Out of the Ashes Read Online Free PDF Page B

going to the dance, and you don’t have a date, I was thinking maybe we could go together.” I’d walked up beside him and blurted it out before I could change my mind.
    His astonishment was evident, but he pushed it aside quickly.
    â€œI hadn’t been planning to go,” he said quietly. “It’s formal wear, isn’t it?”
    â€œMost of the guys are just wearing suits.” I felt like a total idiot. It seemed almost as if I was begging him. “It’s not like you need a tuxedo or anything.”
    â€œI guess I could find something.”
    He smiled then and agreed to go. It was obvious that he was happy about it, but I went home with mixed feelings. While I was relieved that I wouldn’t be one of those girls who can’t get a date, I also partly regretted that I’d opened my mouth.

CHAPTER SIX
    I was as casual as possible when I told my mom that I was going to the dance with Greg, but it’s darned near impossible to hide anything from her. The way her head snapped up as she looked at me made it clear that I was going to have some explaining to do. So when the first thing she did was ask why I was going to the formal with Greg, it didn’t come as a surprise.
    â€œIt’s just a date,” I said sullenly. I was in for “a talk,” and I knew it.
    â€œWell, let’s see.” She got that look on her face, the one that says we’re going to get to the bottom of this and there will be no worming out of it. “You’ve told me how he embarrassed you and how you’ve avoided him ever since. Now all of a sudden you’re going to the school formal with him. Tell me what I’m missing here.”
    â€œHe’s not that bad.” This sounded lame even to me.
    â€œHe’s not that bad.” Mom repeated my words in a way that made it sound like the most ridiculous statement in the entire world. “And you feel this is a good reason to date someone.”
    â€œI’m not dating him. It’s just a dance.”
    There was an uncomfortable moment then. Well, uncomfortable for me. She sat looking at me as though she couldn’t quite understand what I’d said, as though I’d asked her a really hard question and she was figuring it out.
    â€œShelby, are you going with Greg just so that you’ll have a date for the formal?”
    It was useless to deny it. She had me, and we both knew it.
    â€œI guess. But it’s not like I’m doing anything wrong,” I insisted. “We’ll both get to go and have a good time. He wasn’t going to go at all otherwise.”
    â€œI’m afraid I disagree,” Mom said with disappointment on her face. “You’re treating someone’s feelings carelessly, and that’s always wrong.”
    â€œYou’d rather see me go alone and feel like a moron and have a terrible time,” I snapped back accusingly, even though I knew it wasn’t fair or true. For some reason, I seem to get angry when my mother points out something that makes me feel guilty.
    â€œThat’s quite enough of that kind of talk.”
    â€œI’m sorry,” I mumbled half-heartedly, “but you don’t know how it feels.”
    â€œDon’t I? Are you sure about that?”
    Here we go with the “I was young once too” stories, I thought. How can you compare the way things were years ago when my mom was young to how they are now? It doesn’t make sense. The world has changed a lot since then.
    â€œAs a matter of fact, Shelby,” Mom was indeed launching into the past, but at least it would take the interrogation light off me for a minute, “when I was just a few years older than you, there was a couples’ picnic out at Hawks Point. Everyone was going, but I didn’t have a date until the last minute.”
    â€œDid you ask a guy you really didn’t like much just so you’d have someone to go with?” In spite of