Read Online Fall Forever (Fall For Me) by Melanie Marks - Free Book Online Page A

just stood there, dumbstruck and pale,
staring at the basket that had just had a ball whoosh through it.
    “The bet still on?”
    She blinked. “Um …” she scrunched
up her brow, like she didn’t know how she should behave.
    I watched her a moment, wondering
what she would do if I really made her go through with it—kiss me. But
that wasn’t my plan. Never was. I stepped back, pushing myself away from the
booth. “Nah, I’m just kidding. I won the kiss for Finn—tell him he won
the big, gigantic, humungous, grand prize.”

 
    ***

 
    So yeah, that day, as I left Finn
and Zoey alone in the tilt-a-whirl line—telling them their cuddling was
making me gag—Zoey called playfully after me, “What ?! We were just going to use the kiss you won for Finn—we thought you wanted
to be around to see it.”
    She said all of that with a cute
little laugh. So, when I turned around to give her a smart remark, she caught
me off-guard. Completely. She kissed Finn. Long and hard. She never did that in front of me before—not a real
kiss.
    Ouch! Okay, I guess I deserved that
move, but wow !— a knife right to my heart.
    The smart remark I was going to say
to her caught in my throat. I couldn’t say anything. At all. Instead I just gave a slight nod, trying not to stagger.
    Once I could breathe, I gave her a
bow and a salute. What else could I do? The girl had kicked my butt.
    I staggered away—knowing I
was all white.
    I was ready to bang my head against
the nearest tree, but right then I looked up and there was this new girl from
our class, Ava.
    She stared at me—directly
into my eyes. The girl sure wasn’t shy about letting me know she wasn’t shy.
    “Hi guy,” she said.
    “Hi. I’m Riley.” I wasn’t sure she
knew that, since she was so new to our school.
    “Oh, I know.” Her eyes twinkled
with full-on girly-flirt.
    Holy
smokes. So not shy .
      “Hi,” I said again. Then tilted my head at her, “You want to
go on the Ferris Wheel with me?”
    She smiled, her eyes teasing. “I
saw people kissing up there. Is that what you people do in this town on Ferris
Wheels?” Her smile grew even bigger and she gave a soft laugh. “Seems fun.
Sure, I would love to go on the Ferris Wheel with you.”
    Man! I didn’t really think I could
get Zoey out of my head. But Ava definitely seemed like the girl to help me
try.
    And she was new. She wouldn’t diss
Zoey like Jade. Or gush about her like most of the girls at our school. I
wouldn’t have to stick up for Zoey or hear about Zoey or talk about Zoey. With
Ava my world could be totally Zoey Free.
    Best Friend’s-girl Free.
    I grabbed Ava’s hand tight.

 

 
 
 
    CHAPTER 16

 
 
    Zoey
    When I left Finn at the hospital, I
decided maybe I should stay away from guys for a while. Have some “girl” time.
But when I called Summer , she was busy packing for
cheer camp.
    “Sorry,” she said. “I’m going to be
gone for the next two weeks. But we should definitely have a girl’s night when I get back.”
    “Yeah, definitely,” I said, sort of
despondent, ’cause, well, two weeks wasn’t right now.
    Summer seemed to feel my pain.
“Sorry to leave you like this,” she said. “Break ups are rough. Hey, remember
Lacy Webber from middle school?”
    I blinked, not following her abrupt
change of subject. “Ye-ah.”
    Lacy and I had been good friends …
once. But then she moved a few hours away and I never saw her again.
    “She just broke up with her
boyfriend, too,” Summer said. “You two should get together and commiserate.
Call her.”
    Summer had to go, so that’s the way
things were left. Only, I didn’t really plan to call Lacy. We had been more
like “sort of” friends than “close” friends. I mean, we’d been on the middle
school cheerleading squad together and she’d been good to go shopping with, and
she gave excellent makeovers, but she wasn’t exactly someone I ever confided
in.
    So, though the thought of calling
Lacy didn’t