Read Online Walk on Water by Laura Peyton Roberts - Free Book Online

questions, call back, but I hope we can agree that she’s a young woman now, she knows her own mind, and she wants more than you’re willing to give her. If so, there’s not much to discuss.”
    Blake had not called back.
    Lexa was pretty sure he wasn’t going to.
    Beth had arranged things with the school too. There had been a little paperwork, but the fuss Lexa had dreaded had never materialized. While relieved, she also felt strangely let down, like they should have cared more about keeping her as a student.
    Just sign whatever they want and get out, she told herself now, still lurking. She had already missed three days of classes. The only thing left was to inform the principal’s office that she’d cleaned out her locker.
    The janitor’s trash can rumbled nearer. Hiking her pack up her shoulder, Lexa took a deep breath and walked into the office. “I’m Lexa Walker,” she told the secretary. “Here to withdraw? I just cleaned out my locker and returned my books.”
    The secretary shuffled some papers and selected one. “You got a library clearance for me?”
    Lexa handed over the stamped card.
    “Sign here,” the woman said, pointing to a line on her paper.
    Lexa scrawled her name.
    “Okay, then. Best of luck to you.”
    Lexa hesitated. “That’s it? I don’t need to see the principal?”
    “What for?”
    “I don’t . . . So. I can just leave?”
    “Yep. Thanks for stopping by.” She said it as if Lexa’s entire long experience at that school had taken place in the past five minutes. As Lexa walked out of the principal’s office, the surreal feeling that gripped her again made her barely aware of her last-ever trip down her high school’s main hall.

 
—17—
     
    This is probably a really bad idea, Lexa thought as she slowed the Explorer on the street in front of Ashtabula Ice. The sun wasn’t even up yet, just near enough to rising to shed a little light. Leaning forward over the dashboard, she glimpsed the tailgate of Blake’s black truck poking out from behind the building. She parked on the street and waited.
    Jenni arrived first, swinging out of her Lexus looking like a pint-sized biker. Her pixie was extra spiky that day and a black leather jacket fell to the hem of her practice dress. Knee-high Doc Martens and tights took the place of warm-up pants, the rink’s first harbinger of summer. Lexa jumped out and ran to intercept her friend before the front door. A week had passed since she’d left Blake’s house, but she didn’t feel any more relaxed about running into him. Even standing in his parking lot was closer than she wanted to be.
    “ Now what’s going on?” Jenni didn’t look very glad to see her. “Are you coming back?”
    “No.”
    “I still can’t believe you dropped out of school.”
    “I didn’t drop out.” They’d already had this argument, more than once. “I’m still going to graduate.”
    Jenni shook her head. “You’ll just get a stupid certificate or something.”
    “Thanks for your support.”
    “What do you expect, Lexa? I’m never going to see you now. You’re not at school, not at the rink. You might as well have dropped off the face of the Earth.”
    “I’m still in Ashtabula.”
    “Barely. Just tell your dad you’re sorry and come back.”
    “Yeah. I’m not that sorry.”
    Jenni rolled her eyes. “Whatever. I’m going in now. I don’t need Blake pissed off at me too.”
    Lexa watched her walk away with a sinking feeling. Jenni had seemed like a different girl since the prom, hanging on Jacob in the halls and befriending the growing number of social elite who didn’t mind seeing Everly bumped down a peg. And she was right about one thing: with Lexa gone from both school and the rink, they’d see even less of each other.
    Bry’s mom dropped him off as Lexa walked back to her car. “Did you change your mind?” he asked, running over to meet her.
    “No.”
    He nodded ruefully. “I didn’t really think you would.”
    “At