Perfect Couple Read Online Free PDF

people at school were talking about him and wondering whether he was gay.”
    Tia nodded. Kaye said, “I’d heard that.”
    “Sawyer told me,” Tia said.
    “How did Sawyer know?” Kaye asked. “Surely Quinn didn’t tell him .”
    “Sawyer just knows things,” Tia said.
    I explained, “Quinn asked me if we could go out a few times as friends but say we were dating, to get people off his back.”
    “And you said yes ?” Kaye was livid. “Harper, we had that talk about people taking advantage of you.”
    “It was fine!” I exclaimed. “I didn’t mind.”
    “And then you did the same thing for Noah?” Tia asked.
    “No, Noah asked me on a date himself. Remember how excited I was? I’d wondered why a football player would want to date me. And then he came out to me.”
    “Oh,” Tia and Kaye cooed sympathetically at the sametime. They were right to feel sorry for me. I’d been devastated when Noah told me the truth. In fact, I’d been so taken with him, and the feel of his huge arm curving around me, that he’d set the stage for my daydreams about another football player.
    But this was exactly what I hadn’t wanted. The more people felt sorry for me, the smaller I felt.
    “And then you got the two of them together,” Kaye said. “That’s so sweet!”
    “No,” I said. “They both swore me to secrecy. Ms. Chen outed them to each other by mistake.” I told Kaye and Tia the boys’ story about the Perfect Couple vote. “I’m just glad they’re happy.”
    “So why’s Kennedy mad at you?” Tia asked. “Other than the fact that he’s always mad at you lately?”
    I winced. It was true, but coming from Tia, the truth was especially blunt.
    “Sawyer made a joke about me dating gay guys. He said Kennedy must be gay too. Also Brody, since the school thinks we’d be perfect together.”
    “Oh my God!” Tia yelled with her mouth full. “Why did Sawyer say that? I’ll kill him.”
    “Nobody cares what Sawyer thinks,” Kaye said between nibbles. “Sawyer’s a pothead.”
    “Not anymore,” Tia corrected her. “He swore it off. He’s turned into a health nut since he passed out on Monday.”
    Kaye tossed her cupcake paper into the trash and placed her fists on her hips, cheerleader style. “Why are you always defending him?”
    “Why are you always so down on him?” Tia turned back to me. “And that’s all Kennedy’s mad about? Sawyer shouldn’t have said it, but Kennedy’s as used to Sawyer’s inappropriate comments as the rest of us. There’s no reason for him to be angry unless he was already sensitive about the subject in the first place. Brody’s not mad.”
    “No, Brody’s not mad,” I acknowledged. “Brody and Noah are best friends, plus Brody’s so happy-go-lucky. Brody . . .”
    Tia and Kaye stared wide-eyed at me again. Any story including Brody was more delicious than cupcakes. I found myself telling them what Brody had said about me to the football team.
    “Oooh, he’s into you,” Kaye said approvingly. She rubbed her hands together. “Intrigue!”
    “Perfect Coupling?” Tia puzzled through Brody’s joke. “Like you’re a piece of PVC pipe and he’s an elbow joint?”
    “Yeah, I didn’t think it was all that sexy either.” Actually, I did , but I couldn’t admit this. “I confronted him about it, and he said he blurted it out when the team teased himabout the Perfect Couple title. Who’d you vote for?” I’d been wanting to ask them this for a while.
    “I voted for you!” Kaye told me triumphantly.
    “And Brody?”
    “Oh, God, no! You and Evan Fielding. He looks so cute in his plaid hat, like an old man. You’re both so retro.”
    Wearing an old man’s hat was the most interesting thing I’d seen Evan do. He was in my journalism class, and when we brainstormed ideas for the yearbook, he never uttered a peep. I’d been partnered with him a couple of times and ended up doing most of the work myself because I’d expected he would let me