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

He shook his head. “I just don’t get it.”
    Aw. I couldn’t help finding it absolutely adorable that he was so flummoxed by all the female attention. Somehow, it made him even more attractive to know that he didn’t even realize just how attractive he was.
    â€œSo they spotted you at the show and came over?” I asked, mostly to buy myself more time to figure out what to say.
    â€œActually, I posted something on Facebook earlier about coming to this show,” he said. “I think they saw that and just showed up. Don’t ask me how they got in—you and I were damn lucky to land tickets before it sold out.”
    Right. I smiled weakly, feeling like a big fat fraud.
    His expression was rueful as he glanced down at me. “Pretty lame, right? I mean, it takes a special person to appreciate the Beast. And it was pretty obvious none of those girls had ever even heard of the band before tonight. Probably didn’t even know where their name comes from.”
    â€œQuote from
Lord of the Flies
,” I responded automatically.
    He grinned. “My tenth-grade English teacher would be proud of you.” Then his smile faded a little and he shook his head.“Anyway, like I said, it was obvious that none of those girls were the one from the planetarium.”
    I nodded, knowing that Britt would want me to jump in and say something like,
Of course they’re not that girl—I am! And I’ll prove it!
and then grab him and kiss him like someone out of a movie …
    I was so embarrassed just imagining myself doing anything like that that I almost missed what he said next. But when I realized he was staring at me expectantly, I blinked and dragged myself out of Embarrassing Fantasy Land.
    â€œUm, what?” I blurted out.
    â€œI said, how about some ice cream or something?” he said. “My treat. You know—to thank you for helping me escape just now. Plus, I’d love to chat about the show. None of my friends are fans, so it’d be nice to hang with someone who really appreciates the Beast like I do.”
    Some ice cream? His treat? A little neon sign went off in my brain, flashing OMG! OMG! OMG !
    But I did my best to keep it casual as I responded. “Sure,” I said. “Sounds like a plan.”
    â€œCool. Come on, there’s a good place just down the street… .”
    The ice cream place he was talking about turned out to be less than two blocks away. On the short walk over we talked about our favorite MTIAB songs and the band’s latest blog postings, and before I knew it we were walking into a cute little place called Chilly Milli’s. I’d been there once or twice before; it had awesome homemade ice cream and was decorated with a bunch of pictures of penguins and icebergs and stuff. The place was pretty crowded even at that hour; there was a long line of people at the takeout counter, and several waitresses in sweet little sleeveless pink parkas were circulating among the dozen or so tables.
    We found a free booth near the back. Once I was sitting there across from him, my brain suddenly went blank. He was staring up at the chalkboard listing the day’s flavors, not saying anything.
    â€œSo,” I blurted out, desperate to break the silence before it got awkward. “Um, weird how many girls responded to that post of yours, huh?”
    Yeah, smooth, Lauren. Way to bring up theone subject almost guaranteed to make things
more
awkward.
    He glanced up at me, frowning a little. I could feel my cheeks going red.
    â€œPretty much, I guess.” He didn’t look totally comfortable himself all of a sudden. “I wrote that message sort of on impulse. See, right after I got home from that field trip, I was thinking about meeting that girl in the planetarium, and I ended up just sitting down and writing this awesome song called ‘We Should Stop Meeting Like This,’ and I was all psyched about it. So I was