Read Online Temptation: A Novel by Travis Thrasher - Free Book Online Page B

caring much, but Ray is Ray. He’ll be Mr. Friendly, but his use for me, whatever that was, is clearly gone.
    There are cars parked alongside the road winding around to the stone and log monstrosity that is the Spencer house. I’ve been here several times, a few during the end of the track season. But I’ll always remember the first time.
    Coming here with Jocelyn.
    I park the bike close to the house so some drunk moron doesn’t decide to do something stupid to it. I hear pounding bass coming from inside the mansion. The door is half open. A burst of firecrackers goes off, followed by some pounding booms of M-80s or something like that. I see a few people I don’t know coming out of the house.
    You really want to go in there?
    Maybe if I could do everything over again, I’d choose to enter Ray Spencer’s world—this world—and never look back.
    That’s a lie.
    Maybe I’d decide to ignore all the weird stuff, just like I’m doing now.
    You’d do everything the same except you’d find a way to save her.
    I go inside where I see a party raging and where the music will drown out my thoughts.
    Soon enough, Ray finds me.
    Somehow he looks more mature. As if getting his high school diploma has suddenly made him older and wiser. I probably still look like the scrawny teen he tried to take under his wing.
    “Chris! What. Is. Up?” He puts an arm around me like we’ve been friends forever. “Can’t believe you came out.”
    “Yeah, me neither.”
    “Hey—let me grab you a beer.”
    “That’s okay.”
    “No, it’s cool. My parents are here. ‘Chaperoning.’ Whatever that means.” Ray laughs. “I heard about the wild party last weekend. You animal.”
    Ah, word gets around.
    “Yeah, partied a little too hard last week.”
    And somehow I don’t even remember it.
    “Well—it’s cool. It’s all good. You here solo?”
    “Meeting some friends.”
    “Okay, cool.”
    Then for a second, just a mild second, he seems to look at me in a weird way. Almost with …
    Suspicion?
    But that doesn’t make sense. I’m not sure why he’d be suspicious of anything with me. Then I see that smile, and he takes off to keep entertaining.
    Near the open area next to the large kitchen, I find them. Harris and Roger and—
    Whoa.
    “He made it,” Harris says. “We thought you were going to ditch us.”
    “Uh-oh. Keep the beer away from this one.” Roger laughs at his own joke.
    I’m surprised to see Roger standing next to Lily after what Harris had said about the failed date.
    I try to act cool, but I don’t know exactly how that works. I don’t say anything to Lily and don’t look at her, but then I hear her say, “And how’s Chris doing tonight?”
    As I smile and nod at her, my words suddenly get stuck. It’s pretty easy to see why.
    She’s wearing a black skirt—no, I think black shorts, though I’m not really inspecting them so I can’t be sure—but they’re black and they’re short. And black boots that go almost up to her knees.
    This is Solitary not Hollywood, come on.
    Her black-and-red striped top is quite revealing except for the light sweater she’s wearing over it.
    “Hot,” I say out of the blue.
    What?
    Lily waits for me to follow that up.
    I am such a boy.
    “I’m kinda hot,” I say.
    And yes, I am starting to sweat from being outside and from wearing a long-sleeved shirt for some stupid reason. But that was a slip. The guys don’t react at all, but Lily knows.
    She knows she’s hot, and she also thinks it’s kinda cute that I slipped up.
    “There are ways to correct that,” she says. “Let me get you something to drink.”
    I shake my head. “No, it’s fine. I think—last weekend was enough for a while.”
    “Well, there are other things you can drink besides beer.”
    “Yeah, sure.”
    She keeps looking at me and then nods in the direction of the kitchen. “Come with me. We’ll find something.”
    She glances at Roger, but he’s oblivious, talking to Harris about