Read When You Were Mine for Free Online

brussels sprouts and eating Belgian waffles whenever we went out. She even chose them over bagels, which Charlie was not okay with. It was when Olivia and Taylor were on a break, so she never called the Belgian her boyfriend. She never even called him Jhone, which is his real name. He was just “the Belgian.” It’s still crazy to me that Olivia has managed to date three guys—Taylor, the Belgian, and now Ben—and not go too far with any of them. I think part of the reason I ended things with Jason is that I was scared that if he ever successfully unhooked my bra, we’d have to keep going. It’s not that I think you have to sleep with whomever you’re seeing. It just seems kind of difficult, after a while, to explain why you’re not. Especially if you don’t really know the reason yourself.
    “You are seriously disturbed,” I say to Olivia.
    “God, I’m like flunking ,” she says. “Give me a break.”
    “It’s the first day of school,” I point out. “You aren’t flunking yet. We’re good students.” We are, it’s true. I don’t really have one subject I’m great at like Len and Lauren, who are amazing at science, or Charlie, who is a star history student. She likes to come over and ask my dad questions about warsI’ve never heard of. That’s how into it she is. But my GPA is pretty good.
    “ You are,” Olivia says. “I don’t even know why I’m in calc. I should have taken stats like a sane human being.”
    We trudge up to the table where Rob and Ben are sitting with Jake. The three of them are pretty close, although Ben is more of a recent addition. He didn’t really join our group until sophomore year. Charlie tried her best to keep him away longer, but he and Rob became superclose. If you ask me, Ben is actually a really stand-up guy. Charlie gives him a hard time about being nerdy because he doesn’t surf like Rob and Jake. I suspected something was going on this summer, and I’m not surprised Olivia and Ben are together, but the match is still funny. I always saw Ben as one of those guys that would end up a writer living in New York, sitting in cafés drinking black coffee and owning old Moleskine notebooks. Olivia drinks iced chai tea lattes and owns a Louis Vuitton book bag with the word MIAMI bedazzled on the front. So you can see the disconnect there.
    We drop our bags down near them, and I see Charlie’s; brown leather, worn and classic—totally her style.
    “She inside?” I nod to Rob. Casual, cool. Like my heart isn’t beating three million miles a minute because we are going on a date tonight.
    “Yeah.” He tilts his head to the side and squints at me. Since this morning everything he does seems like flirting. “How are you?” he asks, like it’s the most important question in the world, like he’s asking me how to defuse a nuclear bomb. I shrug, and he picks up his sandwich, offering it. “Want a bite?” Turkey and mustard. No tomato. He’s been eating the same thing from the school cafeteria since we were freshmen.
    “Sure.” I take it and peer around the courtyard. Lauren is sitting with Dorothy Spellor. John and Matt are in a corner, playing Hacky Sack. Charlie is right. Everything is, I guess, in order.
    “Another year,” Charlie says, waltzing up behind me, “and they still don’t have the good peanut butter.” She smiles at Jake and sits down next to him.
    Olivia has collapsed herself down next to Ben and is complaining about the fact that no one cares about seniority at this school, which basically ends up being an argument for why she should be allowed to cut in line in the cafeteria. Ben puts an arm around her shoulder and gives her an affectionate squeeze.
    “I agree,” Charlie says, waving an apple around. “It’s totally absurd that we have to wait.”
    “Should we even bother getting food?” Olivia asks. She’s craning her head over me to look into the cafeteria.
    Sometimes we spend our lunch periods off campus, which islegal if