The Stillburrow Crush Read Online Free PDF

like he'd been a moment before because, for some reason, I liked him better with the malformed teeth and helpless expression.
    "What?" he said, frowning at the odd look I was giving him.
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    The Stillburrow Crush
    by Linda Kage
    I cleared my throat and glanced away. "The poem," I said.
    "It's pretty,"
    "It's sad. Keats was only twenty-four years old and he knew he was dying when he wrote it."
    I thought about that. Twenty-four felt so far away. But for dying, it was way too close.
    "A finished body full of unfinished thoughts," Luke murmured. He pushed the swing again. I rocked forward. "I came up with that on my own."
    I smiled and closed my eyes when his hands touched my back again to push. "A finished body full of unfinished thoughts," I repeated on a murmur. "I like that. You should write it down."
    "Yeah. Maybe." The sound of his voice caused me to open my eyes. He sounded...I don't know. Wistful, I guess.
    I was going to ask him about it but the moment was taken away from us. A car passed by on the street. I glanced over and saw the cheerleaders.
    Liz Curry and Jill Anderson were creeping by, staring at us through the windshield of Liz's car. I stood up. And that's when Luke moved in front of me, completely blocking me from their view. He did it so subtly that if I hadn't been tuned into every movement he made, I wouldn't have noticed. The girls hollered a hello out their windows to him and he waved back, calling his own greeting.
    I could already see the chain of gossip burning like a fuse to dynamite right through the town. Jill Anderson would tell her mother, who was fixing my mom's hair even as we stood there. I would hear about it at supper. Mom would play 35
    The Stillburrow Crush
    by Linda Kage
    twenty questions with me. What were you doing with that nice Carter boy? Does he have a date for the prom yet? Did he ask you out?
    Except there would be no gossip because the girls hadn't seen me. Luke had made sure of it.
    "What's wrong?" Luke said.
    I looked up and swallowed. "Nothing."
    His return look implied he didn't believe me, but he let it go. "OK," he answered. "Well anyway. I was wondering..."
    We were a few feet apart now and the intimacy from a moment ago had totally vanished. He went back to rubbing his neck.
    "Did you just step in front of me so they couldn't see who you were with?" I blurted out.
    His head snapped up. His eyes were wide and bright.
    "What?"
    For the briefest of moments, I had been on top of the world. I'd actually thought he was going to ask me out, maybe even invite me to go to the lake party with him. The lake party was a student-organized event and reportedly very wild. It happened every year, contrary to what parents believed. And I'd truly thought I, Carrie Paxton, daughter to the town grease monkey, would show up at the school's biggest bash of the year on the arm of none other than Luke Carter himself. I'd even imagined how everyone would pause and say hi to us. How when it turned cold, he'd slide his letterman's jacket over my shoulders. And when it grew dark, we'd slip from the group and walk alone through the woods or along the edge of the lake.
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    The Stillburrow Crush
    by Linda Kage
    I could almost hear the gossip that would follow us. Who does she think she is, trying to cuddle up to him? There's only one thing he'd want from her.
    I frowned. He could have any girl in school. Heck, two of them had driven by moments before, waving and yelling. I don't know what I'd been thinking, but he'd certainly set me straight with that blocking move. It didn't lessen the sting, though.
    "Why'd you do that?" I asked, setting my hands on my hips and giving him a glare I usually reserved for Marty.
    "What're you talking about?" Suddenly, he was all innocence and confusion.
    "You didn't want Liz and Jill to see me here with you," I said. "You stepped in front of me so they couldn't."
    He laughed then, a nervous sound. "I did not."
    "Why?" I said again, this time through gritted teeth. I