Read Online Crystal by Walter Dean Myers - Free Book Online Page A

Rosemarie,” Sean said.
    “And who is your lovely friend?”
    “This is Crystal,” Sean said. He gently put his hand on Crystal’s. “She’s a rather special friend.”
    “Oohh.” Rosemarie sipped her drink and looked at Crystal as if she were completely surprised to meet her. “How marvelous! Hello, Crystal.”
    “Hello,” Crystal replied softly.
    “You are a lovely young thing,” Rosemarie said, slurringher words slightly. “Sean is very lucky.”
    “There’s nothing…official,” Sean said, relaxed.
    To Crystal, Sean looked exactly the way he had on Dawson’s Creek.
    “I’ll keep your ‘nonofficial’ status in mind,” Rosemarie said.
    “I’m really trying to relax before the series begins…,” Sean said. “We have to start shooting in—”
    “Oh, isn’t that…?” Rosemarie waved at someone passing by. It was Earl Morgan, the actor the movie magazines had labeled “the Black Hugh Grant.”
    “Earl!” Rosemarie waved him over.
    Earl Morgan threaded his way through a crowd of well-wishers, flashing the smile and the dimples that had made his reputation on the screen. He kissed Rosemarie lightly on the cheek.
    “Oh, I’m going to faint, you handsome brute!” Rosemarie put the back of her hand against her forehead.
    “Hello, lady,” Earl’s husky voice crooned.
    “Earl, why is it that all the handsome men only kiss me in public?” Rosemarie said with a smile.
    “If you’d leave a trail of crumbs, I’d gladly follow you to some private place,” Earl said.
    “Crumbs? I’d leave loaves of French bread if I was sure you’d be picking them up.” Rosemarie sipped her drink and then looked toward Sean again. “Earl, you have to meet my old friend, Sean. You’ve seen him a thousand times on the tube. His star is very high and still rising.”
    “Pleased to meet you, my man.” Earl extended his hand.
    “My pleasure,” Sean said, shaking the extended hand.
    “And this is his friend—what did you say your namewas, honey?” Rosemarie asked.
    “Crystal.”
    “Well”—Earl took Crystal’s hand in his—“any new friend of Rosemarie’s is a new friend of mine, too. May I have this dance?”
    The band was playing an upbeat tune. Crystal couldn’t believe she was actually dancing with Earl Morgan. There were photographers all around them, and Crystal was only vaguely aware that they were taking pictures.
    Earl talked to Crystal as they danced, asking if she was from New York and had she ever been to Hollywood. Crystal wasn’t sure what she was saying in return. Earl’s voice was like a cat’s purr in her ear. He danced well, and she wondered if he could feel her heart beating against his chest.
    When the dance was over Earl Morgan took her hands in his and held them so the fingertips came together. And then, as he looked into her eyes, he kissed her fingertips and thanked her for dancing with him.
    When Crystal sat down next to Sean Farrell, he seemed annoyed.
    “I hope that Morgan’s not trying to cut me,” he said. “You know that part that Danny Glover played in Lethal Weapon was originally supposed to be for a White guy.”
    “You think he’s trying to cut you?” Crystal asked.
    Another columnist, one that Crystal recognized, came over.
    “Hi, I’m Jim Carroll,” he said. “Wasn’t that Earl Morgan you were dancing with?”
    “Yes,” Crystal said. “It was.”
    “And you’re…?”
    “Crystal.”
    “Just Crystal?”
    “Yes.”
    “Hi, Sean, how’s it going?” Carroll turned to Sean.
    “Not bad,” Sean said. “Got the series coming up and I’m considering a part in a Spielberg flick, so things can’t be too shabby.”
    “You and Spielberg?” Carroll looked at Sean and shrugged. “Could be, I guess, could be.”
    The rest of the evening Crystal spent looking into Sean’s eyes and thinking about Earl Morgan. People kept coming by their table and speaking to Sean, most of them asking who Crystal was. When Sean said that the evening was a