Only the Lonely Read Online Free PDF

like a cartoon character, hands waving in the air. The car screeched to a stop. Phin stopped too, collapsing at the curb.
    “Are you okay? Phinnie?” Madison rushed over. He sputtered and sneezed, stunned by all the activity. He was probably mad that he’d missed the cat, too. Madison wrapped her arms around his furry body and guided him onto the sidewalk. He licked her hand.
    The girl who had jumped out of the car rushed over, talking too fast. “Oh, Madison! Is he okay? Oh, my dad didn’t see him. He just came out of nowhere—”
    Madison looked up. “Fiona?”
    “Is your doggy okay?”
    “Phin’s fine.” Madison smiled.
    By now Mr. Waters had pulled his car to the side of the street so the rest of the traffic could pass.
    “Young lady, you have one lucky dog there,” Mr. Waters said, as he also got out of the car. “I turned my head for a moment and—whammo—we almost hit the little guy. You just can’t be too careful these days, can you? Hey there, little fella.”
    Phin wagged his tail, shaking his whole butt. He got excited around strangers. No one could have guessed that Phin just missed crashing into a car. He was loving all this attention.
    “Dad, this is Madison. We just met the other day, actually. We’re going to be in the same grade at Far Hills this fall.”
    Madison couldn’t believe she was sitting on the pavement, holding Phin and talking to Fiona and Mr. Waters. Now she definitely believed that some kind of cosmic forces were pulling her together with this new girl.
    And now no one had to worry about who called whom first.
    “Well, Miss Madison,” Mr. Waters continued, “how about we give you and that pooch a lift back home? He’s shaking like a leaf.”
    Fiona’s Dad helped lift the dog into the back seat of the car.
    Madison showed him the way home.
    It took thirty seconds.
    “What a pretty house,” Fiona said as the car tires crunched up the gravel driveway.
    “Thanks,” Madison shrugged from the backseat.
    “It was very nice meeting you, Miss Madison,” said Mr. Waters in a very low voice. He sounded like Darth Vader’s brother. “And you too, little doggy.”
    “Rowrooo!” Phin howled back.
    Fiona called out cheerily from the car window as they pulled away, “Maybe we can hang out later? I don’t really have any—well—it would be fun, do you think?”
    “Do I think?” Madison laughed and then quickly added, “Way too much. Wanna hang tomorrow maybe?”
    “Yeah! Come to my house around twelve,” Fiona cried. “You know where I live! Bye!”
    As the car made a turn onto the street, Mr. Waters honked his horn good-bye.
    Madison hardly ate any dinner that night. Suddenly life had gotten interesting, or at least she hoped so. It was better than TV or TweenBlurt.com, and Phin even deserved some of the credit.
    “What a good dog,” Madison cooed at him that night when she went to bed. “I am sorry you almost got run over, Phinnie, but thanks to you I get to hang out with Fiona again.”
    The next day, Madison knocked on her new friend’s door around lunchtime. She got there at twelve noon exactly because she didn’t want to risk being late, early, or in between. It was twelve on the dot.
    A boy answered the bell. He was at least a foot taller than Madison.
    “Hey!” he grunted. “You here for Fiona?”
    Madison guessed he was Fiona’s twin brother, Chet, since they looked exactly the same. The only difference was that he had fuzz on his face, and was a lot taller.
    Chet was just back from band camp and he was in a bad mood. He yelled upstairs for his sister and then flopped back onto the sofa in front of a giant TV set until Fiona came down the stairs a minute later.
    “How was camp?” Madison asked.
    “Camp is what it is,” Chet said in a monotone.
    Madison was certain this conversation was going nowhere. Thankfully, Fiona appeared.
    “Madison! I am so glad you came! Do you wanna go for a walk and maybe get an ice-cream cone or something?”
    They