The Islanders by Katherine Applegate Page B

sunglasses.
    She’d only seen his eyes a few times since he’d lost his sight. They were dark brown, and looked normal except that they never focused. They were always pointed just a little bit wrong.Benjamin could fake it better with his shades on. Then you didn’t notice that no matter how hard he tried to look like he was gazing right into your eyes, he was really staring at nothing at all.
    â€œWould I like you if you could see?” she whispered, unaware until she heard the words that she was speaking aloud.
    She looked at his mouth. Did she want to kiss him?
    Well, did she? That’s what guys and girls did. It’s what Lucas was doing to Zoey, trying to get her to lighten up. It’s what Aisha and Christopher were doing.
    She tried to picture it—Benjamin leaning close, his mouth moving toward hers.
    The only time a guy had seriously tried to kiss her and touch her she had practically hurled.
    Nina realized she was wringing her hands, twisting her fingers together. She put her hands at her sides and leaned back casually against the railing. She was fine. She was cool. Who cared what people thought of her, anyway?
    Could you be in love with someone and not want them to at least kiss you? Was that possible? Because that was how she felt.
    She could imagine telling Benjamin she loved him. She could even imagine him, somehow, feeling the same about her. But the thought of him looking at her with that look Nina had so often seen guys aim at her sister, at her best friend. . . Thatlook made her sick. That was the truth: it just made her feel sick and brought memories flooding up out of the hidden parts of her mind. Of course, Benjamin couldn’t look at her that way, or any way. He couldn’t stare at her. He couldn’t even kiss her unless she wanted him to. And he couldn’t touch her . . . He couldn’t touch her unless she invited him to.
    Zoey pouted, her chin raised loftily, gazing with feigned unconcern toward the island. If Lucas wanted to be a jerk, okay. He could be a jerk. If he wanted to act like he was too good to be involved in the lowly activities of the school, fine, then he was too good. She wasn’t going to try to talk him into it anymore.
    If he wanted to hurt the feelings of the people who had nominated him and basically slap them each in the face, it wasn’t Zoey’s problem.
    Then she caught sight of Nina, standing alone by the railing. Maybe Nina’s approach was better overall. Here Zoey was, unhappy because of a guy, and Claire was unhappy because of a guy. Aisha looked happy enough, but that was just one out of three, not very good odds.
    Not that Nina seemed very happy at the moment, either. Something was bothering her. All day long she had been too shrill, too strange. Too Nina.
    Lucas shifted on the bench beside her, drawing Zoey’sattention back to him.
    The jerk. What was worse was that he was acting like he just assumed he’d win homecoming king. Not exactly a sure thing when one of the other guys running was Jake. Jake had lots of friends in school. He was a very popular guy.
    In fact, he was the best bet to win. Then, if Zoey won herself, she would be in the awkward position of reigning with her former boyfriend.
    She wondered how Lucas would feel about that.
    A slow smile spread on Zoey’s face. Had Lucas even thought of that possibility?
    She sighed. “I’ve decided you’re right, Lucas. If you don’t want to be involved, I respect that.”
    â€œYou do?” he asked suspiciously.
    â€œAbsolutely,” she said. “It won’t be so bad. First of all, I probably won’t win. Second of all, even if I do, Jake will probably win for the guys and it will be like old times, me and him together. Me and Jake. Together.”
    Lucas looked at her impassively. “Nice try.”
    Aisha savored the feel of his lips on hers. Okay, she had been dumb to fight it so long. She was prepared to admit it,