Taking Off Read Online Free PDF Page B

skin.”
    “You’re getting under my skin,” I mumbled. “Hold still.”
    She was quiet for a moment. “You’re nervous about tonight,” she said. “I can tell.”
    I glanced up at her. “And how can you tell?” I asked, trying to pretend I wasn’t.
    “You get cranky when you’re nervous.”
    It was hard to hide stuff from Lea. “I’ve never met anyone famous before.”
    “You’ve met astronauts.”
    “Yeah,” I agreed, “but this seems different.” Even though I’d felt awkward and tongue-tied those times too. There were many astronauts, but only one Christa.
    “I won’t let them eat you up,” Lea said quietly.
    I paused, something catching at my too-soft heart, knowing that she meant it. I’d been comfortable with Lea from the moment I’d met her. She was so direct and open. She wasn’t polite to your face and then trashing you behind your back. If she trashed you, it was to your face. So you always knew where you stood with her.
    And for the two of us, it’d been like sisters from the start. Sometimes she was the big sister, sometimes I was, sometimes neither, but we’d been there for each other, no one else getting between us. Except for Mark. But even that had gotten better with time.
    “Annie,” Lea said, “you can talk to me, you know. About anything.”
    “I know.” I dipped the brush back into the bottle of pink.
    Lea took her foot back.
    “Hey!” I chastised. I pointed the pink brush at Lea’s foot. “I’ve got to do those two toes.” But she was looking at me with a serious face. “What, Lea?”
    “I tell you everything, you know that?”
    “I know.”
    “So why are you so secretive? Don’t you trust me?”
    “My life is pretty secret free.” The poetry thing didn’t count. That was private.
    “You’ve been very quiet lately, Annie. Something’s different. Mark’s noticed too.”
    I looked at her. “You and Mark have talked about me?”
    “We’re worried.”
    “You should’ve just asked me. You didn’t have to talk to Mark.” That explained why he’d been hovering so much lately.
    “It wasn’t like that,” she said. “I didn’t go to him. We were just talking, and it came up.”
    “Right,” I said, annoyed. “Neither of you should worry. It’s fine. I’m fine. No more worrying about me.”
    But as was Lea’s way, she ignored everything I said. “Is it Mark? Your parents? Is it because we’re graduating?”
    I sighed. “Oh, Lea. You’re such a pain!”
    “Talk to me!”
    “I don’t know. Things are different this year. I’m just trying to figure out how I fit into things.” I pulled her foot back onto the towel, set on finishing her toes.
    “Annie, you’re smart.”
    “You’re smart.”
    “But you’re different.”
    “You are very different,” I said.
    “But you know all about dead writers,” she said. “And you love cemeteries. And you’re always quoting obscure lines of poetry that nobody cares about.”
    I laughed. “That’s your proof of my genius?”
    “And you think an awful lot. It’s a rare kind of weirdness you have. You’re going to do something special with your life.”
    I gripped her ankle trying to keep her still. “You’re the only one who thinks so, Lea.”
    “Mr. Williams thinks so, unless he just wants your body.”
    “A girl can dream,” I said.
    “If I had your curves instead of my skinny butt, then good-looking English teachers might chase me.”
    “Stop moving around,” I said.
    “You’re hurting me! Give me the brush,” Lea ordered, palm out.
    “Fine.” I passed her the brush and the polish and lay back on the floor.
    Lea hummed while she painted, and I stared at the ceiling.
    She screwed the top back on the bottle and put it aside. She folded up the towel and pushed it away. Then she lay beside me.
    “I’m not serious about things like you are, Annie. I just want to have fun .”
    Then we were both quiet and listened to Lea’s Like a Virgin record over and over until we were called