Read Online Pieces of Us by Margie Gelbwasser - Free Book Online

different. Derek had that smile. Derek kissed me. “Derek was mine,” I said, in a voice that reeked of whininess and desperation. My mother hated that smell.
    “No, honey. That’s just the thing. He wasn’t.” She shook her head, smile still on her face, pitying me.
    “So, what? He was Katie’s then?”
    She thought for a moment, picked a piece of lint off her sweater. “Well, he was more hers than yours.” She said it so simply, so matter-of-factly, that it almost made sense. But it didn’t.
    “I need to start my homework,” I said.
    She nodded and got off my bed, leaving my journal open. “You know … ” she said, when she was at the doorway of my room and I was on my bed. I sat in the same spot she was in seconds before, trying to reclaim it. “It would do you well to take responsibility once in a while.”
    “For what?” I didn’t even realize I’d said this aloud until she answered.
    “For who you are. We can’t all be the pretty ones. You should find something else that lures them in.”
    Now, sitting across from Kyle, I know I still haven’t found that special power that brings in the boys. I can dive, thanks to my dad, but no one cares about that. And Mama doesn’t like that skill anyway because it means I have to wear a bathing suit. I can play a mean game of Spit. Or I could, before I started trying to get Kyle to notice me. I stare at the piles of cards between us, forgetting what to do.
    “Your turn,” Kyle says, his foot kicking mine. “Wake up, Jules.”
    As he says this, Katie and Alex come up beside us. “Room for two more?” she asks, cocking her head to one side, giving Kyle a flirty smile. She’s being extra nice for some reason, and her tone sounds, what? Apologetic? I can’t quite figure out her expression. But Kyle blushes. That look I know; that look I’ve seen.
    “Sure,” says Kyle. “Julie keeps falling asleep anyway.” He gives me a teasing smile. Then he smiles at Katie too, but that smile is shyer.
    I smile back. “Oh no, I’m awake now.” This will not happen again. “Wide awake.”

Kyle
     
    I t’s night, and you want to be alone and head for the swings but your brother and his girl are already there. You’re wearing a dark sweatsuit and hope you blend with the darkness, but then they spot you and you have no choice but to wave back and continue forward.
    “Hey, shithead,” says Alex.
    “Hey dickwad,” you answer.
    “Men,” Katie says, laughing, throwing her arms in the air.
    It’s her arms, now covered in a turtleneck sweater, that you try to focus on because if you don’t you will just keep picturing her naked and you definitely don’t want that. So you just stare straight ahead and pump your legs and soon you’re tearing through the air, heading for the trees, leaving all of them behind.

Julie
     
    I don’t look behind me when I leave the lake house. I only follow the sound of the swings. Okay, I’m lying. I look behind once—just once—because I’m hoping to see Kyle. If I saw him, I’d slow my pace and try to play coy. We had that word on this year’s vocab final, and it sounds more sophisticated tha n “ shy.” K yle seems like the type of boy who’d like the word coy. So, I’d play all coy , and tilt my head to the side—Katie style—and say, “You into swinging?” Then I’d toss my hair and smile that smile— the smile he only saw on my sister.
    But I don’t have the chance. Kyle is already on the swings with guess who beside him. And they’re both soaring through the air at the same time, legs at the same height like freaking synchronized swimmers.
    I hang back a few feet and stare as Kyle takes the lead, but he’s not there for long. Alex is standing behind Katie and pushes her hard and fierce, like he needs her to reach Kyle. Like it’s a game and he’s losing. So typical of boys. I join them when Katie is finally caught up, and it’s then she yells at Alex to stop pushing.
    “Hey,” she says, beside me