Read Online Glow by Molly Bryant - Free Book Online Page B

the
way everyone is turning out, we will all be alone.
    Almost an hour and nearly the entire bottle of wine later, I am feeling pretty
darn good again. I am sitting looking at the photo albums my mother had
nestled in the entertainment center. I placed the one I was now finished with
back in it's place grabbing another one- it had my name across the front. I
smiled as I sat upon the couch opening it up staring at a slightly pudgy me
with the stupidest smile across my face baring my braces with my chubby
cheeks touching the bottom of the frame of my glasses. I couldn't help but
laugh aloud.
“What's so funny?” a male voice said from the archway to the living room.
     
I looked up to see Ben leaning against the archway's frame. He was smiling,
a glimmer in his blue eyes.
    I continued to laugh aloud. “My picture,” I looked at the picture again, this
time to laugh hysterically. I leaned back into the couch, one hand on my
stomach and the other cradling my glass of wine trying not to pill it. “It's so
hideous!” I laughed.
    “Let me see it,” he walked over to the couch and sat down next to me
grabbing the photo album from the coffee table setting it in his lap. He
looked down at the picture then smirked. He doesn't laugh though.
“Isn't it ridiculous? I was so awful!” I laughed.
     
“Not awful, cute,” he said thoughtfully, then smiled.
    “Shut up,” I grabbed the album from his lap and sat it on the coffee table. I
laughed again as I looked at it. “You can say that now because I am nothing
like that anymore,”
I poured some more wine into my glass and took a drink. Ben picked up the
bottle to see that there was barely one more glass worth in it.
    “Vanessa, did you drink this entire bottle to yourself as though you haven't
drank enough already?” he asked shocked. “Where are your parents?” He
sounded like he were talking to a child.
“Yes I did,” I said proudly patting his chest with my hand. “I guess they went
to bed, they were gone when I came in here an hour ago,” I shrugged.
     
“Here,” he stood up and set the bottle on one of the entertainment center
shelves. “That glass is it. You're turning into a lush,”
    “Party pooper,” I pouted. He laughed and I smiled. “I am not a lush, I've had
a very bad day,” I leaned forward and continued to turn the pages of the
album, Ben's eyes on me the entire time. I could feel his stare burning a hole
through me.
    “I had so much fun on that trip,” I point my manicured fingernail at a photo
of myself in front of the San Diego Zoo sign in my favorite lavender sundress
with white daisies all over it.
“Yeah, it was fun,” he smiled. Ben had come with us too.
    My eyes roamed the pages and to my surprise, I had seen a little blonde
haired boy in the background of nearly all of the pictures smiling at me as I
struck poses for my parents. I crease my brows and notice that it was Ben in
each and every one of them. Mostly, you could tell he had no idea he was
even in the photos.
    I flipped the page. In the next photo, I was in front of the tiger exhibit holding
a stuffed tiger with a huge grin from ear to ear. I looked next to the sign that
said 'Bengal Tiger Exhibit' at the edge of the photo. Ben was standing next to
it, eyes towards me, smiling.
What in the world? I laughed and pointed at the little blonde Benjamin in
swimming trunks, flip-flops, and a tank top. “Peek-A-Boo, Benny!” I laughed
aloud.
    Ben quickly closed the photo album and placed it back on the shelf. He
turned towards me with a smirk on his face. His cheeks were pink. Is he
blushing?
“Are you blushing, Mr. McGurthy?” I smiled.
     
“What?” he laughed. “No, why would I be blushing?” he asked.
     
“No reason, just messing with you,” I shrugged, letting it go. He knows what
I saw.
     
“I flush when I drink too much,” he walked his confident strut then stopped
directly in front of me. He held his right hand out. “Dance with me?”
     
“Come on now,” I