"Pendragon - 01 - The Merchant Of Death" - читать интересную книгу автора (MacHale D J)

“Hi.”

That was good. “Hi” isn’t much higher up on the cool scale than “Yo.” I was back in the game. It was time to start playing.

“What’s up?” I said.

Okay, maybe I wasn’t ready to play just yet. It was easier to lob the ball back into her court. It was then that I noticed something weird. Courtney looked nervous. Not out of her mind scared or anything, but a little bit uncomfortable. My confidence soared. She was just as tense as I was. That was good.

“I know you’ve got to get to the game and all, I don’t want to make you late,” she said with a little embarrassed smile.

What game? Oh, right, the county semifinal. Somehow it had slipped my mind.

“I’ve got plenty of time,” I lied casually. “C’mon in.”

I was recovering nicely. As she walked past me to come inside I got that faint hint of rose fragrance. It took every ounce of willpower not to do a huge-old sucking inhale to try and grab every ounce of that wonderful smell. That would have been dumb and this was definitely not the time to do something dumb because Courtney was now inside my home. She was on my turf. I closed the door behind her and we were alone.

I had no idea what to do next. Courtney turned to me and I made contact with those amazing gray eyes. My knees went soft. I prayed she didn’t notice.

“I wasn’t sure if I should come here,” she said tentatively.

“I’m glad you did,” I shot back with perfect timing. I kept the ball in her court, yet still managed to make her feel at ease. I was on fire.

“I’m not really sure why I picked now to come. Maybe it was to wish you good luck in the game. But I think it’s more than that.”

“Really?” Perfect comeback.

“I’m not exactly sure how to say this, Bobby, but since we were kids, I’ve had this…feeling about you.”

Feeling? Feeling is good, unless she feels like I’m an ax murderer or something.

“Oh?” I shot back. Noncommittal, nonaggressive, perfect.

“Man, I feel like such a geek saying this.” She broke eye contact. I was losing her. I didn’t want her to chicken out so the best thing I could do was throw her a bone.

“Courtney, there are a lot of words that come to mind when I think of you, but ‘geek’ is definitely not one of them.”

She looked back to me and smiled. We were back on track.

“I’m not really sure how to say this, so I’ll just say it. There’s something about you, Bobby. I know you’re a brain and a jock and popular and all, but it’s more than that. You’ve got this, like, I don’t know, this aura thing going on. People trust you. They like you. And it’s not like you’re trying to show off or anything. Maybe that’s part of it. You don’t act like you think you’re better than everybody else. You’re just this really good guy”—she paused before going on, then the bombshell—“who I’ve had this incredible crush on since fourth grade.”

Nothing in my wildest fantasy could have prepared me for that. I was speechless. I hoped my mouth wasn’t hanging open in stupefied shock.

“I’m not really sure why I’m telling you this now,” she went on. “But I have this weird feeling that if I didn’t, I might never get the chance again. And I wanted to tell you how I felt…and do this.”

That’s when it happened. The kiss. She stepped forward, hesitated a second to see if I’d stop her, (yeah right, like there was danger ofthat happening), and we kissed. I won’t rehash the details, but suffice it to say I was a happy guy. It was the most amazing thirty seconds of my life.

It was the thirty-first second when it all came crashing down.

My eyes were closed, but I could see a whole future full of Courtney and Courtney’s kisses. I don’t know if it’s possible to kiss and smile at the same time, but if it is, I did. And then I opened my eyes, and it was over.