A Place So Wicked Patrick Reuman (children's ebooks free online TXT) 📖

room, the door seemed to be shrouded in a shadow, masking it from the rest of the room.

The wooden frame stood centerpiece in a wall that stretched horizontally across the attic, splitting it into what looked like two separate rooms. He opened the door into another empty space where one window, the third he had originally seen from outside, lit the way. He smiled to himself as the idea that the attic could be a decent bedroom became more and more likely. He scanned the space quickly and noticed something that turned the smile into a frown and thus essentially eliminated its chance at becoming his bedroom. There were no plug outlets. Not even one.

He closed the door, his shoulders sagging with disappointment, and turned to face the windows. As if standing atop a watch tower, he could see straight over some of the houses, all the way to the next street over where he could just barely make out roofs. It felt almost as though he was a king sitting on his high throne, watching down over his disciples from a place in the clouds.

He noticed a girl just standing there, staring up at him from across the street. His cheeks flushed, embarrassed, remembering the childish fantasy he had been in as though she knew exactly what he had been imagining. He stared back, but she did not flinch or look away as he, for some reason, expected her to. Finally, he lifted his hand and waved. She smiled, or at least that was what it looked like from there, and waved back.

3

He could hardly believe what he was doing even as he reached the bottom of the attic stairs. But he couldn’t just run and hide, not after she had clearly seen him there, not after that wave which seemed so much like an invitation. He reached the second set of stairs and started down them, hearing his brother and sister talking from somewhere on the second floor as he descended.

But he didn’t stop, because if he did, he was afraid he wouldn’t start walking again. Women never talked to him at his old school, not intentionally at least. But here, in this new place, nobody knew him yet. Nobody knew he was a loser. He was just some new kid in a big, fancy house. He wondered if maybe he might even seem mysterious, a new family showing up and taking over the fanciest house in town. It sounded mysterious enough to him.

As he passed through the front door, stepping out into the fading light of the approaching dusk, he did so in a way he felt was cool. He walked with a sort of swagger. But it vanished the moment he saw the girl’s deep blue eyes staring at him as he approached. His legs went weak and wobbly, and he thought for a second that his stomach may have liquified within him. She was short, maybe five foot two or something like that, and had long, beautiful blond hair that reached down to her waist.

“Hello, stranger,” she said, her smile wide, her teeth gleaming against the fading light.

“Hello,” he said, trying to return the smile.

“You watching me from up there?” she asked.

He almost stopped in his tracks. The wave hadn’t been an invitation to come say hello, but rather, an awkward gesture from a girl who thought she was being watched. But then she smiled again.

“Kidding,” she giggled.

“I actually thought you were the one watching me,” he said.

“Nope.” She gestured to her left. “Just checking the mail. Forgot to earlier.”

He couldn’t believe he hadn’t noticed the mailbox there, but then again, he could believe it. He had been stunned by her beauty, even from afar, the moment his eyes locked on to hers, that he wouldn’t be surprised if he had missed the mailbox being on fire if it had been. He tried his best not to blush.

“Right. Right. Of course. I was kidding, too.” He felt himself turning red, a heat flushing over his entire body. Soon, the sweat would come. Did he have deodorant on? Of course he did. But suddenly, he couldn’t really remember having put it on.

“New to town, huh?” she said.

“Yeah, moving in right now, actually. Well, we just finished for the most part.”

She nodded her head like she understood something. Then she smiled again. “You pick your room yet?”

“No. Well, sort of. Nothing official, though.”

She pointed past Toby’s head. “That one?”

He turned to see where she was pointing. His blood ran cold when he saw that she was pointing up at the room where he had thought he had seen his sister a short while ago.

He shook his head. “No, I don’t think I’ll be in that one.”

“Too bad,” she said.

His raised his eyebrow. “Too bad?”

She was still staring up at that window but snapped out of it when she noticed Toby was staring at her. “I just mean, it looks like a nice bedroom, on the corner of the house like that.”

He wasn’t sure what part of being in the corner of a house made a room particularly special, but he didn’t feel the need to press it. He was just happy a girl was talking to him, and this one, well, she was absolutely gorgeous. No need to ruin it already by being weird and fixating.

“Well,” she pushed her hair back behind her ear, “I guess I better be getting back inside.”

She stuck her hand out, and he moved in with his own. Their hands locked. They held hands. It wasn’t quite like that, or at all like that. It was just a handshake.

“It was nice meeting you…”

“Toby.”

“Well, Toby, it was nice meeting you. I’m Addison, by the way. You can call me Addy, though.”

She released his hand and turned around, heading