Zara's Curse (Empire of Fangs) Read Online Free PDF Page B

was what Norah had said about having no goals that really bothered her.   That was about all she had these days.  
     
    Something inside her told she shouldn’t go to the party.   That she should stay home and finish her paper for class.   But something else inside was pushing her to go.   She just couldn’t pass up a chance to see the inside of her dream home and hangout with her dream guy who just so happened to live there.  
     
    While she lay there she wondered what Micah did for a living.   If he lived in a mansion he probably didn’t do much of anything.   His parents were probably loaded.   Or maybe he was one of those internet guys who invented some viral app or something.   She spent a few minutes wondering if a major in Art and a minor in History was a really foolish idea.   This led to a very jarring vision of her sitting at a Starbucks, in her fifties, frazzled and sleep-deprived, tapping on a laptop, trying to make a logo for some garage door company so that she could stave off an eviction notice from her studio apartment.   She shivered.   The horror…the horror…
     
    She decided she should take a nap before getting ready for the party.   She threw on her sleep playlist on herIPod and closed her eyes.   She found it was easy to fall to sleep thinking of Micah.
     

7.
     

     
    Loud knocking woke Zara up, and when she rolled over to look at her little digital clock, which was shaped like a cow, she saw it was 9 p.m. on the dot.   She cursed and sprung up and answered the door.   Twig was there again, shaking his head at her.   He was wearing a shirt that actually had a collar on it, and he had combed his hair.   He had put on a pair of skinny jeans and a pair of black Adidas shoes.   His little mustache was sharpened like two daggers.   It was as dressed up as Zara had ever seen him. She couldn’t help but be a little impressed.
     
    “Wow,” she said.
     
    He looked her up and down, “My thoughts exactly.”
     
    “Don’t start.   I dozed off.   Now I gotta rush.”   Zara sighed loudly and went to her room and flung open her closet.  
     
    “I’ll just hang out here, you do your thing,” she heard Twig shout from the living room, followed by a can of something opening.  
     
    She shouted back at him, “Aren’t you driving?”
     
    “Not tonight princess.   We are on foot m’lady.”
     
    Just as well , Zara thought.   She highly doubted the rusty Scout would make much of an impressive entrance.   At least on foot they could pretend they parked around the corner or something.   Plus a stroll in the night air might clear her mind and give her time to get her head straight.   She had barely known Micah and already he was making her a mess.  
     
    She came out of her room wearing a sleeveless black Volcom shirt and a pair of tight, cuffed, blue jeans and a pair of black Pro-Keds.   She had combed her bangs away from her forehead and had on her twine and silver bracelet her dad had gotten her for her birthday.  
     
    “What do you think?” she asked Twig who was sipping a Pabst.
     
    “You look great.   Natalie Portman meets Avril Lavigne.”
     
    After several more trips to the bathroom to adjust her makeup, Zara was finally ready, and they left the apartment, trotted down the outside stairs out onto the sidewalk into the warm summer night.
     
    There was a moon out that hung in the sky like a big gold coin.   A breeze stirred the leaves on the elm trees overhead, making them chatter and whisper.   They walked down the hill that led to Pearl Street.   The stone mansion was only about seven blocks away from where Zara lived.
     
    “So.   What’s this guy like?”   Twig asked between sips of his Pabst, which he was still carrying.
     
    “You should like, finish that,” Zara said, dodging the question.   She didn’t really want to talk about Micah—she didn’t want to jinx her chances with him.
     
    “Oh, nobody cares.   It makes no sense that we