These Three Words Read Online Free PDF Page A

to pretend he didn’t care, but I knew he did. Even if he weren’t my friend, I’d have known it.
    “I think your suit says you aren’t a lemming. You don’t jump off a cliff because everyone else does. You’re not afraid to stand out in a crowd.”
    He offered me a wry smile. “I don’t have much choice, do I?”
    Gray had worked all through high school, but unlike some of the kids with jobs, his money went toward helping his mom pay the living expenses. He couldn’t spare any of it for a tux rental.
    I slugged his arm in response. He didn’t grin, like other guys might have, but there was a gleam in his eye that I could read almost as if he’d said the words. That gleam said that I hit like a girl.
    It was a standard joke between us.
    But before he could actually say the words, Chip arrived all properly tuxed. We stayed and let my mom take the obligatory pictures. Me with Chip and then me with Gray. Everyone in school knew that Gray and I were friends. Best friends. They all knew that Gray was here at my house almost as often as I was at his house.
    After my mother had enough pictures to fill a coffee table book, the three of us went to Candy’s, where her mother repeated the process.
    Rather than go out to a restaurant for dinner, Candy’s mom had offered to make us a formal meal.
    She served it all grown up and proper. She used a white tablecloth with cloth napkins. She put candles in the center of the table and laid out multiple forks.
    It was easy to believe we were eating in a restaurant.
    Gray held a chair out for Candy and gently helped her slide it under the table. I waited for Chip to do the same for me. He simply sat down. I started to seat myself, but Gray noticed and pushed me in as well.
    Mrs. Hawthorne started with shrimp cocktails, then salads, finally steaks and baked potatoes. She made us a chocolate mousse for dessert.
    When we got to Chip’s fancy car, Gray held the back door for Candy, while Chip simply walked to the driver’s door.
    Gray got my door then walked around the car and let himself in.
    I turned around and said, “I could have done it.”
    “Normally, I’d agree. Everyday Addie is perfectly capable of getting her own door. But my mom always says that sometimes all girls like being treated like a princess. And Princess Addie deserved to have her door opened for her.”
    A princess is just how I felt as I walked into the school gym with Chip on one side of me and Gray on the other. Candy was on Gray’s opposite side.
    The prom committee had transformed the bleachers and center court of the gym into a room that Disney would be proud of. There were small white lights dripping from all over the gym ceiling. They’d hung a gauzy material between the lights and the ceiling, too. The bleachers were hidden behind some white, gauzy fabric panels. White tablecloths, white chairs. More candles and tiny lights.
    The overall effect was very princess-worthy. The four of us sat together at a table at the back of the room.
    The official prom theme was “A Moment Like This.” Kelly Clarkson blared the song over and over through the night. After that initial impression, the rest of the night was a blur. I wasn’t much of a dancer, but Chip was. Gray wasn’t a dancer either, but Candy was. That meant Candy and Chip spent most of the night dancing together or with other people while Gray and I held our table.
    At one point Gray looked at me and said, “You realize we’re both dating people with food names.”
    I hadn’t, but I laughed as he said the words. “Maybe our senior year, we should try for people with plant names? Fern for you, and . . .” I was running through guys in our class, trying to find a name that would fit.
    “Reed,” Gray supplied.
    “Ew.” Reed Maverick had a name that sounded made up and he was cover-model gorgeous. It wasn’t so much the fact he was really good-looking that put me off, but rather the fact he knew he was good-looking and was comfortable