The Sitter Read Online Free PDF Page B

magazines and catalogs. I find myself looking at him a lot. Somehow, even though it’s been three months, I can’t believe we’re going together.
    I mean, he was going with another girl—for a long time, I think—and he left her for me.
    All through high school, I hung out with a lot of guys. I was in the popular crowd; I don’t really know why. But you just find yourself in a group in high school, and there you are. That’s your place for the next four years.
    But I was never really serious about any guy, except for Will. And I had to be serious about him, right, because he left someone for me.
    It felt kinda grown-up. And totally flattering. And I knew kids at school talked about us all the time.
    And so I find myself looking at Will a lot. He has a real Wisconsin face. His family has been here since the fur trappers, I guess. His face is round with a broad forehead. Not a baby face, and not really a high school face. An open, likable face. His blue eyes crinkle up when he smiles, and he even has a single dimple high on his right cheek.
    He has thick, white-blond hair, which comes down over his collar. Of course, his mother complains that it’s too long and messy. I know he spends a lot of time on his hair, brushing it this way and that over the part on the left, making it look as if it hasn’t been brushed. He’d be embarrassed if anyone else knew he fussed over himself like that.
    Will was one of the first guys at Menota High to have his ear pierced. He has a tiny, silver ring in his ear. He took a lot of teasing at first, and some of the teachers were appalled, and then all the guys started doing it.
    And now I watch him sifting through the mail, and I’m pouring the boiling water into our cups, the steam rising, warm against my still-frozen face. And I’m starting to feel a little better. “Think your car will start?” I ask.
    He raises his blue eyes from the mail. “My car? Why?”
    “Maybe we could go see
Clueless
tonight.”
    He frowned at me. “
Clueless
? It’s like a dumb California teen movie, right?”
    “Cindy says it’s awesome. She says it’s not dumb. Some other kids told me it was good, too. I thought maybe . . .”
    I could see he wasn’t listening to me. He was staring at a gray envelope in his hand.
    “I don’t believe this,” he whispered.
    He tore open the envelope. Unfolded the letter inside. His eyes narrowed as he read it. He tore at his hair, making it stand high on his head. Then he let out an excited cry.
    “Will? What is it?”
    “I don’t believe it! I don’t believe it!” He started jumping up and down, holding the letter above his head.
    “Will—?”
    He leaped over to me, threw his arms around me, hugged me hard. His face was red with excitement. When he hugged me, I could feel his pounding heart through his sweatshirt.
    I never forgot that moment.
    The heart pounding against my chest. Feeling another person’s heart. Will’s heart.
    Such a fragile thing.
    Could I ever forget what that felt like?
    Especially after he died. That tiny heartbeat. It was like something he left for me.
    “I got it,” he said, letting go and waving the letter in my face. “I got it, Ellie. Early admission to Princeton!”
    “Wow!” I let out a scream. I grabbed his head and kissed him. “Wow!”
    And immediately, I was thinking—I’m staying here in Madison, starting at the university, and he’ll be off at Princeton. That’s in New Jersey, right? A long way from here.
    How do I feel about that?
    Will must have read my face. Because he came over and put his arms around me—strong, athletic arms because he was a basketball forward and he likes to work out—comforting me.
    “We’ll see each other a lot,” he said. “No problem, right? We can visit each other at school. And there are a lot of breaks. You know. Winter break, spring break.”
    “Yeah, sure,” I muttered. I liked having him hold me like that, and I liked the way he reassured me. But I kept thinking . . .