All You Never Wanted by Adele Griffin

Author:Adele Griffin [Griffin, Adele]
Language: eng
Format: epub, mobi
ISBN: 978-0-307-97466-2
Publisher: Random House Children's Books
Published: 2012-10-08T16:00:00+00:00

Saturday, afternoon

ALEX

They are speeding down the highway. Alex drives. She is technically controlling this car. She’s also the one who is the most trapped.

At Marisol’s request, she’d put the top down. But the afternoon got so hot that she’s sweating through her T-shirt. It sticks to her skin and the backs of her legs are sticking to the leather. Sticky, sticking, stuck.

Maybe she’ll unlock the door and let herself drop out into the road and roll​roll​roll onto the shoulder of the highway.

“It’s St. Nicholas Avenue to 135th Street,” Marisol pipes up from behind. “But it goes west–east. You have to turn a street before.”

“And slow down a bit, there, Danica,” jokes Xander.

“I’m a safe driver,” she snaps.

“No, you’re not. Not at that speed. Ease up. I’m serious.”

She’s not used to no. To being told what to do. Not really by anyone anymore. Her teachers, her mother, her stepfather, her sister, her friends, Joshua. They all just let her be. They keep their disagreements to themselves. She lets the speedometer drop.

It was Xander’s idea that they both give Marisol a lift back home. Alex had only said okay as long as she didn’t have to surrender control of her own car. And there’s something else. By this time tomorrow, Xander will be halfway around the world. It makes Alex want to hold this day harder. To drive it at the right speed. That’s why she didn’t go home after they’d left his room and come downstairs together. She hadn’t been ready to exit Xander’s life.

So she’d followed him out back.

Where the smoky grill had made her immediately hungry. She’d stood in line at the barbecue grill, accepted a serving, and then sat next to Xander on the back-porch steps. An untouched hot dog and a scoop of potato salad balanced on a paper plate on her knees as she brain-surfed him. His left-side dimple, the smile that revealed almost every single one of his front teeth. His sweet growl of a laugh that let everyone inside the joke. The smack of his palms together like an exclamation mark. The “ohyeahyeah!” whenever he extra-agreed with a point in the conversation.

She’d also met a bunch more of the Empty Hands volunteers. Some of the tutored kids, and even Xander’s sister, Molly, who was home from her sophomore year of college. Inside and out, Molly was more like Xander than unlike him. Same knife-edged features and easy kindness, along with Xander’s teasing sense of humor.

“Might have to check the yard for craters,” Molly half whispered to him. But loud enough for Alex to hear. “You’ve fallen so hard.” Scooting out of the way of his pinch as Alex turned her head so that neither Heilprin saw her embarrassment.

“Xander. You gonna send postcards?” One of the kids had shuffled up to ask him shyly. “Cause you’re taking off soon, right?”

“Tonight.” Xander had looked over at Alex. Maybe to gauge her reaction? She’d smiled, close-mouthed. A smile that was okay with it. Totally chill with the fact that in a matter of hours, Xander would be vaulting halfway around the globe.

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