One True Thing Read Online Free PDF Page B

help me and Kessie apply here.
    Jake’s wide shoulders and taut biceps are impossible to ignore. Not huge in that ugly body-builder-on-steroids way, but lean and strong and tanned. He’s definitely a footballer.
    â€˜Hey,’ he says, standing in front of me.
    He smells of musk and pine cones, and I feel the heat in my cheeks.
    â€˜We’re kind of in the middle of something here,’ I manage, looking to Kessie and Van for support.
    Kessie ignores me while Van is looking everywhere but at me. Tyler is watching too, a blend of confusion and curiosity in her expression – no help at all. I glare at the intruder, blaming him for my band members’ blatant disloyalty.
    I open my mouth to speak but nothing comes out.
    â€˜You okay?’ Jake asks after a difficult pause. He doesn’t seem to be making fun of me – even though he could. Or should. I mean, I’d be all over it if the situation were reversed. My near faceplant on the street, my annoyance with him when he was the one who helped me … Really, he has every right to humiliate me. Instead, he smiles and asks if I’m okay.
    And it occurs to me I’m acting like an idiot. A fact noted by everyone in the room.
    â€˜So,’ Kessie says eventually, bringing the attention mercifully away from my total tooldom, but not before shooting me a ‘WTF?’ look first. ‘This is Jake D’Angelo. He just moved here from Canberra.’
    â€˜Hey,’ Van mutters. He starts fiddling with the levels on the mixer, twanging a chord here and there for effect. Van doesn’t seem to be doing any better than me right now. I’m not entirely sure that Van is straight. I suspect he’s not entirely sure, either. But he’s also supremely shy, and the Jake D’Angelos of the world are about as intimidating and as confusing for an emo of wavering sexuality as anyone can be.
    Or that’s how Kessie described Van after the band watched Crazy, Stupid Love at Kessie’s house one night. We’d paused the scene when Ryan Gosling takes off his shirt, all of us staring at the TV, struck dumb by the Ryan Gosling ab effect. Even Kessie was in awe, saying,‘I might be a lesbian, but I’m not dead .’ Tyler was nodding appreciatively but Van was worse than any of us. He actually paled. Kessie said afterwards that it was pretty clear he was still making up his mind about where he fits on the sexuality spectrum, and I figure she would know.
    â€˜And this –’ Kessie lets the ‘this’ draw out, and it makes me wonder if she’s mentioned me to him before, like she’s warned him ‘– is Frankie Mulvaney-Webb.’
    â€˜I’d guessed that,’ Jake says, his mouth twitching at the edges.
    Please don’t mention this morning. Please …
    He glances briefly at my ruined jeans – the patch dry now, the tear the only visible evidence – but lifts his gaze to meet mine and, although those dimples reappear to mock me, he doesn’t give me away. He reaches out a firm, tanned hand, waiting for me to shake it. ‘Hey, Frankie.’
    â€˜Great to meet you,’ I say, making sure every syllable tells him it is anything but great. I don’t know who this snarky cow who’s invaded my body is, but right now she’s all I have. ‘Listen, we’re kind of busy here,’ I continue, in case my sarcasm wasn’t enough to suggest he isn’t welcome.
    His hand is still hovering, waiting for my response.
    I grasp it, feeling a strange rush of heat shoot along my forearm when we touch. I try to pull away but he holds on tighter, making me look at him. Right into him.
    I blink. Stare. Blink some more.
    Kessie clears her throat, and we both let go abruptly, almost guiltily.
    I wish the ground would swallow me up, though I note with some relief that Jake also looks a little flushed.
    â€˜Well,’ she says brightly, ‘that was