Blink Once by Cylin Busby

Author:Cylin Busby [Busby, Cylin]
Language: eng
Format: epub, mobi
Publisher: Bloomsbury USA Childrens
Published: 0101-01-01T00:00:00+00:00

Chapter 17

When I woke up the next morning, it was a bright winter day—the kind of day where the sun seems too white, too stark, and you imagine for a second that you’re on another planet, in a sci-fi movie. The clock read only 9:30. Was it Sunday or Monday? I couldn’t remember at first. Then I did. It was Sunday. Yesterday was Saturday. Mom and Dad and Allie and Mike. And Olivia. Her face last night, that kiss, her telling me good-bye. But she didn’t mean it. I knew her, just like she knew me. And I knew that any minute I would hear the divider slide open, and she would be there, pulling her IV stand behind her, looking down at her feet, feeling shy because of how she had acted, the things she had said last night. She had told me she loved me. Not that it was a surprise—it was one of those unspoken things between us—but still she had said it, and that meant something. I knew exactly how much it took to say that to someone, to be the first one to say it, because of Allie.

One afternoon, after school, we were walking to the bus stop—I didn’t really need to stay after school that day since my work on the sets was pretty much done, but I did anyhow. I used some excuse to stay and watch Allie onstage. She was good, I had noticed before, but now that we were hanging out, I felt this overwhelming sense of pride watching her move onstage, deliver her lines. She slipped into character so smoothly, from joking around backstage to really being the girl she was supposed to be in the play. I imagined her famous someday; it could happen, she was talented and really pretty. And there was just something about her, she had that special thing that made you want to get close to her. I’m sure I wasn’t the only person who noticed it.

When we left the school two hours later, it was freezing out, almost dark, and we walked close. Allie was wearing that puffy blue coat. She looked like a blue marshmallow with a white hat on; cute, even though I knew she didn’t think so. I kept grabbing her, squeezing her, hard enough to push the air out of the down jacket, but it would just puff right up again. “Knock it off.” She laughed. “Put me down!” but I kept doing it until she was almost actually annoyed with me.

While we waited at the bus stop, I stood behind her and put my arms around her waist. She leaned back against me and we were quiet. Even though it was freezing out, I felt totally happy, just standing there with Allie, listening to the sound of the snow settling into the cold. When I look back on it now, I get it: we were alone. There weren’t any distractions, so she was mine, for that moment. I was thinking about Allie onstage, and the Allie I had in my arms.

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