Summer Nights Read Online Free PDF Page A

for filling in the dull hours to breathtaking college guys like Christopher with fast cars and extra money.
    They were gone, too. Nobody called, nobody remembered her. It was as if not only high school had ended—Molly also had ended.
    I’m seventeen, she thought, and I’m over.
    She felt like a dusty black-and-white photograph, trapped on a back page in the fat yearbook. Years later somebody might flip the pages, saying, “Who’s that? I don’t remember her.”
    After graduation, summer came hot and heavy, like thunderclouds that do not burst. It weighed Molly down. Even though her house, car, and job were air-conditioned, Molly seemed to gasp for breath all day long.
    She spent her summer alone.
    Over and over she thought about girls—she who had never had any use for the female sex. She who felt boys were the single answer, the only answer, the always answer.
    Girls were all leaving. So what did that make Molly? A reject?
    Anne came back, said nothing, and lay this time in the shade.
    They all despise me, Molly thought. So big deal, I committed a few little social errors along the way. Anne committed the biggie and people gathered round in a conspiracy to pretend she was perfect anyhow. But why do I care about Anne? It’s too late to be friends with her, she’s leaving in less than twenty-four hours.
    And I’m not interested in Kip. How could you want to spend time with the Most Academic, Most Impressive, Best Leader, and Finest Socialite all rolled into one perfect New York-bound package?
    Certainly not Beth. I don’t even know what Beth is doing. Beth is one of those bland people you never remember once she leaves the room, anyway.
    And Emily?…
    Molly’s eyes went back to the pool.
    Perhaps a last swim was called for. It would be rather nice to acquire a free diamond ring.

Chapter 7
    F OUR GIRLS WERE LEFT.
    The sun was changing colors, and collecting clouds. Purple and scarlet and gold flamed through the darkening sky. It was still hot. The breeze lifted the dusty green leaves of the trees around the pool and the evening was filled with a whispering sound.
    Anne thought of her trunk, her suitcases, her flight bag, and camera. She thought of the top of her bureau, where her plane tickets and brand-new navy-blue American passport lay. Her passport photograph made her look more like a mangy little terrier than a cover girl. Her mind walked for the hundredth time over the next day’s schedule. She had to get from LaGuardia Airport to the Manhattan hotel by herself and meet Ivory Glynn there. She didn’t want to mess up her first solo flight. That would be terrible.
    She thought of her parents and Con, indulging her little whim to go overseas, thinking she was cute. Until she pulled it off.
    She thought of Ivory Glynn and film festivals, of famous stars and crowds of fans.
    The sound of Molly diving into the pool startled Anne, and the lapping of water sounded like drowning. But I, too, am almost drowning, she thought. Drowning in emotion and memory and excitement.
    Let me say a sweet good-bye to Con!
    Let me hug all my friends without crying.
    Let me not yell at my family.
    Let my last summer night be perfect.
    Emily’s hand was hidden beneath her huge beach towel, but it felt naked, exposed, horrible. The thought of the thrown ring filled her whole head. She could hardly even remember who Anne was, or why they had to say good-bye.
    Yet the anger was still there. She could not make herself go back for the ring.
    Wherever it was. She had not looked. Grass, garden, pool.
    It’s gone, she thought miserably. Like Matt.
    Oh, Matt, Matt, how could you leave me? How could you turn this into our last Saturday night together?
    Kip yanked on her jeans and white shirt. I have to get rid of Molly for Anne, she thought. I can pretend we’re going somewhere, give Molly the wrong directions, and then we’ll rush like mad toward the river and vanish.
    Not very nice, but then, Molly is not very nice. You reap what you