Flipped

by Wendelin Van Draanen

grovel.”

scratching

half-stands

I’ve got her hand in mine, and I just can’t think.

I want to touch her cheek and see what it feels like. I want to touch her hair, it looks so incredibly soft.

broke away

hauled

I just wanted to be with her. To talk to her. To hold her hand again.

dodge

The know-it-all nuisance?

hazard.”

toast.

And every time I saw her, she seemed more beautiful. She just seemed to glow.

she just had this warmth to her.

blurted,

“She’s the same as she’s always been; you’re the one who’s changed.”

“And, son, from here on out, you’ll never be the same again.”

it’s that I’ve got to put my whole heart and soul into it and try.

scowled,

sweat and blood

didn’t let myself get sentimental. I had liked him for all the wrong reasons,

bimbette

Where was my peace? Where was my resolve? Where was my sanity?

I needed to rope him out of my life.

steered clear

fawning all over

and bolted out the door.

Chet had said about someone he knew who had never learned to look beneath the surface.

blow-by-blow,

he’s nobody that I want to like.

Was it so much to ask just to be left alone?

It just occurred to me that in all the years we’ve known each other, we’ve never done that. Never really talked.

illustrations (usually chicks or trees), some