Read Need for Free Online Page B

THE CORNER of Prairie and Ridge Streets near the streetlight, Bryan VanMeter looks down at the box in his hand. He shivers as a blast of cold wind whips his scarf around. He’s seen the familiar white and green box with the “Made with love” stamp in his own house dozens of times. For special occasions, his mother always orders a cake from Mrs. Lollipolous’s bakery. Which is good, because his mother is a terrible cook.
    But this isn’t big enough to be a cake box, and he didn’t get it from the bakery. It was waiting for him where the message said it would be—in the fiction section of the library, on the bottom shelf behind the books by authors whose last names start with the letter
K.
Now all he has to do is deliver it to Amanda Highland’s house, take a photograph of it sitting on her doorstep, and post the picture on the NEED message board to prove the task has been completed. Nothing to it.
    But just thinking of Amanda makes his neck start to sweat. He still has no idea how he let his friends convince him to asking her out for New Year’s Eve. How idiotic could he be?
    She said no.
    Of course she did. Amanda’s beautiful. She’s athletic. And mysterious. Or at least as mysterious as a person can be in this town. It’s not like there are tons of people here. No wonder he noticed Amanda when she moved to Nottawa a year and a half ago. Unlike most of the popular girls, she rarely dates, and she spends her lunch hour in the school library. That’s why Bryan allowed himself to be convinced she might say yes when he asked her to go with him to the movies on New Year’s Eve. They have the library and a love of books in common, which isn’t exactly a mainstream passion. He should know. Even his friends make fun of the amount he reads.
    He kicks at a chunk of ice on the sidewalk as he remembers the way Amanda tried to let him down nicely. But she should have come up with a better excuse, because no one with half a brain would believe that Amanda’s parents don’t allow her to go to the movies. Even the strictest parents aren’t that insane. It wouldn’t be so bad if his friends hadn’t spread the story. But they did, and now everyone knows Amanda turned him down. The last thing he wants is to be seen near her house and appear even more pathetic.
    He thinks about untying the string and looking inside despite his instructions not to open the box. But he doesn’t, because his fingers are too cold. At least, that’s what he tells himself.
    He turns and walks down the block toward Amanda’s house, which is awash with Christmas lights. Her parents really go all out with the holiday theme. Bryan hurries to the front door, places the box on the holiday welcome mat, and pulls out his phone.
    His fingers shake as he pushes the Camera button, and it takes three tries before he is able to snap a photo. Inside he hears a girl laugh. Amanda. He knows that laugh well. He used to dream about it. It used to make him happy. Now he pictures her laughing when she told her friends about him asking her out. How he thought he was good enough.
    It’s that laugh that makes his hands stop trembling, along with the thought of getting the prescription his parents said isn’t necessary. He’s tired of being the nice guy with acne who girls turn to for homework help. His doctor said there’s a good chance the treatment will stop the breakouts. Then everything will change for the better.
    Bryan doesn’t consider looking in the box again before he turns and walks away. And when he feels a stab of worry at what might be contained inside as he posts a picture of the box on the website, he tells himself that if the box helps make Amanda sorry for lying to him, it’s no less than she deserves.

Lynn
    â€œD ID YOU ASK for something yet?”
    â€œI’m just about ready to do it now.” Lynn puts her cell on speakerphone so she can type