Read Taking a Shot for Free Online

you?”
    “But my dad…” No matter how tempting it was to forget reason and agree to go to prom with Jamie, I knew it was nothing more than a dream. There was no chance my father would ever agree to let one of his teammates take me out, whether it was to my prom or anything else. That would be an absolute nonstarter.
    Jamie moved his hand, and his fingers dipped beneath the edge of my scarf. I wanted to pull away, but the look in his eye held me in place while he used nothing more than his fingertips to caress my newly bald scalp. “I’ll deal with your dad. Let me worry about that.”
    Maybe having no hair made my skin more sensitive, or maybe it was the effects of the chemo—I couldn’t be sure. All I knew was that my whole body was zinging with awareness from the way his fingertips were dancing over the skin an inch or two above my ear.
    I’d dated a few boys before. I’d been kissed and touched in various ways, and it had all been exciting and wonderful and new, but this was so different. The way he was touching me was so much more intimate, and I felt more vulnerable and scared and raw than I could ever remember feeling in my life, but I didn’t want it to end. Because it was perfect.
    It made me wish I wasn’t sick, that I was whole and alive and vibrant like I used to be.
    I wasn’t entirely sure what came over me because everything I’d said about not wanting to be the bald girl at prom was still a massive deterrent to going, and I had a very real fear that my father would do actual physical harm to Jamie, but I said, “Okay. Yes. I’ll go with you.”
    He smiled, one of those amazing, shy smiles he had that made his dimples come to attention and left me wanting to kiss him. “Good. Now I’d better go deal with Webs before he hurts one of the boys.”
    I took his hand when he pulled it away from my head, holding it in mine for just a second. “Don’t…don’t let him hurt you, either.”
    “Don’t worry about me,” he said, squeezing my hand and sending a flood of warmth through to every nerve ending I had.
    Before I could come up with a reasonable argument to convince him to leave by escaping through a back alley or some other means where he wouldn’t have to go near my father, Jamie let go of my hand, winked at me, and was gone.
    Mom came over almost instantly, like she’d been watching and waiting for Jamie to leave. “Do you want to tell me what that was about, or would you rather keep it to yourself?”
    “Prom,” I said.
    That damn wetness popped back into her eyes, and she said, “Oh,” all soft and touched and mom-like while she tried to blink the tears back.
    “Don’t let Dad hurt him,” I begged. “Please.”
    Mom nodded and steeled her spine. “Not if I have anything to say about it.” Just like that, her eyes were focused and she looked like Super Mom, ready to set the world right, at least for today.
    I felt sorry for anyone who didn’t have a mom like mine.
    Heck, I felt sorry for anyone who didn’t have a dad like mine, too.
    They might drive me crazy sometimes, but it was only because they loved me.

 
     

    “ I ASKED KATIE to let me take her to her prom. That’s all.”
    Webs hadn’t stopped glaring at me since I found where Zee and Soupy had dragged him. For now, he was just sitting on a bench in the concourse. That meant he wasn’t trying to close the distance between us so he could wring my neck or rip my head off my shoulders or any of the much more horrifying things involving certain parts of my anatomy I’d been imagining ever since Kally had put the idea of taking Katie to prom in my head this afternoon.
    I didn’t expect he would stay there very long. Not with the energy vibrating off him like it was. You could almost see it pinging through the air around him.
    Zee was sitting next to him, and Soupy was standing off to the side—by all appearances, both of them ready to hold him back if needed. I didn’t attempt to delude myself that they were