Supernatural Summer Read Online Free PDF Page A

ruin everything if I were alone with him in his car.
    "But I've got you for fifteen more minutes, right?" Josh asked me.
    I nodded. He took my hand and led me to the far end of the pool, away from the crowd and the pounding music. The light was softer here, and a bunch of my classmates were making out on the lounge chairs. Watching them kiss made my palms sweat.
    "I'm really glad you came." He gazed into my eyes.
    "Me too," I said, and my stomach fluttered.
    Josh put his hand on the small of my back, and I curved my body into his. His fingertips brushed my cheek. He leaned in and pressed his lips to mine.
    Snap!
    A shock crackled our lips, and we both jumped.
    "Ow!" I pressed my lips together. My mind reeled. Something was terribly wrong.
    "What was that, static electricity?" he laughed.
    I tried to stutter a response but Josh leaned in again. This time his lips sank into mine. They were soft, tender. It was the most heavenly thing I'd felt in my entire –
    ZAAAP!
    The current threw Josh backward. My lips stung, tasted singed. Josh held his fingers to his mouth and looked at me with a mix of fear and puzzlement. He pulled his hand away and ran his tongue over his lips. His lower lip began to bleed.
    "What the hell. You okay, Josh?" someone behind me said.
    "Check it out!" somebody else yelled, and everyone's gaze turned to the pool. The water roiled in a frothy boil.
    I froze.
    "Hey, are you doing that?" another voice called to me.
    All eyes were on me. "God, no, of course not," I stammered.
    "I'm sorry," I whispered to Josh and pushed through the crowd.
    "Summer, wait," he called out, but I snagged Audrey by the arm and ran for the car.
     
    *****
     
    Audrey dropped me off a block from my house.
    "Are you sure you don't want to tell me what happened?" Her voice was heavy with concern. I hadn't said a word the entire way home.
    "I'm fine," I choked and climbed out of her car.
    My yard and house were pitch dark. The only sounds were the stirrings of the ghostly trail I left on the way to my room: the crinkle of dying foliage, the eerie creak from the porch swing, the muffled knocking inside the walls.
    I lay awake the entire night, the wretched horror of the night's climax running like a film loop through my head. How I'd betrayed Josh's gentle kiss with an electric slap. The stunned expression on his face.
    I woke up to an empty house. My mom had left a note saying she and Ram Dass wouldn't be back until lunch and my dad had gone into the office for a while. I climbed the ladder to my sanctuary, dropped onto the mat, and buried my face in a pillow.
    By now, rumors would be running rampant among my classmates. Eventually, someone was going to ask me what happened by the pool. What if that someone was Josh? What would I say?
    Don't worry, it's just a phase I'm going through and by the way, you should duck because there's a chair catapulting toward your head?
    My life was over in this town. I'd have to drop out of school. Leave the city. Maybe I'd join a leper colony. It's where I belonged anyway, in a community of untouchables.
    "Summer, can you come down here please?" My mom called.
    I dropped down from the loft and dragged into the house, wishing she would leave me to suffer in peace. I found her in the studio, holding wrought metal artwork up against one of the walls. Two similar pieces lay at her feet.
    "What do you think? I found these at the gallery," she said.
    "They're fine, I guess."
    "I was thinking of putting the big one here and the other two by the window." As she said this, the two pieces slid across the floor and slammed against the far wall.
    "Summer, be careful. These were expensive."
    "Oops," I lied.
    My mom's eyes narrowed, and she took a purposeful breath. "It's not fair to be angry with me about being grounded. You brought that on yourself."
    I huffed and curled my upper lip.
    "I had to survive this phase too, you know, and sometimes it was hard. I understand what you're going through," she said.
    "You