Marianna Baer - Frost

Здесь есть возможность читать онлайн «Marianna Baer - Frost» весь текст электронной книги совершенно бесплатно (целиком полную версию без сокращений). В некоторых случаях можно слушать аудио, скачать через торрент в формате fb2 и присутствует краткое содержание. Год выпуска: 2011, ISBN: 2011, Издательство: Balzer+ Bray, Жанр: Ужасы и Мистика, на английском языке. Описание произведения, (предисловие) а так же отзывы посетителей доступны на портале библиотеки ЛибКат.

Frost: краткое содержание, описание и аннотация

Предлагаем к чтению аннотацию, описание, краткое содержание или предисловие (зависит от того, что написал сам автор книги «Frost»). Если вы не нашли необходимую информацию о книге — напишите в комментариях, мы постараемся отыскать её.

Leena Thomas’s senior year at boarding school starts with a cruel shock: Frost House, the cozy Victorian dorm where she and her best friends live, has been assigned an unexpected roommate—eccentric Celeste Lazar.
As classes get under way, strange happenings begin to bedevil Frost House: frames falling off walls, doors locking themselves, furniture toppling over. Celeste blames the housemates, convinced they want to scare her into leaving. And although Leena strives to be the peacekeeper, soon the eerie happenings in the dorm, an intense romance between Leena and Celeste’s brother, David, and the reawakening of childhood fears all push Leena to take increasingly desperate measures to feel safe. But does the threat lie with her new roommate, within Leena’s own mind… or in Frost House itself?
From debut author Marianna Baer,
is a stunning and surprising tale of suspense that will have readers on the edge of their seats

Frost — читать онлайн бесплатно полную книгу (весь текст) целиком

Ниже представлен текст книги, разбитый по страницам. Система сохранения места последней прочитанной страницы, позволяет с удобством читать онлайн бесплатно книгу «Frost», без необходимости каждый раз заново искать на чём Вы остановились. Поставьте закладку, и сможете в любой момент перейти на страницу, на которой закончили чтение.

Тёмная тема
Сбросить

Интервал:

Закладка:

Сделать

“I don’t want to go,” I said. And I knew what I meant. There were many ways it was true. I didn’t want to go to the interview. I didn’t want to go to Columbia. I didn’t want to go anywhere.

No one is making you , Cubby said.

“But I have to.” I pushed into my palms, hoping I’d be able to raise myself up, hoping I wouldn’t be able to.

You don’t have to. You can stay right here.

David found me in the backyard where I was finally planting the bulbs I’d bought at Home Depot.

“Leena.” He crossed the yard with quick, long strides. “What’s going on? Why didn’t you answer my calls?”

“Sorry. I’ve been out here for a while.” My cheeks, cold from the damp fall air, heated up.

“Didn’t you have your interview at two?”

“Mm-hm.” I turned my attention back to the hole I’d been digging for the next bulb. An angular stone blocked my trowel from going deeper. I reached down and worked it out of the hard earth.

“So …” he said. “How’d it go?”

“Okay.”

“Just okay? C’mon, you’ve got to give me more than that.”

David leaned his knees against my back. His hands raked through my hair, tingled my scalp. The affection intensified the guilt in my stomach.

“Good. It was good.” I nestled a lumpy tulip bulb in the hole. “Harder than I thought, maybe.” I couldn’t possibly tell him the truth: that I’d been twenty minutes late. And that my interview clothes had been rumpled and wrinkled from my time in the closet. A raw breeze slid across my scarfless neck. I shivered.

“Hard? What kind of hard?” David said.

Why couldn’t he leave it alone? I fil ed the hole with soil and smacked it down with the back of the trowel, then brushed my hands together. I stood up and turned to face him.

“Look,” I said, “you’re not going through all this college stuff, so maybe you don’t get that it’s really not a fun topic.” My voice had an edge to it.

His lips parted for a moment. “I’m just asking because I’m psyched for next year. That’s all. Did it … did it not go well?”

“I’m going inside. It’s cold.” I walked around the side of the house. David’s steps crinkled dry leaves behind me.

“Leena,” he said. “Wait …”

My throat tightened. David had no way of knowing it was myself I was angry at. He followed me inside, down the hall.

Hot water from the bathroom faucet cut through the blackish soil on my hands and swirled it down the drain. Warmth flooded up from my hands and through my body as if the boiling liquid was running directly through my veins.

“I’m sorry,” David said from outside the bathroom door. “I just—”

“I can’t hear you,” I called over the whoosh of water. “I’ll be out in a minute.”

I turned off the tap and dried my pink hands on a towel. Afternoon sun filtered through the bathroom’s small stained-glass window, a window not so different in style from the one drawn on my skin, the one that continued to fade, as if my body was trying to forget the memory of my old room. The late sun cast a red-and-blue glow on the wall above the tub. The chalky white paint absorbed the color like a bloodstain.

I did want to live with David next year, didn’t I? Why had I jeopardized that by screwing up my interview? Twenty minutes late is unheard of. Unthinkable. A big, red X on my application folder.

What had Cubby told me when I’d been in the closet after my interview? You’ll end up where you’re supposed to be . A good philosophy to live by.

I found David waiting for me on my bed.

“Did you get parietals?” I asked.

“I checked before. She’s not home.”

“David.” I stood next to him instead of sitting down. “You know we can’t risk getting busted.”

“When has she ever, ever come back here?” he said. “Not once.” He reclined on an elbow and patted the bed with his other hand. Reluctantly, I shrugged off my jacket and sat next to him. He reached his hand under the back of my sweater. The cold touch sent tentacles creeping up my spine. I lay down so he’d have to move it. But he took my shift as an invitation to lean over me, to remove my glasses, to place hands alongside my shoulders and start kissing.

I want this. I want this. I had to repeat this over and over in my head whenever we fooled around in Frost House. For some reason, at David’s dorm, I was completely relaxed. I loved every moment of touching him, and being touched. And loved that we were having fun without going further than I wanted, which, for now, meant we hadn’t had sex. But here, in my own room, my skin never felt quite right with someone else’s hands on them. My heart would pound, but not in a good way. My mind wandered … began to picture things like Celeste’s cockroaches lying right where we were. And, I hated to think it, because it made me feel like Celeste, but I had a bit of a sensation that someone was watching us. Probably because I knew she could be right outside the door at any time.

I rolled out from under David and reached for my glasses. “I’m sorry,” I said. “I’m just too paranoid. It’s not worth getting kicked out.”

He sat up, his face flushed, readjusted his pants. “So you want me to leave?”

“I don’t want you to.” I leaned over and nuzzled his cheek, rubbed my nose in the warm crook of his neck. Did I want him to leave? He smelled so good. And when he left, it would just be me. “I don’t know,” I said. “I’m just freaked about the probation thing.”

“That’s all it is?” he said.

“Yeah.”

I gave him what I meant to be a quick kiss but it turned into a long, hard one. For a moment, my body hummed and squirmed and wanted to be against his. This time, he pulled away.

“If I’m leaving, it has to be now.” His lips glistened, deep pinkish red.

I considered changing my mind. It had felt so good, for a moment there. But then, behind him, I caught a glimpse of something. The closet door was open just enough so you could see my mattress. Usually I was so careful. I couldn’t believe I’d left it open like that.

“Yeah,” I said. “You’d better go.”

Chapter 31

THE FOLLOWING FRIDAY was the start of Barcroft-Edgerton weekend, our weekend of sports events with our rival school. Old bedsheets, spray painted with war cries and crudely drawn pictures, hung between windows on the big, brick dorms along the center quad. What Do We Eat? RED MEAT!!!! Red = DEAD . Go BIG BLUE!!

At the beginning of the semester I’d imagined Frost House working together on a banner. Ha. I readjusted the strap of my book bag and kicked at a lacrosse ball hiding under a cover of sunset-colored leaves. I leaned over to pick up a quarter, and when I stood back up, the quad spun before me. I closed my eyes to regain balance.

When I opened my eyes, the world stood still again. In the days since my Columbia interview, I’d been taking a regular dose of pills to counteract my constant “What now?” anxiety. Dizziness was a possible side effect, but I’d never had it happen before.

“Leena?” A girl’s voice came from behind me. I turned and saw red hair sprouting from under a navy Barcroft baseball cap. Nicole Kellogg. She stood with a short, curvy girl—another freshman.

“Nicole, hi,” I said. We hadn’t said more than a word in passing to each other since the counseling session. I’d considered talking to her about it, but eventually—when it was obvious she wasn’t leaving school—I didn’t care enough to bother.

“Hi,” she said. “This is my friend, Sera.”

Sera and I exchanged heys.

“I was wondering if you have hours anytime soon?” Nicole asked. “You know, office hours.”

Читать дальше
Тёмная тема
Сбросить

Интервал:

Закладка:

Сделать

Похожие книги на «Frost»

Представляем Вашему вниманию похожие книги на «Frost» списком для выбора. Мы отобрали схожую по названию и смыслу литературу в надежде предоставить читателям больше вариантов отыскать новые, интересные, ещё непрочитанные произведения.


Отзывы о книге «Frost»

Обсуждение, отзывы о книге «Frost» и просто собственные мнения читателей. Оставьте ваши комментарии, напишите, что Вы думаете о произведении, его смысле или главных героях. Укажите что конкретно понравилось, а что нет, и почему Вы так считаете.

x