Total pages in book: 185
Estimated words: 180510 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 903(@200wpm)___ 722(@250wpm)___ 602(@300wpm)
Estimated words: 180510 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 903(@200wpm)___ 722(@250wpm)___ 602(@300wpm)
“Thanks, Josie. Now, every time I come here, I’ll think about someone kidnaping me, cutting up my body, and burying me in the woods.” I managed to snatch the bat away from her.
“Well, that’s what I always think about when I’m here with you,” she said matter-of-factly.
“You think about me being kidnapped or you?”
She didn’t answer me, not until I was in the batting cage hitting my third ball. Her fingers curled around the chain links as she leaned against the cage to watch me. “Both. I think we’ll be kidnapped and killed together. Or … what if our kidnapper makes us choose? What if only one of us can live? Would you choose me or yourself?”
“I don’t know.” I swung and missed. “Who would you choose?”
“I asked you first.”
“I’m not answering unless you answer first,” I said.
“Then let’s answer at the same time. I’ll count to three. Who would you save? One. Two. Three.”
We both said “me” at the same time. Then we shared an offended look at the same time.
“You’d let me die?” Josie’s jaw dropped.
I laughed and hit the next ball. “You’d let me die.”
“Yeah, but …” She had nothing.
“I don’t think the kidnapper would let us choose. He’d make us run, and the fastest one would get away.”
“Well …” She took several steps back from the cage. “That means you would die.”
“Uh …” I missed the next ball because I was looking at her overly confident grin. “No. That means you would die. I can run faster than you.”
“Why? Because you’re a boy?”
“Yes.”
“Let’s race.”
I shook my head.
“Scared you’re gonna lose?”
“No. I just don’t want you crying when I beat you.”
“I won’t cry.”
“Fine.” I dropped my bat and sighed as I exited the cage.
We found a strip of grass to the north of the fields and made a starting line with a few sticks pushed end to end. Then we did the same for the finish line.
“It’s like capture the flag.” Josie set a bigger stick right behind the finish line. “First to get the stick wins.”
“Promise you won’t cry?” I said as she hunched into a ready position at the starting line.
“Shut up, stupid. Mark. Set. Go!” Josie took off like a shot. Arms pumping furiously.
I can’t lie. She nearly beat me. Nearly.
And maybe she would have had she not tripped three feet before the finish line and scraped her hands and knees along the ground until they were grass-stained and a little bloodied.
“Are you okay?” I tossed the winning stick aside and knelt beside her as she pulled her knees to her chest and inspected her hands. I couldn’t see her face because her hair hung like a dark, silky veil around it.
“I’m fine,” she said just above a whisper in a shaky voice.
“Are you crying?”
“No.” She sniffled.
“If you are, it’s okay. You’re bleeding.”
“I’m not crying!” Her head whipped up straight. She wasn’t crying, but she had tears in her eyes, and she clenched her jaw so hard it made her whole upper body shake.
I didn’t know what to say, so I grabbed the prize stick and handed it to her. “Here. If you wouldn’t have tripped, you would have won.”
She stared at the stick for a few seconds and sniffled again before taking it from me. “I’ll be your girlfriend.”
“What?”
She shrugged one shoulder. “I said I’ll be your girlfriend. Your mom said you have a crush on me. And my dad said I should never like a boy who isn’t nice to me. You did the right thing. I won, and you gave me the stick. So I’ll be your girlfriend for the rest of the summer.”
My young brain didn’t know how to respond. She packed so much into her little speech. She wasn’t faster than me. She simply got a head start because she said “mark, set, go” so quickly. And I never said I wanted her to be my girlfriend. Then there was the summer part. She’d be my girlfriend for the rest of the summer? Why? Why did I need a girlfriend for the rest of the summer?
“But you should get a skateboard. Jenn had a boyfriend last summer, and they rode to the skate park all the time. Sometimes they kissed. We’re not kissing because you lick your lips a lot, and I’m not kissing your lips after you’ve licked them.”
“No thank you.” I stood and headed back to the batting cage to get my bat and bag.
“What do you mean no thank you?”
“If we’re not going to kiss, then I don’t need you to be my girlfriend. And I already have a skateboard, but one of its wheels got busted off when my dad accidentally ran over it with his car. And you’re not faster than me. And I shouldn’t have given you the stick because now you’re acting weird. Well … weirder than you already are.”