Read Online The Murmurings by Carly Anne West - Free Book Online Page A

Canyon City in near silence, careful to say only things that have to do with the music selection and the temperature of his car. This has quite possibly been the worst date in history, and yet, for some reason, I don’t want it to end.
    After Evan pulls up in front of my house, we sit in his idling car for a moment. Pretty soon, it occurs to me he might be waiting for me to leave, so I reach for my bag at my feet.
    “Hey,” he says, going for my hand, hesitating, then closing his long fingers around mine. “Your hands are cold,” he says, pressing my palm between both of his.
    “Must be that awesome AC of yours.” I smile a little, then find his eyes, which are already on mine.
    “Look, I know this was . . . well, I don’t know what it was.”
    I shrug a little, doing my best it’s-cool-this-kind-of-stuff-happens-to-me-all-the-time impression, which in a way is honest.
    “So, since we know this much about each other already, what would you say to maybe finding out a little bit more?”
    My heart pounds behind my sternum.
    “I mean, not like that—not that I wouldn’t want to, but what I meant was—” He starts stammering. “What I’m trying to say is, would you want to come over sometime so I can show you what I’ve been reading about all this stuff?”
    On the one hand, I would do just about anything to spend more time with Evan. I’d search sewers for rats if he called it a date. But this is something else altogether. If Evan had any idea that he was dating a girl who sees things from the corner of her eye, just like his cousin did . . . well, he’d probablyhave me committed to Oakside. Unless he was crazy too. Which he isn’t.
    “I don’t get it,” I say. “Why me?”
    I hope he doesn’t think I’m saying no. I’m glad he picked me to be his companion in all this. But nobody ever picks me. Not for anything. He’s the only guy to show me more than a minute’s worth of attention, well, pretty much ever .
    Evan looks at the dashboard as if the answer might be there, then answers with startling purposefulness. “I figured you’d understand. There’s something quiet about you, like you’ve lived an entire lifetime already.”
    I let his words settle into my mind like seeds in soil. I don’t quite know what to make of it.
    “Plus you’ve got a rockin’ body,” he says with an enormous smile. I try to jerk my hand away, but he only holds it tighter.
    Serious again, he says, “Please, Sophie.” Suddenly I can’t remember any of my reasons for saying no. So I say, “Yeah, okay. Maybe.”
    I ease out of the car, already missing the way his hands felt around mine, and watch his white Probe disappear around the corner, leaving me to wonder what it was I’d just agreed to.
    Inside the house, there’s no sign of Mom, but her remnants are everywhere—the smell of Jergens body lotion, a TV flickering with its sound turned off in the living room,a sweating liquor glass in the breakfast nook. I guess she’s not going out with Aunt Becca after all. I know I’ll find her passed out in her bed, but I don’t want to go back there yet. I just want to linger in the feeling of being wanted by Evan a little bit longer.
    I sit in front of the TV for a while and watch the characters of some syndicated sitcom silently play out their conflicts. I empty Mom’s glass of its melted ice cubes and swipe away the ring of condensation from the tabletop with a clean dish towel. I pace the floor of the kitchen, retracing my steps over the bubble in the linoleum that’s been beside the refrigerator for as long as I can remember. Nell used to try to scare me by telling me there was a tiny troll who lived under the house, and that was where he’d built his little underground chimney.
    With nothing else to do, I’m about to head to my room when I decide I should check the voice mail. I’m sure Aunt Becca’s left a message for Mom scolding her for staying home to drink instead of getting out of the house,