On the Fringe Read Online Free

sank. “Why not?”
    “He says they met some friends at the party. They’re going to stay.”
    Dang!
    “What’s so great about that stupid party, anyway?” I griped, resigning myself to a lousy mood for the rest of the night.
    Addie whipped her head around and rolled her eyes in usual Addie fashion. “Who cares, Claire? Get over it.”
    Okay, so I was usually fine with the attitude. Occasionally, it got on my nerves, but Addie was mybest friend. We’d known each other since we were three, so I was willing to overlook a little moodiness here and there, accepting it as part of the package deal. Tonight was no different, though it didn’t help my mood any.
    As the lights dimmed, so did my excitement for the rest of the night. No matter how much I tried to clear my mind and think of something else, it was impossible trying not to picture Daniel getting comfortable with a bunch of clingy girls, while I’d been left behind in a stupid movie theater.
    “ Everyone’s going to be there,” I pouted again. “I wish we could go, too, instead of hanging out all by ourselves like losers at a dumb movie.”
    “Which was your idea,” Addie answered dryly.
    Convinced my life could not get any worse, I sunk back into the spongy headrest and closed my eyes until my phone buzzed from somewhere at the bottom of my purse. After fumbling in the dark for a couple of seconds, I finally found it. My heart jumped as soon as I saw the text. “It’s…it’s Daniel,” I announced too eagerly.
    Addie turned. “Why’s he texting you ?”
    I couldn’t help smiling, but still tried to hide my excitement. Addie would never let me live it down if she knew how much I dwelled on thoughts of her brother.
    “He says he’ll see us after the movie,” I said very coolly, though inside I felt like a combination of Diet Coke and Pop Rocks.
    “He couldn’t just tell me that?”
    He could. But he didn’t.
    The next ninety-three minutes crawled by. I tried to watch the movie, but didn’t care at all if the girl got the guy in the end (of course she did, they always do). I even checked my phone during the slow parts just to be sure Daniel wasn’t trying to call.
    But he wasn’t.
    Dang, again.
    When the credits started rolling, Addie and I made our way through the crowds to wait outside for our ride. We shivered in the misting rain at the edge of the sidewalk, wishing Mom would hurry up. I began wondering what was taking her so long since she was usually pretty OCD about that kind of thing.
    After tucking my hair behind my ears for the thousandth time, I realized any attempts to tame it were useless. The wind and rain would never stop shrinking it into a wavy, frizzy mess. That was just how things usually turned out for me.
    I glanced over at Addie with her smooth, dark hair flying all over the place, wondering how she always managed to look impeccable, even in the rain. She wore almost no makeup, yet her dark skin and thick eyelashes seemed merely an accent to the better parts of her—deep topaz eyes, subtle dimples that emerged when she smiled, and thick, mane-like hair extending down to her waist. Except for the scowl on her face, Addie was a striking image of natural beauty.
    When the mist turned into fat raindrops, Addie used her oversized purse as an umbrella while eyeing me again, this time with a look I took to mean my mom, my fault . Which was kind of true, but still . I turned the other way and pretended to ignore her as images of Daniel continued to invade my mind, images of a familiar smile that nearly crippled me, of dark hair falling into dark eyes.
    Cars came and went. Ten minutes more…
    Feeling rejected, I fell into a daze watching the swirling patterns of white, orange, and red car lights through my rain-spattered glasses, wishing Matthew and Daniel had come with us to the movies. I secretly hoped their party was a bust so they’d be as miserable as me.
    “Where is she?” Addie grumbled again, breaking into my thoughts