Read Online Satellite: The Satellite Trilogy, Part I by Lee Davidson - Free Book Online Page B

excitement.
    Even though Tate was burning her glare into me, she caught her little brother’s discouragement. She turned back to him and said in an upbeat voice, “I’ll be back before you know it. Then it’s death by tickling!”
    He screamed with delight and cannonballed into the center of the pit.
    Tate climbed awkwardly through the net opening and stomped in her pink socks over to me. She pushed her finger into my chest so hard that dust puffed off my shirt. “You! You have a lot of nerve,” she hissed in a lowered voice.
    “Tatum, let me explain—”
    “So is this how you do it, then? You go through life being an ass and then just apologize?”
    “No, it’s not like that. I—”
    “Don’t even!” She whispered her yell and pushed her finger into my chest again. “Others may let you get away with that awful behavior, but I was raised better. I don’t know why I agreed to go out with you in the first place.”
    At least she saw it my way. I didn’t know why she’d agreed, either. Certainly one of the rich boys from school wouldn’t have been late if they had gotten the chance to take her out.
    “Tatum, just listen, please! I got stuck at work.”
    “And I guess you’ve never heard of a phone?”
    “We were in the middle of a concrete pour. I called as soon as we were finished.”
    “It would have taken two seconds to call.”
    “Conversations with you seem to last a bit longer than that.” I cringed when I realized that my statement, at that particular moment, wasn’t the smartest thing to come out of my mouth.
    “We’re done here.” She stormed away, climbed the steps, and jumped back into the pit.
    “Tatum, come on! Give me another chance!” I pleaded through the netting.
    She completely ignored me. With nothing to lose, I pulled off my mud-caked boots and jumped into the pit, losing my balance. After nearly falling on Tate, I managed to get down on my knees.
    “Tatum, come on! Look, I’m literally begging you. Please, please, please forgive me!”
    “Knock it off, Grant. You’re doing that stalker thing again and scaring my brother.”
    “Please, Tatum. Please!” I mockingly begged. My attempt at humor was ridiculous, but my options were limited.
    “Tate, what’s wrong with him?” Fischer loudly whispered. Shoot, he did look frightened.
    She kept her eyes on me when she answered. “Fish, you remember your hamster that couldn’t figure out how to run in his wheel and Mom said he was a little slow?”
    “Yeah.”
    “Well, Grant’s kind of like that hamster.”
    I smirked. She was so bad at being mean.
    The boy’s eyes turned to baseballs. “Ohhh!”
    “Let’s go, Fish,” she said.
    “But I want to stay!”
    “Fine, but we’re finding somewhere else to play. It’s too crowded in here.”
    In a desperate move to stop her, I swung my arms around her waist. She squealed and fell onto me, throwing my balance off. We fell into the middle of the pit, buried in plastic balls.
    She tried to push away from me, but I tightened my grip. I chewed on my lower lip, but couldn’t hide my amusement, which made her even more angry.
    “Let me go! What is wrong with you?” she yelled, pushing against my chest.
    I easily overpowered her, pulling her against me until my mouth was at her ear.
    “Come on, just one more chance?” I whispered in what I hoped was a convincing voice. Still, I prepared for a slap to my face. When there was no blow, I pushed away to see her expression. Not having a lot of experience with girls, I could only guess, but her cheeks didn’t seem to be flushed from anger.
    It took a full five seconds (I was counting) before she responded. “You can buy Fish and me dinner. That’s all I’m agreeing to.”
    “Deal.”
    When I forced myself to let her go, she pushed off me and we climbed out of the pit. I was able to get my boots on without leaving too much dried mud behind, and the three of us stood quietly in line to order a pizza.
    It was Fischer who spoke