Read Online Ring of Light by Isobel Bird - Free Book Online Page B

commented. “Very Joan Jett.”
    Cooper snorted. “I wish I could play half as well as she can,” she said.
    â€œYou can,” T.J. said simply as he picked up the menu in front of him and opened it.
    Cooper didn’t respond, but inside she was glowing. T.J. was the first person who had ever complimented her on her guitar playing. It was one of the things she was most proud of, and to have him notice it made her feel good. She especially liked that he didn’t make a big deal out of it. He wasn’t trying to get in good with her, like some people did. He just liked the way she played.
    â€œHave you talked to Jed or Mouse lately?” Cooper asked, wondering about the other two members of the band she and T.J. had put together.
    T.J. shook his head. “Mouse is on vacation with her folks, and Jed is stuck in summer school,” he said. “We won’t be seeing much of him until fall.”
    Cooper nodded. That was fine with her. She liked Mouse and Jed, but the band was really hers and T.J.’s. They wrote the songs. The others just came to play. She was happy to have a couple of months just to write and try out new stuff.
    â€œI think I’m going for the mushroom and spinach pizza,” T.J. said, putting down his menu. “How about you?”
    â€œMaybe the shrimp and pineapple,” Cooper answered. “It sounds just weird enough to be good.”
    T.J. nodded. When the waitress came, they gave her their orders. Cooper looked around the restaurant, suddenly at a loss for anything to say. She’d never felt that way with T.J. before, and it bothered her.
    â€œLast time I saw you, you were just about to go camping with your friends,” T.J. said. “How’d that go?”
    Cooper sighed. He was talking about the trip she had made with Annie and Kate to the Midsummer ritual. Had it really been that long since she’d seen T.J.? That seemed like forever ago. But she realized that it had only been a couple of weeks.
    â€œIt was okay,” she said vaguely. “It wasn’t really what I expected. I guess I’m just not the camping type.”
    She hoped that T.J. wouldn’t ask her any more questions about the trip. She was afraid that would lead to talking about her involvement in Wicca. Several months before, when she had been going through all of the stuff surrounding the death of Elizabeth Sanger and her encounter with Elizabeth’s ghost, Cooper’d been afraid that T.J. wouldn’t want to be friends with her when he found out about what she could do. As it turned out, he had been very supportive of her at a time when many people weren’t. But they’d never discussed those events, and they’d never talked about Cooper’s interest in witchcraft.
    Now she didn’t want to discuss it. Once she would have liked more than anything to have a friend apart from Kate and Annie with whom she could be open about her interests. She’d thought for a while that that person might be T.J. Ironically, she now found herself hoping that he never brought it up. She didn’t want it to be a big deal. For once in her life, she wanted to feel normal.
    â€œSo this concert should really kick,” she said. “The last time I saw them, Mark dropped trou and mooned the audience.”
    T.J. smiled. “Maybe you should try that next time we play,” he said, laughing.
    Cooper laughed along with him. That was another thing she liked about T.J.—his sense of humor. He had a dryness to him that she found really refreshing. He didn’t resort to stupid jokes like a lot of guys she knew did. In fact, he didn’t talk all that much in general. Except when he’s with you, she thought to herself. She’d never really thought about that before, but now that the thought had crossed her mind she realized that it was true. T.J. did talk more when they were alone together. She wondered why.
    She looked at him