Lost in the Sun Read Online Free PDF Page A

down, I guess, but it wasn’t working. It never worked with Dad. Doug was devouring his pancakes, pretending like he was deaf. Kari looked like she wished she could have the baby right then and there and end the whole argument.
    Dad glared at me for a good long time, with his Angry Father face. I was pretty sure he’d invented it just to use on me. Aaron and Doug never got to benefit from it.
    â€œWell, you’re not going to watch that game tonight, that’s for sure,” he said at last. And he looked like he was real proud of himself for coming up with something so clever.
    I gave him my Angry Son face right back. “Oh, yeah?” I asked him.
    â€œTrent, quit it,” Aaron hissed at me.
    â€œYeah,” Dad said.
    â€œInteresting,” I said. And just like that I set my burger back down on my plate, not even one bite taken out of it, wiped my fingers clean on my napkin, and slid myself out of the booth.
    â€œJust where do you think you’re going?” Dad asked me.
    I didn’t answer. Kept on walking. Walked right on out of the diner, the bell on the door clanging behind me.
    I heard the bell clang again when the door reopened. I wasalready on the far end of the parking lot by that time. Took him long enough to get out of his seat.
“Trent!”
Dad hollered at me. I picked up my pace. “Trent Zimmerman, you get your ass in here this minute!”
    â€œI’ll be fine!” I shouted over my shoulder. Still walking. “Don’t you worry about me. I’ve got a game to catch!”
    I thought he’d run after me then. Grab me by the shoulder, maybe, make me stop. But he didn’t.
    I’d been walking for a good ten minutes before someone finally caught up to me. I was walking down the highway, clenching and unclenching my fists to try to work some of the fire out of them. Thinking what a moron I was and wishing I had Aaron’s cell phone at least so I could call Mom and make her come pick me up, because it was a long walk to Cedar Haven and no way was I turning around now. My Book of Thoughts thumped against my stomach inside my sweatshirt with every step.
Thump thump thump.
Those stupid thoughts I couldn’t stop thinking, pelting me the whole way.
Thump thump.
    â€œTrent.” I heard my name before I heard the tires rolling across the pavement behind me. “Trent.”
    It wasn’t my dad.
    â€œLeave me alone,” I told Aaron as he pulled up beside me and slowed to a near stop. Cars whizzed around him down the road, honking as they passed. “I’m fine.”
    â€œYou gonna walk home, idiot?” Aaron asked me. “It’s twenty-five miles.” Doug was in the passenger’s seat beside him. “Get in the car, Trent.”
    What else was I supposed to do? I got in the car.
    â€œYou’re a real jackass, you know that?” Aaron told me as he checked his mirrors and pulled back onto the road. Then he reached behind his seat and handed me a Styrofoam box. I opened it.
    My hamburger.
    â€œThanks,” I said. Aaron said nothing.
    For once, Doug was quiet, too.
    â€¢Â Â Â â€¢Â Â Â â€¢
    The Dodgers lost to the Diamondbacks that night—13 to 2, a real pummeling.

THREE
    Before I started working weekends at the shop with Mom, I never would’ve imagined that there were so many people awake at 7:15 on Saturday mornings. But the line at OJ’s Doughnut House proved that there were.
    â€œMorning, Trent,” Calvin, the head baker, greeted me. “What’ll it be today?”
    â€œTwo glazed twists and one blueberry cake doughnut,” I told him.
    Calvin raised an eyebrow. “
Two
glazed?” he asked. I guess Mom and I had been coming here long enough that he was getting used to our regular order.
    â€œMom says Ray’s been jealous of us eating doughnuts without him,” I explained. “She wants to surprise him.”
    Calvin smiled. “Large