Read Online Sally's Bones by MacKenzie Cadenhead - Free Book Online Page B

brightly at the guitarist, who gasped in shock. Stein Whatley stumbled backward and would have fallen into the crowd had it not been for a dainty, pale hand that instinctively reached out to stop him. Pulling him toward her, Sally steadied the rocker, who stared at her in stunned silence. By now, the rest of his band had stopped playing and were looking at Sally and Bones, center stage, caught in a follow spot. Someone from the audience screamed, “What is that?” and Sally searched for the nearest exit.
    She wondered how she could have been so stupid. Of course it had been too good to be true. The girls she had so desperately wanted to call friends must have set her up. Had they been waiting for the right moment to embarrass her all along? Sally tightened the straps of Bones’s carrier and prepared to bolt. But before she had the chance, Bones leapt down onto the stage, spun once around the spotlight, and collapsed on his back. Stretching his legs high in the air, he rolled his head to one side. His limp tongue spilled out of his motionless mouth.
    â€œSeriously, Bones?” Sally whispered. “You think this is an appropriate time to play dead?”
    With nowhere to run, Sally moved farther into the spotlight. She reached out to Bones, prepared to protect him to the bitter end. But it wasn’t the smooth skeleton of her pet that she suddenly felt against her skin. It was soft, human flesh. Stein Whatley had grabbed her hand in his. He raised it high.

    â€œThat,” he shouted, “is rock and roll!” The audience erupted. Stein went on. “This next song’s for the little lady who knows how to bring some afterlife to the party!” Chati ran to Sally and hugged her as the band began her favorite song, “Resurrection Complexion.” Bones jumped to his feet, and the trio danced around the stage to the wild cheers of the crowd.
    â€œHer skin’s corpse white/She’s out of sight/She’s calling me into the light,” Frank Winston warbled into the mic. He held his hand out to Sally, who boldly took it. As he twirled her around the stage, Bones barked and chased his own tail in a never-ending circle.
    â€œGot the kiss of death…” Frank let go, and Sally giggled her way back to Chati. She watched Stein play his guitar. She was losing herself in his amazing fingering when Bones’s bark snapped her out of her trance. Tone Death’s guitarist was moving toward her, his lead singer close behind.
    â€œâ€¦She’s out of breath…” Frank Winston held the mic to Sally’s lips, cueing her to finish the lyric she knew by heart. Her mouth went dry; her lips felt chapped; her tongue stuck to the roof of her mouth. Sally looked to the audience. There were more faces than she could ever count, but only one stood out. Though her arms were still crossed and her features were frozen in a scowl, Sally could have sworn she saw Viola nodding her head along to the beat.
    In a quiet but confident voice, Sally sang, “…She hits the spot like Miss Macbeth!”
    The audience roared. Chati squeezed Sally tight. Stein Whatley winked at her as he took her hand and held it up again. Bones stood on his hind legs and barked, and Sally’s porcelain-white skin turned a rarely seen shade of red.
    When the song was over and the girls and Bones had returned to their seats, Sally realized she was gripping something in her right hand. “Stein Whatley’s guitar pick,” she gasped.
    â€œNowaynowaynoway!” Chati cheered as her fanatical friends gathered round. The rest of the concert was a fabulous blur, which Sally decided to remember as the second-best day of her life.
    â€œThe first-best day was when I met you,” she whispered to Bones. The little corpse snuggled into her arms and howled in harmony with the music.
    At the end of the show, Chati and her party floated out to the parking lot to wait for their respective