Read Online Pointe by Brandy Colbert - Free Book Online Page B

he reached behind his bookshelf and pulled out a heavy-looking book with strange writing on the cover and an illustration of a man and woman facing each other. Bodies intertwined, the man’s hand cupping her naked breast.
    I gasped. The people weren’t real, but I was nine years old and it was the most explicit thing I’d ever seen. And from the look on Donovan’s face, I knew the pages inside had to be even worse. He sat down next to me, placed it on the floor between us.
    â€œWhat is that?” I brushed my hand across the title and the people, then snatched my fingers away as if someone would go dusting for prints later.
    â€œThe
Kama Sutra
?” He said the beginning of
Kama
like “cam” and I thought that was how it was pronounced for years. Not that I ever advertised I’d been up close and personal with a copy.
    â€œWhere’d you get it?” Now
I
was looking at the door, listening for footsteps, plunging my fingers into the carpet to keep from opening the book.
    â€œI found it in the garage last night,” Donovan said. His jeans-clad knees were drawn up to his chest, his chin resting on top. He eyed the book warily, like it was going to stand up on legs, walk downstairs, and announce its presence. “I was looking for my old glove and there was a box . . . It looked really old, like they hadn’t opened it for a long time.” He paused to scratch his nose. Maybe to stall. “Do your parents have books like this?”
    â€œUm, I don’t think so.” My parents were sweet to each other;
they snuck kisses when they thought I wasn’t looking and shared glances that made me know they were very much in love. But I’d never come across anything like
that
in our house. I pushed away the Avengers comic. “Have you looked in it?”
    He nodded, and it’s like that was the permission I needed, because I inhaled long and deep and then I opened the book to the middle and began to flip through it. More soft, full bodies. More illustrations that made me do double, triple takes. Some of them I just stared at, sure there was no way two humans could possibly put themselves in those positions. Or that they’d actually like it once they got there.
    I could feel Donovan looking over my shoulder, but he didn’t touch the book again. All he said was, “Pretty gross, right?”
    â€œIt’s just . . . weird.” I didn’t know how else to put it.
    I noticed boys, but every time one of my friends mentioned kissing or even holding hands, I felt like that was so far away for me, it was beyond comprehension. And clearly, Donovan was even less interested at that point. He’d much rather toss around a baseball with the other boys in class than spend time worrying about girls.
    I looked away from the book after a couple of minutes. I felt warm all over, though I’d barely moved except to turn pages with the very tips of my fingers. It all seemed weird and a bit wrong, but I also felt a sense of relief. At least now I’d know what people were talking about whenever sex came up. Sort of.
    â€¢Â â€¢Â â€¢
    That was the last time we looked at that book. The last time we discussed it, too, but sometimes over the next few weeks I’d notice Donovan zoning out and I didn’t know how to explain it but the look on his face was how I felt when I was paging through the book, and I was sure he was thinking about it. Every time.
    I need to get my shit together now because I swear, Marisa seems to be watching me more closely than usual in class. She knows our bodies almost as well as we do, what each of us is capable of doing. But the more I worry about disappointing her, the harder it is to concentrate. To stop thinking about the guy who took Donovan.
    I use the extra seconds between combinations to close my eyes and breathe in deeply, and then, just when I think I’m safe, the memories of my