Love Comes Calling Read Free Page A

will ferment.’”
    â€œSee?”
    â€œSo don’t leave it sitting around. Drink it now.” Somewhere else. So I could leave!
    â€œI’m going to turn it into wine !”
    Mary gasped. “You can’t!”
    â€œOf course I can. If I leave it in the dark, it’ll ferment. So . . . ?” She looped her arm around mine as she looked at me, brow cocked.
    She wanted to be my friend now, after practically ignoring me at mah-jongg that night before the economics test? “So . . . what?”
    She offered the jug up to me. “Will you?”
    â€œWill I what?”
    â€œPut it in your closet for me? I was really hoping it would be done by now. I’ve had it in mine for a while, but your room is so much stuffier, I was hoping it would work better here. If I can figure out how to make my own wine, then I won’t have to depend on the boys downtown to buy it for me.”
    She had people buying wine for her? Since when?! “If you want to make wine so much, even though it’s positively illegal , then put it in your own closet.”
    She rolled her eyes. “It’s not illegal. Legally, me and you and everyone here is allowed to produce wine in the privacy of their own house—”
    â€œBut this is a dormitory.”
    She threw an arm around my neck. “Why do you always have to be so literal, Ellis?”
    â€œI’m not.” Irene had changed, and not for the better. I felt my nose wrinkle. Had she already been drinking? “Why can’t you just obey the rules like everyone else?”
    â€œBecause they’re only made for the benefit of the poor fools who can’t figure out how to break them.”
    â€œBy which, I suppose, you meant me?” Was she trying to be mean on purpose?
    Mary and Louise were watching us with wide eyes.
    â€œOf course I don’t mean you. Everyone knows rules weren’t made for the first families of Boston! You’re above the law.”
    â€œNo one’s above the law.”
    She held up the jug. “Come on, Ellis. Will you keep it for me? Please? No one would dare expel you, but if they catch me . . .”
    If they caught Irene, then the dean of the college would throw her out on her head. After having been caught smoking in her room and out in the Yard with a boy after curfew, it was a miracle she’d made it through the term at all.
    â€œPlease?” She batted her long, dark, incredibly thick eyelashes at me. They were the only thing I envied about her. That and her closet full of silk dresses. And her beaded handbags. And matching shoes. Come to think of it, she’d improved herself quite a bit lately. For a poor girl, she had a lot more nice things than I did!
    â€œDon’t do it, Ellis!” Louise was glaring at Irene. “Don’t you know what will happen if they catch you?”
    Of course I knew what would happen. The dean wouldcall me to her office for a talk. She’d be ever so disappointed and encourage me to apply myself and buckle down and then everything would be forgiven. Just like it always was. I wouldn’t be coming back next autumn anyway. “Oh . . . go ahead. Put it in my closet.” I waved her toward it, then slipped out the door.
    â€œBut, Ellis! You can’t just—” I stomped down the hall so I wouldn’t be able to hear Mary and Louise calling out behind me. I was so tired of people telling me what I couldn’t do! And what I wouldn’t do! And what I was supposed to do!
    As I went down the front stairs, I heard the sound of chanting. It was coming from outside.
    I tiptoed to the door and took a peek out the window. A big bunch of fraternity boys was coming across the Yard, waving their flag and singing one of their dippy songs.
    For crying out loud!
    Now I’d have to think of some other way to get to the theater unseen. At least no one else had heard them.
    As if on cue, one of