Read Online Touch by Francine Prose - Free Book Online

I was imagining it when things between me and Shakes got more intense. Shakes would be sleeping, or pretending to sleep. He’d turn his head and his lips would graze the side of my neck. Or our heads would both turn at once, and we would be practically kissing. It was strange how, when we were like that, it was almost as if Shakes experienced a miracle cure. He didn’t twitch or stutter or spaz. He was completely steady and calm.
    By now, those first few minutes on the bus were really the best thing about my day. It was better thanschool, better than after school, when I was mostly home by myself. I’d find myself daydreaming about being on the bus with Shakes. Then I’d snap awake, the way we snapped to attention when anyone else got on the bus.
    It was strange, how thinking about Shakes made me feel less lonely, even though I was spending so much time alone that it began to seem a little like my life in Wisconsin, minus Mom and Geoff, plus Dad and Joan and Josh Darling. On weekends, I didn’t see my friends that much—not half as much as I used to. Chris was hanging out with Daria Wells.
    Most Saturdays, somebody’s mom would drive the three guys to the mall. And Daria’s stupid girlfriends, with their Minnie Mouse voices, would often come along. It was like some group date with Chris and Daria at the center. Every so often, Shakes would call and ask me to go with them, but I always said no. It made me uncomfortable to be with my friends when the girls were there. It was almost like I didn’t know what to be—I wasn’t really anyone’s friend, and I certain wasn’t anyone’s girlfriend. It hurt my feelings whenI heard they’d all gone somewhere without me, but I told myself it would be better for everyone—especially me—if I pretended I didn’t care.
    Monday mornings, on the bus with Shakes, I’d say, “Did you have fun over the weekend?”
    And Shakes would say, “I don’t know. Sort of, I guess.” It left me feeling disappointed. Did I expect him to say he’d missed me? That he couldn’t have fun without me?
    Sometimes, Shakes and I would really fall asleep, which meant we dozed through the little time we got to be together. But that was okay, too. I liked having someone I trusted so much that we could leave the conscious everyday world and be back before anyone noticed.
    We should have known that nothing that cool and innocent could last. We should have expected the big bust, the scene like the one in the cheesy drama where the couple wakes up in bed and sees the parents or the respective spouses, someone who definitely doesn’t want to see them there together.
    Sooner or later, we were doomed to be rudely awoken from our happy little backseat dream.

CHAPTER TEN
    It was the first of November. I remember because Daria had had a Halloween party the night before, and I hadn’t been invited. Shakes was tired from the party, and I was tired because I hadn’t been able to sleep. I’d lain awake thinking about everyone having fun without me. Anyway, we were both so exhausted that we sort of passed out. We were all scrunched up against each other, and I guess it must have looked as if we werereally making out, our limbs all twisted together in some supertight clinch. And for the first time, we didn’t wake up before the others got on the bus.
    We awoke surrounded by faces. We opened our eyes just in time to see Beef and Lamb and all their friends looking down at us and making remarks. I felt my own face turn stoplight red. Shakes must have looked as guilty as I did. From the way everyone was acting, you’d have thought they’d caught us having sex in the backseat of the bus.
    Gradually, I remembered where I was and figured out what had happened. By now everyone had turned around and was looking at us. They must have been watching us for a long time. I saw a blur of smiling, smirking faces. Only two were in focus. Kevin and Chris were staring at us, as if we were strangers, or as if we were kids