Butterface Read Free

the charm and smile at Beth like she mattered to him. Sparks of acid churned as she blushed so sweetly and told him she really didn’t know. She was new this year and didn’t know a lot of the kids yet.
     
    “We’re having a party next Friday.” Taylor got in on the action while Lucky’s insides caught flame. “You should come.”
     
    “Oh, I don’t know about that,” she said on a rush, clearly not used to the attention.
     
    “If you need a ride, one of us can pick you up,” said Dell. “Maybe O’Leary?” Dell met his gaze across the table. “Or if he can’t, maybe I can swing by and—”
     
    Lucky interrupted. “I’ll do it.”
     
    Taylor stood up and tapped Lucky’s shoulder. “Good. It’s settled then. My brother O’Leary here will take good care of you. C’mon Dell. We should let him get back to work. He’s got all that studying to do.”
     
    “I’m coming home too.” Lucky stood up, catching the confused look on Beth’s face. “I’m not as hungry as I thought. I’ll see you tomorrow, okay.”
     
    He couldn’t even look her in the eye.
     
     
     
    * * *
     
     
     
    Lucky kept looking at her funny.
     
    Beth couldn’t figure out what his deal was. Since Tuesday, he was just off. Too nice, too chivalrous, too attentive. And when he looked at her, he started really looking at her.
     
    “All right, dreamboat. You are weirding me out,” she finally said on Saturday.
     
    He was walking her home again. Another new strange behavior that began on Thursday. “Why? Hey, do you want to go to the zoo tomorrow?”
     
    “What? No. I mean why?”
     
    “I don’t know. It just sounds fun. And you have a day off and I don’t have practice. If you don’t like the zoo, we don’t have to go. Maybe we could catch a movie.”
     
    Lucky took a few more steps before he realized she’d stopped.
     
    He spun around, all grace and dexterity. “What, you don’t like movies either?”
     
    She wished he weren’t so good looking. Or so athletic, or smart, or funny. Or so goddamned nice. If he could only be less of each of those, she would maybe be able to not feel like she was drowning every time he came around.
     
    “Aren’t there any girls at your school?” Because at the bottom of it all, the rock in the pit of her stomach told her this was pity. And she would rather die than have him pity her.
     
    He closed the distance between them. “I like you. I have a shortage of friends I like right now. Haven’t you ever had a guy friend before?”
     
    She thought about it for a minute and shook her head. “No.”
     
    “Having a guy friend is pretty awesome if you’re a girl and you pick the right guy.”
     
    “And why is that?” she asked.
     
    “You always have someone to open mayonnaise jars and you don’t have to shave your legs for him.”
     
    “I never thought of that. That makes me the luckiest girl in the world, doesn’t it?”
     
    He smiled at her. In the moonlight, he lost some of that perfect All-American polish and looked heartbreakingly human. Part of her wanted to unlock her soul and hand him the keys. It would be stupid. He was a great guy, but he was too great a guy for her. At some point, he was going to stop feeling out of place and homesick, which he was even if he wouldn’t admit it. He’d start acting like the other guys on the team, start dating pretty girls, and he would slowly drift away from her. He would do it with perfect courtesy of course, but he would do it just the same.
     
    Lucky threw his arm around her and pulled her down the sidewalk, tying another brick around her ankle while she fought just to tread water.
     
    They spent the whole day together on Sunday. And Monday, he hung out her entire shift and walked her home. Tuesday night, she went to his game. It was a mistake. He was too good and so talented.   She hadn’t seen him in shorts before. He was like a work of art. She shrunk further and further into her corner of the bleachers,