Read Online Side by Side by John Ramsey Miller - Free Book Online

said.
    “What the hell you think?” she replied, her bottom lip quivering. He suddenly realized that she was not as furious as frightened. “Mine is what. Give it back.”
    “No,” he was surprised to hear himself say.
    “It’s mine,” she insisted, tears starting to stream down her dusky cheeks. “Please, it’s personal. You have no right.”
    He stepped back and opened the door wide. “Come in,” he said. “Please?”
    She opened the screen door and entered, her eyes casting about the kitchen as though she expected that she was entering a trap.
    He went into his room and got the journal. He held it out, and she snatched it out of his hands and clutched it to her chest. “You . . . you . . . you stole . . .”
    “No,” Winter protested. “I didn’t. I found it in the hall. There was no name on it.”
    “You . . . you read it.”
    “Yes, I read it.”
    “I can’t believe you’d read a diary! Don’t you know that’s a sin against privacy?”
    “I couldn’t help it. It’s unbelievable.”
    “You crazy?” She looked up into his eyes. “Isn’t any of it true. I made it all up. It’s fiction.”
    “If it’s fiction, it’s better than anything I’ve ever read.”
    “You tell anybody?” she asked. “Let anybody else read it?”
    “Of course not.”
    “Good. You better not. I got brothers. They’ll kick your ass.”
    “No you don’t,” Winter said. “And you don’t have any friends either.”
    “How do you know?” she shot back.
    “Look, cross my heart, I won’t ever tell a soul one word that is in your journal.”
    “You’d better not,” she threatened, and turned on her heel to leave.
    “Angela?”
    “Alexa. It’s Alexa Keen.”
    “I’d like . . . I mean . . . I want to be your friend.”
    “I don’t need anybody feeling sorry for me, Massey. And I don’t need any sneaky-ass diary-reading friends.”
    “A diary is true,” he said. “It can’t be fictional if it’s true. Even if it’s based on—”
    “Screw you,” she snarled, stomping out. She slammed the screen door.
    “I do,” he called. “I need a friend like you, Alexa Keen.”
    She stopped in her tracks and turned to look at him, her eyes narrowed. “What? Why?”
    “Because you’re special. Because you can write what you feel. I feel some of what you feel, but I could never write it like you do. When you write, I can feel it, see it, and taste it. I want to learn to express myself the way you do.”
    “You don’t know me.”
    “My father was an alcoholic. One day a couple of years ago he ran off. He never told us where he went or why. But he was gone a long time before he left. He made me feel empty and worthless and helpless. He didn’t hit me, but what he did was worse than any beating.”
    Her eyes reflected deep suspicion. “What’s in it for you?”
    “I don’t have anybody I can talk to, tell my thoughts and feelings to. I need someone I can trust. I know you feel the same way. If I could trust you, you could trust me. I give you my word of honor.”
    She smirked and shook her head slowly. “Sex. You think because I’ve done some things, that I’ll—”
    “Never,” he blurted. “Alexa, that’s not why at all.”
    “Never, ever try it! You do, we’re all done. You do that and I’ll hate you.”
    “I swear that I will never betray you.”
    “Cross your heart? Swear to God?”
    “I swear it.”
    He had honored his word. But it hadn’t been easy. She grew more attractive as they grew closer, able to tell each other their deepest thoughts, their insecurities and secrets. Some things he couldn’t tell her, like how sorry he was that he couldn’t explore the deeply sexual feelings he had for her, that he often suspected she had for him. Naturally he had always wondered how things might have been if he hadn’t stuck to his pledge—a pledge that was the very foundation of their friendship.
    Winter had mixed feelings about working with Alexa. He also had no choice.

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