Juliet Immortal Read Online Free PDF Page B

and reaches over the seat, grabbing a plastic bin. The air blooms with the smell of baby lotion as he tugs damp cloths from the dispenser and drops them into my hand. “I’m out past my new school-night curfew anyway.” The way he hits the word
curfew
makes it clear he considers the idea ridiculous. “I might as well make the most of it and really piss my brother off.”
    “So you live with your brother?” I swipe at the side of my head, staining the pure white cloth pink and then red.
    “Yeah. I used to live with my cousins in Lompoc. It seemed stupid to switch schools only a few months from graduation, but … it wasn’t working out.”
    “Why not?”
    He shrugs. “My cousins are older. They party a lot, and they’re getting into things I’m not into.”
    “Like what?”
    “Like gangs.” He rolls his eyes. “They wanted me to get initiated; I wanted to live. It was a conflict of interest. Plus, mybrother found out, and with him being a cop, there was no way staying there was going to fly. Even for a few more months.”
    “What about your parents? Are they …”
    “My dad went back to Mexico when I was little. He used to send letters sometimes, but …” He turns to glance through the windshield, watching a cat scurry across the street. When he speaks again his voice is softer. “And my mom died about a year ago.”
    “I’m sorry.”
    “You’re sorry a lot,” he says, smiling as the cat disappears.
    I reach for another wipe. “Not really.”
    “You
say
you’re sorry a lot.”
    “I guess I don’t mean I’m
sorry
as much as …” I pause, the wipe hovering between my forehead and cheek. “I guess I just … wish things were different, that people’s lives weren’t so hard.”
    “Me too,” he says, a hitch in his voice. He turns and our eyes meet, and that sense of
knowing
him hits again, catching me in my empty gut. For a moment, the sadness and pain in his eyes is
my
pain, and I desperately want to make it better. I want to reach for him, hold him, whisper into the warm crook of his neck that everything is going to be okay, that I’ll make it that way.
    But I don’t. Because I can’t.
    Because that whisper would be a lie. And because I know if I touch him again, I might forget who I’m not.

FIVE
    I fist the damp wipe in my hand, reining in the part of me that aches for this boy with the big brown eyes.
    I might feel an instant connection to Ben, but
I
don’t matter, and Ariel isn’t ready to love anyone. She pulled a car off the road and killed her first date, for god’s sake. She needs to pull herself together, and Ben deserves a girl who won’t load him down with emotional baggage.
    Even after ten minutes, I can tell he’s special, a kind, decent person in a world where people like him are becoming as rare as soul mates.
    “Ariel?” he asks.
    “What?”
    “You missed a spot.”
    I lean over to look in the rearview mirror, swipe at a sticky place near my hairline.
    “On the other side. Over by— Here, I’ll get it.” He pulls a wipe from the bin and brings it to my cheek, easing it over my jaw with the confidence of someone who has experience looking after people.
    I freeze, mesmerized by his touch. It’s been so long since anyone has touched me like this, with such … care. I always keep to myself in my temporary bodies. Living in borrowed skin doesn’t encourage physical contact, at least not for me. I can’t remember the last time I’ve taken comfort from someone’s touch.
    But at this moment, I do, so much so that it’s painful. I don’t want to think about how good this simple contact feels, or how long it will be before anyone touches me again.
    Never. No one ever will, because
you
don’t exist
.
    “There. Got it.” He holds the wipe, now smeared with a streak of red, in the air between us. “You okay, Mermaid?”
    “Yeah.” My voice is rough. I clear my throat, smoothing out the wrinkles. This is the way things are. I know this. I’ve known