Read Online New Year's Eve by Caroline B. Cooney - Free Book Online Page A

idle too long.”
    â€œThere is nothing idle about Molly tonight.”
    This sounded like a joke, so Christopher chuckled, and the two stood in the hall waiting. “Molly!” her stepfather yelled. “Christopher’s here!”
    â€œComing!”
    Christopher had forgotten the flowers. Slipping in the snow he ran back to the car, stuck his foot in to give the accelerator a quick jab, grabbed the corsage, and raced back to the house. Inside, he looked at the flowers again to be sure he hadn’t crushed them. They were what flowers should be: pretty and sweetly scented.
    He began to feel romantic.
    â€œHere she is,” the stepfather said in that same dry voice.
    A nightmare in green. Not even a dress, but a thing. Molly was an afterthought: just a face sticking up out of the nightmare.
    The whole front of her dress—where he had childishly visualized a bit of lace, or a ribbon—was exaggerated faces and lips.
    â€œIsn’t this dress astonishing ?” Molly cried.
    How naive he had been, expecting a little girl in a little girl’s dress, bringing a little girl’s bouquet.
    Molly repeated the word with a flourish. “ Astonishing !” She pirouetted. The black silhouettes kept on kissing no matter how she postured.
    â€œYes,” Christopher said, because it certainly was.
    Molly took the corsage and swirled over to the hall mirror to look at herself while she put it on. The sweet flowers looked peculiar on the violent green and black shoulder.
    â€œI myself would not leave the house with a date dressed like that,” the stepfather said to Christopher.
    Maybe it’ll be crowded and dark in the ballroom, Christopher thought, and nobody will see. Or cold enough for her to keep her coat on. “Let’s hurry before my car stalls.”
    â€œYour wonderful Corvette?” Molly teased. “Oh, go on. I bet you keep that in perfect shape.”
    â€œSomebody else is keeping it in perfect shape now. These days, I’m trying to keep me in perfect shape.” He tried to share a laugh with her. “Not the easiest thing I’ve ever done, Molly.”
    â€œBut probably the most boring. I am against perfection. A person should do whatever he feels like doing whenever he feels like doing it, don’t you agree, Christopher?”
    He wanted to give her a little sermon on all the lessons he had learned the hard way. But Molly was pressed against him, and he remembered how much fun she was, with that mischievous little grin, and curvy little shape, and those eyes that winked until you followed. She linked arms with him and they went out to the car, which was—surprise, surprise—still running.
    Molly had a very large purse. Usually for dances, girls exchanged their huge purses for little teeny evening bags. “What have you got in that suitcase?” he asked teasingly.
    Instantly Molly switched the huge purse to her other side, as if she suspected him of wanting to steal from her. She’d heard the rumors about him at college. She knew he was a thief.
    I’m going to a New Year’s Eve dance with a girl who has to be sure I don’t lift her purse, Christopher thought.
    The snow came down lightly, but it was deceptive. The road was very slick. The steering wheel was icy beneath his bare hands. For a brief instant he thought of losing control, of dying young. He shook himself and drove more carefully. Just because he had wrecked his life didn’t mean he could go wreck Molly’s.
    â€œHey, why so down?” Molly said. She hugged the side of him that she could reach and kissed him. “We’ve got to have fun, you know.”
    He forgot the strange silhouetted kisses of her horrible dress. He thought how they’d had fun at college. Booze. A New Year’s Eve party … even though most of the kids would be underage, there would be booze somewhere.
    Then he could get out from under his memories.
    The snow