Read Break for Free Online Page A

teeth—”educated.”
    “Ow.”
    She pulls back. “I’m sorry. Did I hurt your mouth?”
    Like kerosene. “A little.”
    “I’m sorry.”
    “You said that already. It’s okay.”
    “It’s probably a little too early in the recovery process for making out.”
    “It’s okay, really.” Really.
    She kisses the side of my jaw, gently, then moves her mouth down to the top of my chest. I look down at the top of my cap, the fold of fabric where her head doesn’t fill all the space. Her mouth is so warm, like a splash of hot water every time we make contact.
    “Beautiful,” I say.
    “Hmm?”
    “You. You’re beautiful.”
    She stops kissing and wraps her arms around my waist, her forehead against my broken ribs. “That’s a suspiciously boyfriend-type remark.”
    “No way.”
    “Way.”
    “Hush, you.” I push my hand under her shirt. I’m aware that, in a few hours, I’ll have no good hands left. This might be my only opportunity to touch her for a long time.
    She moans and arches her back into my hand. “Love you.”
    “Aw, man, Charlotte. Don’t.”
    She doesn’t get mad, just pushes away from me, fingers in my belt loops. “I have to go,” she says.
    “Noooo.” I laugh. “I changed my mind. Stay.”
    Her eyelashes flutter like hundreds of butterflies. “But I do have to go. I promised Naomi I’d help her with Bio.”
    “Blow her off.”
    “I can’t.”
    “Sure you can. I do it all the time.”
    She huffs and messes with her bun, rearranging the daisy so it’s visible around her curls and my hat. “Are we hanging out after school?”
    Crap. I’ve got to break tonight.
    But I can give her a few hours first. Maybe finish what I started?
    It’s delirious thinking, but it’s the only kind of thinking I can manage when I’m with Charlotte.
    I say, “Absolutely.”
    We kiss, and I taste her. I don’t love her—I can only muster that for Jess and occasionally Will, and when you claim “love” about a girl it’s stupid and ephemeral and everyone knows it. It’s like a big joke.
    Plus, she’s not my girlfriend.
    No girlfriend could ever be this good.

eleven
    MY PHONE JINGLES AS I HEAD TO CHARLOTTE’S car after school. It’s Jesse, and he’s not feeling well.
    I say, “Not feeling well or feeling seriously awful?”
    “Not feeling well. I think I’m okay.”
    “Breathe.”
    He does, and I listen, and he sounds fine. But how sure can you be over a cell phone?
    He says, “It’s nothing major. Don’t freak out on me. Probably just the pollen.”
    It’s practically November. “Jesse.”
    “Look, I’m honestly fine. I’ll call if it gets bad. I just wanted to tell you I’m skipping practice and going home.”
    “You’re skipping practice.”
    “Don’t make this a big deal.”
    I close my eyes because it’s too hard to look at Charlotte on the edge of her car, her curves just begging for me to come and put my hands on them. “Do you need me to come home?”
    “No. No no no. You have plans with Charlotte, right?”
    “Yeah.”
    “Don’t break those. Mom will watch me.”
    Yeah, okay.
“I won’t be gone too long. Stay away from the baby.”
    “I know, Jonah. God.”
    “And call in half an hour. No matter what.”
    “Okay.”
    I hang up and climb into Charlotte’s passenger seat. “Sorry. Duty called.”
    “Duty?”
    “Duty, thy name is Jesse.”
    “Right.” She starts the car and honks her horn until the pack of sophomores gets away from her back bumper. “He all right?”
    “Yeah, I don’t know. It’s hard to tell. He said he wasn’t feeling well, and you never know what that means.”
    “Do you need to go home?”
    “No, he’ll be fine.”
    “You sure?” She looks at me. “I know how you are with him. If you want to go home, it’s okay.”
    I shake my head. “I don’t want to be home. I want to be with my not-girlfriend.”
    She slides on her sunglasses and hits the gas.
    After-school trips with Charlotte mean trailing her through her house