One Week (Stolen Kiss #0.5) Read Free

anything.”
    Avery rolled her eyes. “You know what happens when people fall in love? They get hurt, and then their friends are stuck trying to fix everything.”
    “One day, you’re going to fall in love and then you’ll see how the rest of us feel.”
    Avery snorted. “Don’t count on it.” She nodded at something behind me. “Dave is coming this way, so if you’re going to freak out and hide, now is the time.”
    I resisted the urge to look over my shoulder. “I’m not freaking out.”
    Despite my words, my heart took a sudden nosedive into my stomach as I turned and came face-to-face with Dave Chumski.
    “Hey.” His green eyes sparkled in the way I’d always liked.
    “Hey,” I answered.
    Dave opened his mouth, but the bell rang, interrupting him. I was hyper-aware of Avery’s presence just over my shoulder and the way she stood rigid, most likely glaring at Dave.
    He pushed his dark hair out of his face and said, “Can we talk? After school, the Rose Castle?”
    I nodded. “I’ll meet you there.”
    When Dave turned to head off toward his class, Avery grabbed my elbow and pushed me down the hall in the opposite direction. “Are you insane?”
    “No. Ow!”
    She released her death grip on my arm. “Three days ago you were hiding under an elephant. Now you’re meeting him?”
    I shrugged. “So?”
    “So I’m not eating cartons of cheesecake ice cream with you if you go back to him and then he dumps you in another three weeks.”
    “I didn’t say I was going back to him.”
    “If Dave wants you back, you won’t be able to say no.”
    I skidded a stop at the door to our calculus class and glared at my best friend. “If you think that, then you don’t know me at all.”
    I stomped into the classroom before she had a chance to say anything.
    After school, Dave was already waiting at the Rose Castle when I arrived. He smiled and gestured toward the glass on the table. “I ordered a double chocolate milkshake, just like you always get.”
    I slid into the seat across from him and studied the glass for a moment. “Thanks,” I said, taking a sip from the straw.
    All of my senses were on high alert. My gaze roamed around the room, feeling as if everyone was watching to see what would happen between us. Part of me wanted to remain wary, but the other part said that maybe I should accept his friendliness for what it was.
    “So,” Dave said as he twirled the wrapper from his straw around his fingers, “I like your hair.”
    I pushed a bunch of pink braids behind my shoulder. “Thanks.”
    “It looks really good on you. I like it better than the black.”
    I took a sip of my milkshake again, pausing for a moment to consider this. Then I said, “I do too. This feels more like me.”
    Dave nodded. “You seem different now than you did when we were together. Not just the hair. You seem more real, you know?”
    More real. That was exactly it. While I’d been dating Dave and all the guys before him, I hadn’t been who I really was. I’d made myself into the girl that fit them and done what they liked to do.
    Dave was still talking and I hadn’t heard half of what he was saying. I blinked, trying to focus again.
    “…It was stupid. I realize now it was a mistake.” He reached across the table and put his hand over mine. “I think we should get back together.”
    I stared down at Dave’s hand enveloping mine in the center of the table, like he’d always done before.
    “I thought I was too condescending and sarcastic,” I blurted out before I could stop myself.
    Dave cringed. “I shouldn’t have said those things.”
    I pulled my hand out from under his. “What about your new girlfriend?”
    “I’m not with her anymore.”
    I took a long sip of milkshake, studying him. He had the wounded look of someone who had been dumped.
    “We were really good together, weren’t we?” Dave asked. “We had a lot of fun hanging out at The Percolator and watching movies at my house.”
    “Why