afraid of her finding out and saying his crush is a lost cause.
    Chili nods, “I feel your crush-vibe. Come on, what’s his name?”
    “Never mind.”
    “Fine — watch the movie,” I say, covering for Chris and wish for a second that life were as simple as singing about your summer boyfriend, flouncing in a poodle skirt, and sipping malteds in a diner. Then Chris pipes up.
    “Okay — it’s “Summer Lovin’” — we all have to sing,” Chris says and even Harriet Walters agrees. The whole campus erupts in song and for one night, no one is ridiculed, our voices become one, and the world is filled with good old-fashioned harmony.
    I lean back on the grass and look up at the muted stars, and feel anchored; to this moment, to this night, to this campus and my friends, to being on this side of the Atlantic.

Chapter Five
    The Saturday afternoon mail brings a card with foreign postage stamps. Even though email is easy, there’s something so exciting about real mail. I hold the oversized thick cream-colored envelope and wonder if Asher has penned a love missive to me. But the writing on the front is large and loopy and Asher’s is formal and small, so I doubt it.
    “Anything good there?” Dad asks as he hangs up from his ritualistic phone call to Louisa. “I’m leaving in eight minutes — are you sure you don’t want to come?”
    “I’m sure,” I answer. Dad’s thoughtful invite to see Louisa’s cottage in Vermont, goats and all was tempting, but I’ve decided to pass. It’s not that I don’t want to meet her or that I have any of those trite please don’t date my daddy feelings. It’s more that I don’t want to schlep all the way across New England for one night, hurrying back so Dad can make his faculty meeting on Sunday. Plus, I want to see Mable. “But