Andrea and the 5-Day Challenge Read Online Free PDF Page B

friend to go with…like…with me, you might go. Right?” He smiled and his eyes sparkled.
    Seriously, they needed to get rid of these florescent lights. They were creating problems with my eyesight. Maybe I should report it to the PTF aka: Parent Teacher Fellowship. Looking into Luke’s eyes was just plain causing havoc to my entire system.
    Something large and thick had lodged its way into my throat. I couldn’t breathe. Had Luke Ryan just asked me to homecoming? No, not directly, but indirectly? Possibly! I tried to halt my heart from doing somersaults, and yet memories of Jeff flashed through my head. My heart wanted to say, “Yes, I’d love to go with you,” but I couldn’t do it. My past held me back. Instead, I leaned down to pick up my backpack. “You’ve taken too many baseballs to the head.” A bit of disbelieving laughter escaped me to cover my embarrassment.
    Luke laughed in response. The timbre of it sent shivers down my spine. “See, like I said, you’re funny, Andrea.” He paused and just looked at me for like three seconds. “I like the way you laugh.” There wasn’t a bit of humor in his voice when he said the last sentence. In fact, it sounded entirely too serious.
    I didn’t have a reply. I didn’t even know which emotion I should be utilizing.
    Just then, Dion Washington and Mike McCutcheon arrived with their entourage—that would be a couple other members from the football team and a few of their groupie followers. Dion punched Luke in the shoulder in that male friendship kind of way. “Dude, you coming to my party Friday?”
    “Yeah, sure, I’ll be there,” Luke replied.
    “Cool. Oh, I have those notes from Monday if you still want them.”
    “Oh, yeah. Thanks, man. I’ll be with you in a sec.” Then Luke turned back to me. “Yeah, I need those English notes that I missed yesterday. Why don’t you meet me by my car, and I’ll take you out for a bite. We can talk some more.” He smiled, and then was gone before I could answer.
    And what would I have actually said. No—to Luke Ryan? Or Yes—to an outing with Luke Ryan? I watched him with Dion. So, Luke was invited to the pre-homecoming bonfire bash, too. I so did not belong with this crowd.
    Monday? That’s right; Luke had been gone yesterday. Why hadn’t I thought to ask him about it? Because I’m a horrible, uncaring person, that’s why. Was it a doctor’s appointment? A dentist appointment? He did have beautiful teeth. Or could it be something related to his parents? Uhh ! Between my friends and this boy, I was ready for retirement, and I hadn’t even finished high school. I stood there, a pile of nerves that a weak wind could have knocked over.
    Amy joined me. “So what was that about?”
    Her voice shook me out of my haze. “Nothing. It was nothing.”
    “You’ve been saying that all day, but somehow I don’t believe you.”
    I grabbed my backpack which weighed the equivalent of a small pick-up truck and stared in the direction where Luke and Dion had taken off. “Luke wants to go out after school. And homecoming. He asked me to homecoming…I think.”
    Amy grabbed onto my shoulders and almost knocked me over in her exuberance. “What? He asked you?”
    “Yeah, I guess.”
    “That’s perfect. Why don’t you look excited, Andrea?”
    “Because it’s not perfect. I’m not going.” I swung my backpack over my right shoulder and headed for the library to drop off a book. I had to be realistic, and the idea of Luke and I together did not fall into the category of realistic thinking.
     
     
     
     

4
     
    Outside, the brisk October air hit my face, and with it came the realization that I couldn’t leave without talking to Luke again. It would be just plain rude and mean to stand him up. He’d been nice to me since the day we met. He didn’t deserve to be treated like a miscreant. Honestly, the worst thing he’d done was to ask me to go out with him after school. The scoundrel. How dare he?
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