The Girl in My Dreams Read Online Free Page B

what reason I didn’t know.
    “You guys better get going,” my mother said as she came up to the door.
    “Yeah, we still have to stop by my place to get Tanya,” Martin said.
    Martin was going to drive me to the fair, and as far as I knew, I was coming home with Belle, though I supposed that was up in the air. Who knew what kind of party she’d get invited to after the festivities. There was always a party, a massive house party, and of course I was never invited.
    I grabbed my phone, wallet, and keys before we left and got into his beater car. The windows barely rolled down, the air didn’t work, and best of all, it didn’t have a horn. I guess that’s what you get when you buy an almost twenty-year-old car on Craigslist.
    Martin turned on the radio and a new song from Maroon 5 started playing softly in the background. With cars whizzing all around us, Martin pulled into his neighborhood, which was about seven or eight minutes from mine, and pulled into his driveway before pulling out his phone and texting for Tanya to come out. She did a minute later, with his mom standing in the doorway yelling at him to keep an eye on her and make sure to stay with her at all times. He rolled his eyes, Tanya got in the backseat, and we pulled back out before the one thing that always happened when I was around Tanya happened.
    “Helloooo, Theo,” she said in an excited voice.
    “Hi, Tanya. How are you?” I asked politely.
    “Better now that you’re here,” she said, giggling.
    “Out of anyone in the world you can be in love with, you choose my best friend. Awesome,” Martin said.
    “Shut up, Martin!” she said, smacking him on the shoulder.
    It was a sad testament to my life that an eleven-year-old girl was the only female on this planet who had a crush on me.
    “This line is horrible,” Martin said when we got to the fairgrounds and joined the long line of cars waiting to park.
    My phone buzzed. It was Belle asking me where I was so that she could come meet up with me. Weighing my options and looking at the unmoving line of cars in front of us, I decided to just skip waiting with Martin and Tanya in favor of a few extra minutes with Belle. I felt a little bad, but it wasn’t like I was totally ditching Martin.
    “Belle is looking for me. I think I’m going to get out here and go inside,” I said.
    “Oh yeah, leave me with the little monster in back, huh?” he asked.
    Tanya, not liking his comment, slapped him on the shoulder. He winced and moved out of her way.
    “Do you see what you’re doing to me? Seriously, do you see it?” he asked.
    “Sorry, buddy,” I said, getting out of the car and then texting Belle that I was just about to pay and come inside.
    I could almost hear Martin’s screams for mercy as I handed five dollars to the ticket girl and went inside. The ground was covered with hay that had been trampled on all day so it mushed into the grass and mud underneath. Lines for funnel cakes were two-dozen people strong, and the rides in the distance were spinning so fast I thought I was going to get sick just from watching.
    “Theo!”
    I looked right to see Belle, her pink flannel shirt tied in the front with a white shirt underneath. She was wearing lighter jeans with the legs tucked into some cowboy boots.
    “Hey,” I said, smiling, as I walked up to her.
    “I was starting to worry that you ditched me,” she joked.
    “Nah, I’d never do that. Not to you, anyway,” I said.
    “Good,” she replied, her cheeks turning a light shade of pink.
    “So, what do you want to do?” I asked, looking around.
    “I thought that maybe we could get a snack and something to drink and sit down? I want to make sure I make it in time for the routine, and I’m not sure if I could after standing in line for one of these rides. They’re packed,” she said.
    “Yeah, that’s no problem at all. It sounds nice,” I said.
    “Cool. We’ll do rides after,” she said.
    We walked up to a vendor who had your