Read Online At First Sight by Catherine Hapka - Free Book Online Page A

feet seemed to take on a life of their own, propelling me toward his table despite the fact that my whole body had just gone numb. I kept my focus on Riley, trying not to notice the three girls, who were now peering at me suspiciously.
    When I was still a few feet away, Riley jumped up and took a couple of big stridesover to join me. “I’ve been looking everywhere for you, Lauren,” he said, reaching over and giving my arm a friendly squeeze.
    I couldn’t help staring down at his hand on my arm. “Um … ,” I said intelligently.
    Riley was turning back to the other girls, who were still staring at us from the table. “Listen, it’s been nice talking to you,” he told them. “But I promised Lauren here that we’d hang out after the show. It’s, uh, her birthday today.”
    â€œOh.” The girl who’d kissed him on the head, an overdone blonde wearing a low-cut purple cami and too much glitter eye shadow, didn’t even bother to hide her disappointment. “Are you sure you have to go so soon?”
    â€œSorry,” Riley said again.
    â€œHappy birthday,” one of the other girls said to me with a sickly-sweet fake smile. “So how do you know our Riley?”
    â€œUh … ,” I began helplessly.
    â€œLauren and I are old pals,” Riley put in before I could hyperventilate. “Known her forever. Old, old pals. So anyway, bye!”
    â€œBye, Riley! I’ll catch you later on Facebook!” the blonde sang out.
    â€œMe too!” the third girl put in. “I’m stilldying to talk to you about our meeting at the planetarium.”
    Riley just smiled and nodded, then turned away and pulled me along with him, steering me gently toward the exit. I was so focused on keeping my numb feet and legs from tripping over themselves and sending me flying that I didn’t have enough mental energy left over to wonder exactly what was happening. Moments later we burst out into the evening air, which felt cool and refreshing after the stuffy interior of the club.
    That revived me a little, restoring at least part of my usual abilities to think and speak. “Who—what—,” I stammered.
    Okay. I
said
it was partial.
    He let go of my arm and turned to face me, smiling sheepishly. “Sorry about that, Lauren,” he said. “It
is
Lauren, right? You look just like your profile pic. I’d recognize that awesome hair of yours anywhere.”
    â€œThanks.” I reached up and touched my hair as if wondering if it was really still up there. “I mean, yeah, it’s me. Um, hi?”
    â€œI really appreciate you playing along. I was having trouble shaking those three without being an a-hole about it.” He shot alook back at the club as if fearing those girls might come swooping out at any moment.
    â€œWho, uh, who were they?”
    He sighed, rubbing his face. “When I put that message up on Facebook, I never thought it would turn out like this,” he said. “First I get tons of messages from random girls claiming to be the girl from the planetarium. And now some of them are actually showing up and, like, stalking me!”
    â€œUm, yeah. That sucks,” I said.
    â€œOh.” He shot me a slightly confused look. “Right. I guess you responded, too, didn’t you? But that’s different.” He waved a hand. “I mean, you just saw what I said about the Beast and figured you’d say hi, right? That’s cool. Totally not the same thing, right?”
    I blinked, taken by surprise. “Um …”
    â€œAnyway, those girls obviously weren’t the planetarium girl,” he went on, too caught up in his own consternation to notice my confusion. “The dark-haired one actually tried to keep up the game, even after I told her she was way too tall to be the girl I was looking for. But the other two admitted pretty quickly that they just wanted to meet me.”