Golden Read Free Page B

and never looked back.” She takes another slow sip of her coffee and leans back in her chair. “You know, just like you will when you go off to college and leave me here to become a bad, small-town cliché.”
    She winks at me and I kick her under the table. “ Shut up.” I know she’s mostly joking, and I try to sound like I am too, but at the moment, the letter in my back pocket feels like a weight around my neck. I need to just tell her and get it over with. “I told you, you should come with me,” I say instead. “You could get a job and we could have a cute little apartment near whatever school I go to, and we can share clothes and order takeout and live happily ever after.”
    It doesn’t come out sounding as plausible as I want it to since I know it’s not. Kat will end up staying here because the mess that is her mom will make her feel like she has to. Where my mom drives me insane with her never-ending sermons on how important it is that I achieve more and do better than she did, Kat’s seems to wonder why her daughter should ever want or deserve anything beyond a job that barely pays the bills, an endless string of guys she hopes will, and the resulting need to find comfort in a bottle when they don’t. Kat’s been privy to her mom’s drama all her life and mostly brushes it off, but it sometimes makes me sad for her.
    â€œCome on,” I say. “Come with me.”
    She rolls her green eyes, then levels them right at me. “I’m not gonna tag along to college with you. Really. How could I leave this ?” She sweeps her arm at the wide window in the front of the shop. In the pale afternoon light, the weather-worn buildings across the street sag beneath the last of the snow in a way that complements her sarcasm just right, and I feel like a horrible person for not telling her first thing this morning. I clear my throat.
    â€œI’m a finalist. For the Cruz-Farnetti Scholarship.” I say it more to my chai than to Kat.
    She leans back and practically yells to the whole place. “Did you just tell me that my best friend is up for the no-joke, tenth anniversary, full ride scholarship to frickin’ Stanford ?” I nod again, and in less than a second she’s out of her chair, with her arms wrapped around me in a hug that’s solid and proud and the slightest bit uncomfortable since my face is smooshed into her boobs. “Holy. Shit , Parker!” A lady in the corner shoots us a glare that doesn’t bother Kat in the least. “When did you find out?” She pulls back so I can answer, ready to hear all the details, and I’m relieved because she looks happy for me. Genuinely happy.
    â€œThe letter came yesterday. I haven’t even told my mom yet because I know as soon as I do she’ll be on my back about writing the perfect speech. That’s the biggest part of their selection process, and it’s gonna be the hardest. I basically have to get up and somehow convince the entire board that I’m the one they should give hundreds of thousands of dollars to.”
    Kat waves a dismissive hand. “Please. You’ve aced every essay you’ve ever written, mine included. You’re gonna get it.”
    I laugh, but apprehension seeps into my stomach. “I don’t even have any ideas on how to start.”
    â€œYou will,” she says, with a certainty that makes me feel a little better. “You’ll figure it out and come up with something brilliant, and then you can put all your energy into more important things. Like Trevor Collins.” She sits back in her chair and smiles, shakes her head. “I knew there wassomething you were sitting on. You’re a shitty secret keeper.”
    â€œI wasn’t keeping it secret, I was just . . . waiting for the right time to tell you ’cause I didn’t know . . .” I don’t want to say I