The Bloom Series Box Set: Bloom & Fade Read Online Free PDF

toward
Melrose. Colton had only been to that area once or twice, and he
looked around at all the buildings as Reece hurried down the
sidewalk.
    “ What’s the big rush?”
asked Colton, jogging to keep up.
    Reece looked at his watch. “It’s
almost shift change and we might miss her.”
    “ This is about a girl ?”
    “ Of course it’s about a
girl! You think I would buy all of these crappy clothes for no good
reason? Give me a little credit.”
    “ Gee, I just thought maybe
you wanted to, you know, exercise ?”
    “ We both know that’s not
gonna happen. Wait! There it is.” He stopped and pointed to a
building across the street. Independent Records sold used albums
and the latest indie releases, and attracted a wide variety of
clientele, from business executives who had never expected to grow
up and become nine-to-five office workers to young, tattooed,
pale-skinned teenagers who laughed at the thought of one day
wearing a suit and conforming to an establishment.
    “ She works in there?”
asked Colton.
    “ Maybe say it with a
little less disgust next time.”
    “ Oh, give me a break. Can
we just get this over with so I can go home? I’m
starving.”
    “ Okay,” said Reece,
turning to face him. “Her name’s Jenna. I have it on good authority
that she likes guys who exercise, but also guys with a little bit
of a bad streak.”
    “‘ Good authority’? You
just described every girl, ever.”
    “ So you’re my wing-man.
Whatever I say to her, just agree, even if it’s a huge lie. And try
not to act like a nerd. And don’t hit on her. I got
dibs.”
    “ What are you going to
say?”
    “ I dunno yet, but I’ll
think of something.” He waited for a break in traffic and jogged
across the street.
    Colton imagined Reece getting clipped
by a passing car—not enough to seriously injure him, but enough to
make him want to abandon his scheme. It didn’t happen, so Colton
hurried over to the other side of the street and stood next to the
front door of the record store.
    He looked at Reece and gestured
inside. “After you.”
    Reece winked at him and held two
fingers up to his neck, pretending to check his own pulse as he
walked into the store. Colton shook his head and followed
him.

 
     
     
    7
     
    H aven lay in her bed fully dressed, blankets pulled up under
her chin. She stared at the glowing red numbers on her alarm clock:
9:17 p.m. Her parents were still awake; still walking around
downstairs, opening and closing cabinet doors and turning the
kitchen sink on and off. Haven groaned in frustration and sat up to
look out the window. Kayla was sitting in her car—a rusty,
twenty-year-old Volvo—in the shadows near the end of the street,
waiting for Haven to sneak out of the house.
    9:17.
    The party of the century had already
been raging for nearly twenty minutes. Haven tried not to think
about all of the girls throwing themselves at Jason, begging him to
pick them instead of some girl who didn’t care enough about him to
show up on time.
    She smiled when she
remembered their conversation during lunch. The embarrassment of
her blushing face and stupid comments (“ Uh, fine” ) dissolved into the
background when she focused on the fact that he had asked her to go
to the party.
    Haven fell back onto her pillow and
wriggled her head impatiently.
    Then she heard it: the
unmistakable sound of her parents’ bedroom door closing. The
latch clacked into place loudly and was followed by nothing but sweet
silence. She quickly threw off her covers and picked up a pile of
dirty clothes. She laid them on her bed in the shape of her own
sleeping body. Haven covered the clothes with the sheets and
fluffed up the shape to make it look a little more realistic. She
looked at it and shrugged—good enough.
    Three soft knocks sounded from her
bedroom door.
    Haven froze and was about to throw off
the clothes on her bed and climb under the sheets before she
realized that she hadn’t yet done anything wrong. She could