Read Zarr, Sara - Sweethearts for Free Online Page A

on the brakes hard enough that Steph had to put her arms on the dashboard to steady herself. She swore. "If you tell me what we're looking for," she said, "I could do the looking and you could keep your eyes on the road." "Who," I said. "What?" "Not what, who." "Who what?" Steph put her hands to her temples. "Okay, stop. This isn't a comedy routine. Speak in complete sentences." "We're looking for a who, not a what." My cell chimed with the text message tone. I had Steph reach in my coat pocket to check it. "It's Ethan. He wants to know where we are." Her phone chimed next. "And there he is again. Doesn't like you out his sight, does he? Should I answer?" We passed a bus stop where a cluster of people waited, including a tall, youngish guy with dark hair. I pulled over and got out. Steph leaned out her window. "Jenna? Where are you going? Should I answer or what?" I got within a few feet of the tall guy and saw he was too old to be Cameron. I got back in the car and felt Steph's eyes on me as we kept driving down the street. "Tell him I have cramps," I said. "And a headache." "Oh, good one." She texted Ethan and flipped her phone shut with a snap. "I told him not to worry -- I'm taking care of you. Not that it's any of his business. Now, who are we looking for?" The closer we got to the airport, the more deserted the streets were except for little bunches of people at bus stops. I wasn't going to find Cameron Quick here. "A ghost," I said, turning the car around. "You're not going to tell me." It was tempting. Steph was a decent candidate, being the kind of girl who always had plenty of secrets of her own. I just wasn't sure she could keep mine. Also, how could I explain Cameron Quick without also explaining Jennifer Harris and everything that came with her? "Well?" Steph asked. "I guess I'm not." She didn't press. "You're suddenly very mysterious, Jenna Vaughn." After dropping off Steph, I drove around a while longer, still looking, until I found myself parked in front of the 7-Eleven on K Street. I went in and walked up and down the aisles with my coat over one arm. It had been a long time since I'd done what I was about to do, but the feeling was as familiar as ever: desperate and inevitable, like taking Ethan's keys earlier had just been a warm-up. My fingers rested on a cheerful orange package of peanut butter cups and then on a Kit Kat bar, before finally closing around a Milky Way, neat and compact, just like I knew it would be. I drew it under my coat, stopped to read the magazine covers, and walked out of the store. CHAPTER 5 I POSITIONED MYSELF ON THE COUCH WITH A FLEECE BLANKET over my legs and the heating pad resting on my stomach. A cup of tea sat steaming on the coffee table to complete the illusion of me having cramps and a headache. My excuse for cutting class would at least look legitimate if Mom got home demanding to know why she'd been paged at work by the school office. Except it turned out that she had to work overtime and Alan was the first one home, so I'd gone to all that trouble for nothing. He was far easier to convince, especially when it came to anything that fell under the category of "female trouble." "Hey there," he said, standing by the TV. "Your mom got a message from the school that you weren't in your last couple of classes. Everything all right?" I rattled a bottle of Midol at him, knowing that would end all questions. "Oh." He went over to the fish tank and peered through the glass. "Well, next time answer your phone when we call to find out what's up, okay?" "Okay. Sorry." I closed my eyes and listened to Alan go through his postwork routine: check on the fish, sort the mail, take off his shoes and tie, inspect the fridge and cupboard in search of a snack. "You want food?" he called. "I can fix us some dinner." My stomach was already beyond full from the tuna sandwich and leftover spaghetti I'd wolfed down along with the stolen candy bar, but I was still hungry in the back of my throat, in