Love and Other Theories by Bass Alexis

Author:Bass,Alexis
Language: eng
Format: epub
Publisher: HarperTeen

UNCORRECTED E-PROOF—NOT FOR SALE

HarperCollins Publishers

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“Who do you think you are, Little Susie?” my mother shouts at me over the phone. I have the urge to call her a dork for saying that, for referencing that ridiculous old song that she hums along to in the kitchen, “Wake Up Little Susie,” about a girl and boy who fall asleep together by mistake. But calling her names will only hurt my cause.

“I’m sorry, Mom, it was an accident! I swear!”

I’m standing in Trip’s dining room staring out the window, waiting for Melissa to pull into the driveway with clothes and deodorant and makeup, while my mother tells me over the phone again how worried she was and how mad she is. I don’t point out that she knew exactly where I was and that if she was as worried as she claimed to be in the voice mail she left me last night, she could have just come over and gotten me.

I don’t dare go home this morning. If my mother were to see me like this, with bed head and smelling like cedar and Trip’s aftershave, it would only make things worse for me.

Melissa’s white car tears through the trees and pulls up the gravel driveway.

“Okay, Mom, I have to go. Can we talk about this tonight?”

“Come straight home after school. I mean it. This isn’t over!”

Melissa storms inside and I’m so quick to greet her we practically bump into each other. Shelby’s with her, but she’s in no rush. She hasn’t even made it to the porch when Melissa and I scurry into the bathroom. Melissa’s brought a hair dryer, which she blows at me in the Chapmans’ tiny bathroom while I attempt to change into the clothing she’s brought. I’ve managed to shower this morning. It would have been nice if the Chapmans used conditioner.

Shelby doesn’t join us in the bathroom. We can hear her in hallway teasing Zane, speaking to him through the crack in his door.

“Zane, get up and entertain me.”

“I’ve missed you.”

“Do you sleep in the nude?”

“Zaaannnnee, are you dreaming about me?”

“Where’s your little girlfriend?”

When I’m finally fit to be seen—wearing a pair of Shelby’s jeans, which are just a little too long, and one of Melissa’s long-sleeve tees, with dryish hair and a made-up face—we find Shelby in the living room chatting with Trip, hunched over the coffee table as he eats cereal.

He smiles when he sees me. “Is the fire out?”

Only Shelby laughs since Melissa and I took this whole getting-me-to-school-looking-normal-and-not-as-if-I’ve-just-slept-over-at-Trip-Chapman’s-house mission very seriously.

Trip was a zombie when I woke up this morning. At seven a.m. Less than an hour before the first bell. I screamed and ran around the room, called Melissa, jumped in the shower, then finally called my mother. Trip, still fully clothed with his shoes on, had mumbled something like, “Oh shit,” but fell right back asleep.

“Are you going to be okay?” Trip asks me, leaning around Shelby so he can see me.

It’s not fair, the way Trip’s looking at me right now.

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