My heart stopped. It just stopped beating. And for the first time in my life, I had that feeling. You know, like the world is moving all around you, all beneath you, all inside you, and you're floating. Floating inmidair. And the only thing keeping you from drifting away is the other person's eyes. They're connected to yours by some invisible physical force, and they hold you fast while the rest of the world swirls and twirls and falls completely away.
Chapter 03 Buddy, Beware!
fire brigade
Because the girl's got an iron backbone.
“A girl like that doesn't live next door to everyone, you know. ”
This was the first time he'd made the effort to talk to me about something besides passing the salt.
unsolicited
in the nick of time
Chapter 04 The Sycamore Tree
“A painting is more than the sum of its parts, ” he would tell me, and then go on to explain how the cow by itself is just a cow, and the meadow by itself is just grass and flowers, and the sun peeking through the trees is just a beam of light, but put them all together and you've got magic.
give it a shot
pomegranates
So I kept quiet, kept climbing, and felt a somewhat lonely joy as I looked out over the world
trespassing
Chapter 05 Brawk-Brawk-Brawk!
majorleague
call her eggs into question.
sorry-looking
dilapidated
Correctamundo
look that little tiger square in the eye
off the hook
distraction
spare her feelings
Chapter 06 The Eggs
It's not open to discussion
You don't have to be animmediate expert at everything, Juli. The idea here is to learn something new.”
thermometers
hygrometer.
incandescent
contaminate
fluctuations
took forever
self-sufficient
piped up with
constrictor
cock-a-doodle-do
squirreling
encroach upon.
preoccupied
Out of sorts
My throat suddenly choked closed and I found it painful to speak.
Chapter 07 Get a Grip, Man
deteriorating
One's character is set at an early age, son. The choices you make now will affect you for the rest of your life.
shoot some hoops
out of line
inclination
chromosomal
“Some of us get dipped in flat, some in satin, some in gloss... ” He turned to me. “But every once in a while you find someone who's iridescent, and when you do, nothing will ever compare.”
Chapter 08 The Yard
secretarial
undertaking
Having him appear on my sidewalk was like having someone from TV step through the screen and talk to you.
The boy still has a ways to go.
The spitting image of his father.”
“It's easy to look back and see it, and it's easy to give the advice, but the sad fact is, most people don't look beneath the surface until it's too late.”
germination
hold out hope
Chapter 09 Looming Large and Smelly
hash browns
cracking up
Mom glared at him.“What I'm expecting is for you to behave like the gentleman I always thought you were.”
wound up eating
intercepting
caught wind of this
Chapter 10 The Visit
fix breakfast
rustle us up
It was like the silence connected us in a way that explanations never could.
intersection
staying put
neutralizing
intelligible
getting myself pretty worked up
melancholy.
that he's been crushing on you
stomp and grind
Chapter 11 The Serious Willies
button-down
Hors d'oeuvres
regurgitation
prohibitive
astronomically
dropped their jaws
You are such a two-faced, condescending, narrow-minded jackass! ”
Chapter 12 The Dinner
scrutinized
rule it out
left him there with his apology hanging wounded in the air.
It felt good to take charge of my own destiny! I feltstrong and right and certain.
Chapter 13 Flipped
shanghaied.
Misery loves company.
specifications
mortification
works herself up
And every time I saw her, she seemed more beautiful. She just seemed to glow. I'm not talking like a hundred-watt bulb; she just had this warmth to her. Maybe it came from climbing that tree. Maybe it came from singing to chickens. Maybe it came from whacking at twoby-fours and dreaming about perpetual motion. I don't know. All I know is that compared to her, Shelly and Miranda seemed so... ordinary.
he said softly. “She's the same as she's always been;you're the one who's changed.”
Chapter 14 The Basket Boys
looked over each shoulder.
skeptically
sentimental
possessiveness
backsliding
windbreaker
scrumptious
She's through
Mom, all those years I liked him? I never really knew him. All I knew was that he had the most beautiful eyes I'd ever seen and that his smile melted my heart like the sun melts butter. But now I know that inside he's a coward and a sneak, so I've got to get over what he's like on the outside! ”
blow-by-blow
Maybe my mother's right. Maybe there is more to Bryce Loski than I know.Maybe it's time to meet him in the proper light.
