Read My Only for Free Online

just hoped that she would be kind and not ask about my Night Elf poster. I wasn’t ashamed that I played World of Warcraft , but I didn’t think I’d be able to speak if she asked me about the image of the girl with the big ears and barely covered chest.
    “Oh my God, those are awesome!” I jumped a little and immediately looked to where she was pointing. “Obviously, you play the drums.” My voice was nothing but a whisper, “Yeah.”
    She crossed the room to where al of them were lined up and she ran her hand over my tenor drums.
    “You play all of these?”

    I opened my mouth to answer, but nothing came out, so I cleared my throat and tried again. “Yes.” She picked up a drumstick and quietly tapped it against my snare drum, then picked up a mal et and thumped one of the tenor drums. “Marching band?”
    I nodded.
    “Very cool. Drums are pretty badass.”
    She thought marching band was cool? She thought being in the drumline was badass? I swal owed hard as she turned back around. Replacing the mal et, she slapped her right hand on the conga next, and then picked up my bongos. “Can I?” I nodded then bit my lip as she sat down on my bed. She folded her legs on top of it and then placed the drums on her thighs. Olivia tapped out an experimental beat. It was quiet at first, but then it grew louder as she became more confident. It was a good rhythm, and I couldn’t help but nod my head to it.
    Suddenly, I was moving over to my drums and tapped her beat on my conga. The fact that Dad was trying to sleep no longer even registered in my conscious mind. I glanced over to her. She was so pretty sitting there, smiling at me like it was Christmas morning and she’d gotten exactly what she’d wanted.
    The beat was pretty primal and I imagined how Olivia would dance to it.
    It would be sexy, for sure. Hips rocking, arms snaking in the air, torso twisting, hair whipping around her face, chest thrust out. She would be beautiful—just like always.
    That aura of freedom seemed so natural. I barely knew her, but I knew she was a free spirit—someone utterly unlike me. I liked routine. I didn’t hate new experiences, but I didn’t seek them out either.
    She was more like Aaron, free and happy.
    A clicking noise brought my focus back to the here and now. Olivia had stopped drumming. Apparently I had as wel . She was snapping the fingers of one hand while waving the others in front of my face.
    “Damn, you real y get lost in the music, don’t you?”
    Not wanting her to know that I’d real y been lost in thoughts of being different, I answered, “Yeah, I guess.” An awkward silence settled over us until final y I remembered that she was here to get help with school. Stepping away from the conga, I crossed the room and sat down on my desk. She shifted on the bed to fol ow my movement. Her gaze was fixed on my hands as I picked up a mechanical pencil and twirled it like a drumstick.
    The quiet was making me nervous again, so I rushed to fil it in with something else. “What’s up with history?” She rol ed her eyes and shrugged. “It’s stupid.”
    I studied her. Maybe she wasn’t as smart as I’d hoped she was, but I didn’t want her to one of the girls who made blanket statements like that.
    “How is history stupid? Do you mean it’s hard, or do you mean that you just don’t care about what happened in the world before you were born?” She tapped her fingers against the taut hide covering the bongos. No rhythm emerged, but I stil liked the sound. She turned her face up, lips quirking at one side as she thought. “Um, maybe both?” She looked at me again. When I caught her eyes, she seemed in a hurry to explain. “I mean, it’s not like I don’t care about what happened in the past, I just don’t see the point of focusing on it. Shouldn’t we pay more attention to the present so we can make the future what it should be?”
    While I couldn’t deny that she had a point, I shook my head. “But how