Trapped (Here Trilogy) Read Online Free PDF Page B

was out the door.
    “I’ll pitch your tent,” he promised as he shut it.
    I folded my arms as he pulled a tent from the roof and walked into the fog. It seemed too thin as he walked through it, and I was able to follow him all the way to his chosen spot, thirty or forty feet behind Vera’s tent, in a clearing between two scrubby-looking firs.
    He crouched to unwrap the tent, the moonlight gleamed against his coppery hair, and I felt warmth spread low inside my belly.
    Why did he have to be an alien? I imagined that in some other universe Nick was just a normal guy, and I was still a normal girl with two parents. And when we stood together underneath the stars, I didn't have to wonder if from one of them was coming earth’s annihilation, or if to one of them he would return.

NICK MOVED SLOWLY around the tent, giving it one final, thorough-looking inspection. It must have been a family tent, because it was at least three times the size of Vera’s. Did this mean Nick and I would share it?
    My whole body was practically glowing as he strode back toward the truck. He slid into the passenger's seat, dark gaze gliding over mine as he reached into the back seat and pulled a bottle of water from the cooler. He took a long tug, shifting to look at me.
    “When you found me in your yard, did you have any idea how much fun you were going to have?” His smile and voice were sardonic.
    “You should have come with a warning label,” I said. I tried to smile, but I think I just ended up looking sick, because Nick smiled for me, a small, tense, lips-closed kind of smile. “Let me walk you to your tent. We can talk there.”
    Again, I imagined he was just a regular guy. The butterflies in my stomach, the warm tinglies, would be all I felt if he had just asked to walk me to my car after a party.
    “Psh.” I batted his hard shoulder. “I can walk there on my own.”
    He smiled, a quick smile, but a real one this time. “I want to.”
    “Fine,” I said, “but you have to help me look through the truck first. For supplies.”
    We grabbed two giant black duffels, a plaid sleeping bag, and a white fleece blanket. We left behind a kerosene lantern, not wanting to risk attracting anyone’s attention.
    It was dark outside, but it wasn't pitch black. A three-quarters moon lit the fog and steam that swirled around us, lending the night a certain fragrance-commercial quality.
    I followed a half-step behind Nick, moving slowly, because the ground was icy and my feet were seriously sore.
    I’d forgotten how quiet it was here. The only noise was the gentle lapping of the springs, and behind that, a faint rumble. Helicopters? SUVs?
    A waterfall, I decided after a moment.
    Clutching the green sleeping bag to my chest, Ithought of Bree's Miley Cyrus bag, of that last time the crew all spent the night: me, Halah, Bree, and S.K. at my house, the night before I met Nick. We'd eaten popcorn, stayed up talking late like when we were younger. Like it had always been.
    I noticed, as we neared the tent, that the thick ice covering the ground was gone, revealing soft brown dirt. Nick had melted the ice for me.
    As if he heard my thoughts, he turned and smiled. Another few steps and we were to the tent. Heheld the flap open for me and I saw that it was large inside, as far as tents went. I stepped in first, depositing my things beside the entrance. I saw that he’d already spread a thick-looking quilt on the floor, so I sank down on it.
    There I was with Nick, having just walked into a steamy, CW drama-type situation, and I was driven to distraction by the memory of my childhood friends.
    I wanted to tell myself it was just something about girls getting older: you turned into your own person and you needed your girlfriends less, but somewhere in the pit of my stomach I knew that wasn't true. S.K. had chosen Ami over me. Halah and I had always been marching to the beat of different drums; hers was a lot louder than mine. And Bree? We were just too