Just Like the Movies Read Online Free PDF Page A

time, Jim.” Mom’s voice is pitchy and lilting, like she’s half-singing her words. My lip curls up in disgust.
    â€œSo did I, Claudia. So did I.”
    There’s a distinct lack of talking, which translates to busy mouths of another kind.
Gross.
That’s my cue to pull my mother back down to earth.
    â€œHey Mom,” I call, not yet daring to move. The last thing I want is to see my mom sucking face with Contractor Jim.
    â€œHey baby,” she yells back, clearly startled. Did she really think I’d be asleep already? What does she think I am, eighty years old?
    I hear a series of sharp, staccato whispers, and Mom pokes her head into the living room. “You’re still up?”
    I nod, then raise my eyebrows.
    â€œBack so soon?” I ask sweetly.
    She sort of waves a hand. “Yeah, I got, you know, tired and all. I’m—I’m just going to say good night to Jim.”
    â€œUh-huh.” I roll my eyes. There’s that guilty look on her face, the one that shows what she was really thinking about doing until she heard my voice. Maybe she thought it was late enough to bring Jim back here, that she could have snuck him upstairs and back down before breakfast, never letting on that she’d had an overnight guest.
    I know this was her plan. She knows this was her plan. I would imagine that Jim, now heading out the door, knowsthat was her plan too. But I don’t ever want Mac to know. He doesn’t need to know that sometimes I hear whispers in the hall, or see her door closed and the light on when I wake up in the middle of the night to go to the bathroom. I don’t want to deny my mom the right to go out, to have fun, to try and meet the man of her dreams. I guess I just don’t want her to forget about us in the process.
    â€œI’m going to bed, sweetie,” Mom says from the doorway. I notice her hair is slightly mussed from what must have been an overly enthusiastic farewell to Jim, and once again I feel like we’ve switched roles.
    Then, almost immediately, we switch right back.
    â€œIs Mac in bed?”
    I shrug. “I think. He was playing the DS.”
    She shakes her head. “I’m going to have to start imposing time limits on that thing.”
    I don’t say anything to that. Instead, I lean back against the throw pillows and watch as Jesse and Beca finally exchange a passionate kiss after the Bellas nail their performance. Mom glances at the TV for a minute, then sighs.
    â€œNow why can’t a man kiss me like that?”
    I keep staring at the screen. “Because it’s a movie, Mom.”
    â€œWell, I’ve been chasing a kiss like that my whole life.” She sighs.
    â€œThat explains a lot,” I can’t help but mutter. I’d neveradmit what I’m really thinking—that the kind of chemistry in this movie is the kind I’d love to feel in real life too. With a happy ending. Maybe even with a “happily ever after.”
    But I’d never, ever own up to it.
    Trust me, the last thing I need is to start taking after my mom in the romance department.

Monday mornings are the worst, but since it’s the first school day since we won the county track meet, I manage to drag myself out of bed with a little more enthusiasm than usual.
    I yank a blue halter dress from my closet. Tommy loves it when I dress up. When we talked on the phone yesterday, I asked him about his gig at Skinners, but he seemed distracted. A few times, I was sure I could hear him typing in the background, which totally pissed me off. He knows there is nothing I hate more than being digitally two-timed.
    Tommy and I met halfway through our junior year when he transferred from a private school in the city. I remember seeing him for the first time and feeling a strange queasiness in my stomach. For a second, I thought I was sick. Then I realized I was just smitten. Tommy had no shortage of girls falling at his feet and,