Read Awkwardly Ever After for Free Online Page A

Seeing him so thoroughly coated with dirt should have been funny, but I couldn’t manage even a hoarse laugh because my body seemed to go on the fritz. My heart started beating too quickly, my pulse started racing as if we had a whole pack of Notable girls armed with hairspray and tweezers sneaking up behind us. I shoved my hands in my pockets because any second they were going to start shaking with nerves.
    It was ridiculous. I half-wanted Izzie to tug me out of sight and force me to snap out of it. Dylan wasn’t the first boy to make me go a little weak at the knees. He also wouldn’t be the last. Although I still freaking hated that he had this effect on me.
    I mean, let’s be real: Most high school relationships end. They fray under the pressure of waiting for college acceptance letters and come completely unraveled as soon as a long-distance relationship becomes a reality. And sure, some people defy the odds and end up marrying their high school sweethearts. Some people find a way to stay together despite everything life throws in their path. Some people also win the freaking lottery—that didn’t mean the odds were in my favor. The very last thing I needed was a relationship complicating things even further. Not when I had classes to pass, tests to take . . . guidance counselors to impress when they inevitably poured over a handful of standardized tests and tried to use it to divine my future.
    Ahh . . . you scored well on your SAT II for the Spanish language exam. That might help compensate for your abysmal score in math. Congratulations, you might not be doomed to a crappy minimum wage job after all!
    Too bad my racing pulse wasn’t willing to consider all the reasons why getting involved with anyone—let alone someone as intertwined in my life as my close friend’s little brother—was a bad idea right now.
    â€œUm . . . hi, Dylan,” I mumbled. “Fancy seeing—I mean, it’s . . . uh, good to see you.”
    I glanced over at Izzie to see if she had even noticed my near fumble with our code. She seemed a little preoccupied giving her glasses a quick cleaning.
    So much for having a brilliant observer of human nature watching my back every step of the way.
    Dylan grinned, as if seeing me on his doorstep automatically canceled out every annoyance that might have accrued over the course of the day. The interest, the keen sense of attraction that I was determined to keep under wraps, was written all across his face for everyone to see, right beneath the mud and dirt that streaked his jaw, the left side of his nose, and his temple.
    I wanted to dismiss him as cute—adorable, even—in an open, puppy-doggish kind of way. To shrug it off as some fleeting infatuation from some kid who was going through a stage and be content knowing that when Dylan Wellesley looked back at his life, he would have fond memories of his first crush on Melanie Morris. That he would idly wonder whatever happened to me before he shrugged and then greeted his perfect girlfriend, who was probably just returning home from her morning run. He deserved that kind of happiness; the cup of coffee with his soul mate over breakfast every day thing.
    And that girl was never going to be me, because I wasn’t cut out for that kind of life.
    Not when I needed to devote a large chunk of my time to making sure my dad didn’t choke to death on his own vomit.
    Which didn’t stop Dylan from self-consciously wiping at his cheek to remove the mud. “Hey, Melanie. I haven’t seen you since—”
    â€œYeah, long time no see.” I winced when I realized just how closely my words echoed the ones that Spencer had used to shoo away Fake and Bake. “Um . . . we were just going to watch a movie, but I actually have a lot of homework waiting for me, so . . .”
    For some reason Dylan refused to take the hint. I could tell that he was hearing my message loud and clear; his eyes