Fluorescence: The Complete Tetralogy Read Online Free PDF

better do it now!” She spoke through clenched teeth as she reached to jerk back the lever that closed the door.
    The two boys shot up from their seats and bolted across the aisle into an open row behind us. Brian plopped down in the front, across from me.
    Sam’s eyes were wide and wild like she might explode from excitement at any second.
    Brian didn’t say a thing during the entire ride. He just sat there, peacefully staring out the window beside him. Sam and I stayed quiet, glancing over at him every now and then. The same part of me that had wanted to take his hand the other day now wanted me to get up from my aisle seat and slide onto the empty seat next to him.
    I didn’t.
     
    At school, Brian lagged behind us in the parking lot, showing not a sliver of fear about being late for class. I wanted to say “Hi.” I really did. But by the time I reached and opened up my locker, and gained the courage to turn and finally say it, he was at the opposite end of the hall. We didn’t have history together until the afternoon, so it would be a while before we’d see each other again. I closed the locker door, spinning the combination lock a few times for good measure.
    “Alice!”
    I almost leapt out of my skin. Sam let out a high-pitched squeal.
    “Oh my God, what?”
    She was bouncing up and down in place flapping a bright-green flyer.
    “Look! Look! Look!” She waved the paper back and forth like it was on fire. I couldn’t see what it was.
    I put a hand on my hip, narrowed my eyes and stared at her. She stopped jumping in place long enough to show it to me.
    Freshman Holiday Dance , it read. Sam pointed a finger at the line below it. Better than a stocking full of coal! Buy one ticket, get one FREE! Her fingers trembled with excitement.
    “Can we go? Please? Pretty please?”
    “ We ?” I sighed and glanced past Sam. Brian was nowhere in sight. Only a handful of students still loitered in the hall.
    “Well, yeah. You and me. Unless you and your boyfriend …”
    “He’s not my boyfriend.” I clenched a fist, locking my knees. “Sam, I’m fourteen years old. If my dad heard you talking like this, he’d ban me from ever seeing Brian again.”
    “He’s one to talk.” She blew a raspberry. “You haven’t seen him in for ever .”
    “Sam, please.”
    “Really! He left your mom years ago and you’re worried about what he’s going to say about you having a boyfriend? I’d be more worried about your mom than—”
    “He works a lot, okay? And even Mom might… Ugh.” I growled.
    Years after it had happened, bringing up the divorce still made my stomach turn. I wanted to curl up into a ball under a bridge and cry my eyes out. Maybe Dad wasn’t in my life as much as he could have been. Or… at all anymore for that matter. But that didn’t mean he had stopped loving me or wanting to spend time with me. He was just too busy with work. And his new wife…
    “Sorry.” Sam hung her head and scuffed her shoe against the floor. “I didn’t mean to be a jerk.”
    I took the paper from her hand. The dance was right before Christmas break—exactly three weeks from today. Ever since elementary school, all Sam had ever dreamed about was going to a real school dance. This was her first chance and she was psyched. I, on the other hand, could have thought of a dozen other ways to spend my time. But it wasn’t about me right now. I couldn’t let my best friend down.
    I bent to look her in the eye. “Guess we’re going to have to go dress shopping soon, huh?” I put on the best enthusiastic smile I could, eyes and all.
     
     

Chapter 6
     
     
    T here was Sam, smack-dab in the middle of the auditorium doing the chicken-wing like there was no tomorrow. She looked like she was about to take off any second. Zoom! Right out of the building. It’s a bird. It’s a plane! Nope, it’s just Sam. Goofy, lovable Sam.
    I’d managed to convince my mom to let me go to the dance. Sam and I had bought beautiful,