My Butterfly Read Online Free PDF Page A

next time,” I said under my breath.
    The object finally reached me, and I extended my arm and took a hold of its neck. And with my other hand, I grabbed its body.
    I smiled then and shook my head.
    “Play us something,” Rachel demanded again.
    I let a steady breath pass through my lips as my eyes fell back onto Julia. She was smiling up at me with that beautiful, sexy smile of hers.
    “The girls want a song,” she said.
    I let my eyes linger in hers, forgetting for a second the audience that had just joined us, before I glanced back down at the strings on the guitar and felt my grin widen.
    “Okay,” I softly conceded, shaking my head.
    I tickled the strings for a moment and then found a melody. It was the same one that poured through Julia’s jeep’s stereo every time she turned it on. I might have learned it a little while back. I figured there would come a time when Jules wanted to hear it and she didn’t have her CD. Plus, it reminded me of her, and it felt good to sing it. And now, it was the first song that came to my mind.
    Eventually, I started in on the words as well, and after a few moments, I heard the girls on the other side of the fire chime in. They didn’t seem to know all of the words, but they tried anyway. I caught Julia’s stare and smiled. She returned an almost-bashful grin.
    I tickled the guitar’s strings until the melody ended. Then, there was a strange, awkward silence before Rachel said something first.
    “Wow, Will,” Rachel exclaimed. “I’m not going to lie. I was really expecting a voice from the boy who starts a band in his garage only to still be in his garage forty years later with a beer belly and a mullet. I wasn’t expecting a rock star.”
    My eyes instinctively darted toward Julia but then hit the ground just as quickly as they had found her.
    “Well, I can see that maybe you two have something new to talk about, so…we’re just going to get some more hot chocolate,” Rachel said before motioning for the other girls to follow her away from the fire.
    It was only moments before Julia and I were alone with the fire’s flames again. Then, I listened for seconds to the fire’s soft popping before Jules spoke.
    “Will, that was really good.”
    My face turned up toward hers.
    “Really?” I asked.
    “Yeah, really,” she said, starting to laugh. “Will, all these years…How didn’t I know that you could play the guitar–or sing? And that good?”
    I returned my eyes to the flames, as a slight grin found my face.
    “Not many people do know, I guess,” I confessed. “I’m pretty good at keeping secrets around here.”
    I winked at her then and propped the guitar against the log beside me.
    “So, I see,” she said, smiling wider.
    “Do you write songs too?” she asked.
    My gaze stopped in her eyes. I wasn’t quite expecting her question.
    “I try, when I get a chance,” I said. “Writing’s the best part really. It’s the words that change people’s lives in the end, right?”
    She paused, as if she wasn’t expecting my answer.
    “Hmm, I guess that makes sense,” she said, eventually. “I’ve never really thought about it.”
    I laughed once.
    “I’ll have to write a song for you sometime,” I said.
    I wanted my words to have come out gentle and honest, but I was pretty sure they just came out cheesy.
    I watched her smile and then try to hide it.
    “Do you write a song for every girl you have a crush on?” she sarcastically asked, returning her attention to the fire.
    “Well, I will once I write one for you,” I said.
    She let go of her smile and then looked back at me, locking her stare in my eyes before she spoke again.
    “I’m pretty sure it’s brown-eyed girl, by the way,” she said.
    Her voice was playful again.
    “What?” I asked.
    “In the song, you said green-eyed girl,” she said, looking away again.
    I hesitated but kept my eyes on her.
    “Let me see,” I said, as I gently touched her chin and turned her face back