Pants on Fire Read Online Free PDF Page A

need to have a word with my brother.”
    The Tiffanys and Brittanys tittered like I’d said something funny. I’ve seriously never seen so many tanned bellies in my life. Do these girls’ mothers really let them out of the house dressed that way? I was betting they left wearing real clothes, then whipped them off as soon as Mom wasn’t looking anymore.
    “Not now, Katie,” Liam said, his face turning very red. Not because he was embarrassed, but because he was lifting way more weight than he probably should have been, to show off in front of the girls.
    “Oh, yes, now,” I said, and pulled on one of his leg hairs.
    CRASH! Went the weights behind him.
    Liam said a number of very colorful swear words, and the girls scattered, giggling hysterically, but really only retreating as far as the water cooler over by the desk where they hand out the towels.
    “You didn’t really see Tommy Sullivan at Duckpin Lanes last night,” I said to my brother. “Did you?”
    “I don’t know,” Liam snapped. “Maybe not. Maybe it was some other guy who came up to me and asked if I was Katie Ellison’s little brother, and introduced himself as Tom Sullivan. Why’d you have to do that? Pull my leg hair like that? I hate when you do that. I could have seriously injured myself, you know.”
    “ Tom Sullivan?” For the first time since I’d heard thenews that Tommy Sullivan was back in town, my heart lifted. Tommy never called himself Tom. He’d always been Tommy, since kindergarten—when I’d first met him.
    Maybe whoever Liam had met last night wasn’t Tommy Sullivan— my Tommy Sullivan—after all!
    “Maybe it was someone else,” I said hopefully. “Some other Thomas Sullivan.”
    The look Liam gave me was very sarcastic.
    “Yeah,” he said. “Some other Thomas Sullivan who told me he’d been in your class at school and wanted to know how you were doing…and has red hair?”
    My heart totally stopped beating. I swear, for a few seconds, I couldn’t even breathe. I could hear the rock music the Y plays over their sound system—they had it on the local pop station.
    But it sounded really distant.
    Because there’s only one Tommy Sullivan I know of who’s ever been in my class at school.
    And only one Tommy Sullivan I know of who has red hair.
    That hair! How many times since eighth grade, when Tommy had left town, had I seen a guy—a tourist, usually—with red hair, and done a double take, my heart hammering, certain it was Tommy, and I was going to have to look into those weird hazel eyes of his, which in certain lights were as green as the sound during high tide, and others amber as leaves on an autumn day, sometimes even gold, like honey—only to have the guyturn around and end up not being Tommy at all.
    Phew , I always told myself when this happened.
    But could Liam possibly be telling me the truth? Could my luck—where Tommy Sullivan is concerned, anyway—finally have run out?
    “What did you say?” I asked, sliding onto the bench beside Liam. Which was a mistake, since the cushion was slick with sweat. But I didn’t care that much, since I hadn’t showered yet anyway.
    “When he asked how I was doing,” I demanded. “What did you say?”
    “I told him you were good,” Liam said. “I told him you were going out with Seth Turner.”
    My blood went cold. I couldn’t believe it. Liam had told Tommy Sullivan that I’m going out with a Quahog ?
    “You told him that? Why’d you tell him that?”
    “What else was I supposed to say?” Liam, getting up from the bench to reach for his bottle of Gatorade, looked annoyed. “He asked what you were up to. I told him you were running for Quahog Princess.”
    I groaned. I could only imagine what Tommy must have thought about my running for Quahog Princess, an honorary title with absolutely no benefits other than that the Quahog Princess gets to ride in a convertible Chevrolet with the mayor during the annual Eastport Towne Fair parade (I fully intend to