Calling Maggie May Read Online Free PDF Page B

looked at me in confusion or surprise, but at least a couple of them were looking at me in a particular way. A way I’d only ever seen boys look at other girls. Girls who aren’t me. But I wasn’t interested in them.
    I thought about saying something to get Tyler’s attention, but I knew I wouldn’t be able to come up with anything that didn’t make me sound like an idiot. And Ada didn’t need to do a bunch of talking to get people to notice her. If there’s one skillshe has mastered, it’s smoldering silently until every eye in the room is drawn to her. So that’s what I did: I tried to smolder.
    It probably looked pretty ridiculous.
    Eventually, Tyler took note of his friends not paying attention to him anymore, and he looked in my direction. Plan on target! Unfortunately, I hadn’t thought the plan through at all beyond this point.
    â€œWhat?” he said at last. Which, all things considered, is not an unreasonable thing to say to someone who is staring at you. But it wasn’t exactly the conversational opener I was hoping for.
    So I just kept staring at him. Smoldering. In silence. Like a complete idiot.
    He stared back. I kept staring. He raised his eyebrows. I stood like a statue. Finally, he said, “Could you, uh, leave? You’re kind of creeping me out.”
    That broke the spell. I turned around and went back to my seat. Eiko, of course, asked me what the hell was going on, but I just stared ahead of me the whole ride back and tried not to cry. What the heck has gotten into me? I definitely won’t be trying that again.

Fri, Nov 14
    I saw Ada again today. Well, that makes it seem like I just ran into her, like I did the other times. This time was a littledifferent. I went looking for her. I found her pretty easily, not surprising, given how well I’d committed her habits to memory back when I was basically stalking her. At lunch she was lurking in one of her usual corners with a cigarette and her phone, wearing a closely fitted dress with a subtle golden shimmer.
    â€œHey,” she said as I approached, as if it were the most normal thing in the world. As if we were actually friends. It threw me off a bit. But then I remembered how angry I was.
    â€œYou lied to me,” I said without preamble. I had to get it out before I lost my nerve.
    Ada looked up from her phone, surprised. Then she narrowed her eyes. I got the impression that she was willing to accept she had probably lied to me at some point and was just trying to figure out what particular untruth I might be referring to.
    â€œYou said,” I went on, building steam. “You said that if I really tried, if I wore your clothes and your lipstick and did everything just like you, I could have him. Did you really think it would work? Or did you know all along exactly how hopeless it was and set me up so you could have a good laugh?”
    Ada gave me a puzzled look. “I’m pretty sure I never said any of that.”
    I opened my mouth to object, then closed it again. I guess it was true that she hadn’t said precisely that.
    â€œWhat I told you,” she said pointedly, “is that boys like Tylerare interchangeable. You don’t need Tyler—you need someone else to put him out of your head.” Ada’s eyes moved back down to her phone, and I seemed to have been dismissed from the conversation. But just as I was turning to leave, she looked up again and caught me in her gaze.
    â€œHey,” she said without elaboration. She cocked her head and looked me carefully up and down, as if considering something. Whatever she saw must have made up her mind. “What would you say to a date tonight?”
    â€œWith you?”
    Ada gave me a strange look—surprised or amused, maybe. “A date with a man, not a boy.”
    I shook my head. “I really don’t . . .”
    â€œYou’d be doing me a favor. I double-booked by