Read Online Blue Is for Nightmares by Laurie Faria Stolarz - Free Book Online

fans her eyebrows up and down and blows kisses in Drea's direction. "What am I doing here?" she says into the phone. "Couldn't tell you. I've been known to sleepwalk on occasion."
    Drea extends her hand for the phone, but Amber avoids it. "Never know where I'll end up," she continues. "Better keep your door locked."

    "Give it to me. Now!" Drea tries snatching the phone, but Amber's too quick. She jumps up and scurries to the opposite side of the room.
    "Huh?" Amber covers her non-receiver ear to block us out. She turns to Drea. "He wants to know if you got his email."
    Drea springs from her bed to check.
    "He wants to know if you did your psychology homework," Amber says.
    Drea nods.
    "Well, then, can he, like, borrow it? It's due first period." Drea's smile wilts, but she nods anyway. She turns away to click on his e-mail.
    "Get out!" Amber laughs into the phone. "You guys are too funny"
    Drea spins around, her white-knuckled fists digging into the groove below her rib cage. "Give me the phone, now!"
    "Breakfast, huh?" Amber repeats into the phone. "Is that what they're calling it these days? Drea, he wants you to meet him for breakfast this morning to study. How's your schedule, babe?"
    Amber shoots Drea an exaggerated wink.
    Drea claps in silence. She plunges into her closet in search of the most perfectly ironed uniform.
    She pulls one out and holds it up for show. I give her the okay sign with my fingers. Navy blue and green plaid bib-jumpers, white collar-blouses underneath, and navy-blue knee socks. How good could they be?
    "She's already picking out her clothes," Amber tells Chad. She coils the phone cord around her feet; one sock decorated with cow spots, the other with scattered pictures of various types of cheese. "She just can't wait till senior
    year when she can wear green knee socks. Just one of the many senior privileges."
    Drea whips a Scooby Doo slipper at Amber's head.
    "Gotta go, Chaddy Patty. You know how it goes, people to do, things to see. Ciao, ba-by" Amber hangs up, stands, and pinches a three-finger wedge from her pajama crack. "I'm starving. Anyone for food?"
    "The card reading was right," I say. -Chad just asked Drea to breakfast."
    "He's not gonna cancel," Drea says.
    "Yeah," Amber says, -he needs your homework."

    -Great." Drea peels the foil down from her chocolate bar and nibbles at her frustration. "Most guys want me for my looks. Chad wants me for my brain."
    "Sucks for you," Amber says.
    I ignore the rest of their banter and take a seat by the corner window. I end up staring out at the tall maple tree in the distance, the one me and Chad christened at the end of last year, just after finals, when he and Drea were broken up.
    We sat beneath it, eating peanut butter and banana sandwiches and talking about our plans for the summer.
    -Are you cold?" he asked, referring to the goose flesh on my arm, running a finger over the skin.
    I shook my head and noticed that he was staring at my mouth. "You missed some peanut butter,"
    he said.
    How elegant. I licked the corner of my mouth and felt a peanut globule hit against my tongue.
    "Better?"
    He nodded.
    "I'm such a dainty eater." I looked away to hide the baked-apple heat I knew was visible all over my face.
    "You're beautiful."
    I looked at him, expecting to hear the butt of the joke. But instead he slipped his hand down my arm and cradled my fingers.
    "Drea's beautiful," I said. "I'm--"
    "Beautiful," he finished. He turned my chin with his finger, so I would look at him, and smiled like he really meant it. "I've always thought so." He brushed away the few dark strands that had fallen into my eyes, and glanced down again at my lips. "Is this okay?"
    I nodded and felt him lean in closer. I closed my eyes, anticipating the kiss, and then felt it warm and fruity against my lips.
    On our long walk back to reality that day, I told him I wanted to keep the kiss a secret, that I didn't want to hurt Drea. I wanted the memory to stay forever perfect in my