The Azuli by Cassidy Shay (best beach reads of all time TXT) 📕

say. “Oh,” he said. “I’ll just wait outside.”
I got dressed as quickly as I could, and then let Jack in. “Guys, I don’t care what Carl says. I need to talk to Collin today. I promised I would see him every day.” They both nodded, and then Jack volunteered to stay behind so Carl wouldn’t have a reason to freak out too much.
When the lunch bell rang, Macy left and Jack sat next to me on the bed. “You really like him, don’t you?” he asked, and I nodded, but didn’t say anything. “I thought so. Does he like you?” I shrugged, but then I nodded.
“He does.” I didn’t say anything else, and neither did Jack. A few minutes later, Collin came in.
“Hey, Jack,” he said, surprised. Then he turned to me. “He’s letting me see you still? After… you know?”
I shook my head, and Jack and I explained what happened. Both of us interrupted the other fairly often, as siblings will do. While we explained, Collin didn’t say anything, but gave an occasional nod.
After that, we talked for a few minutes, and then Jack eased his way out of the room. He tried to do it so that we wouldn’t see through his plan, but it was obvious that he was trying to give us some “alone time.” When he left, Collin looked at me with a raised eyebrow.
“Did he really just do that?” he asked, and I laughed. “Does he think we do anything more than talk when I come to see you?” I shrugged, but I was still laughing, so I couldn’t say much.
After I was able to calm down, I looked around the room. “Well, we can draw. That’s something other than talking.” I reached into my drawer and pulled out a pencil and a piece of paper. “They always keep pencils and paper in our drawers so that if we decide we have the sudden urge to draw a Memory, we won’t have to look far for the materials,” I said, and he chuckled.
“Penny, I’m the one who puts the paper and pencils in the drawers. Remember?” I told him to shut up and shoved the paper and pencil into his hands.
“Draw a person walking their dog,” I said. He started drawing stick figures, and I stopped him. “How about this. I’ll draw one first, and then you can use mine as a model,” I told him.
I closed my eyes and started to pick out a Memory, but then I stopped myself. “Time me,” I told him, and then I began.
A small boy walks down the street, his new puppy at his side. There is a bounce in his step as he walks through the streets. It’s starting to get dark, so the streetlights turn on, creating deep shadows.
He has no leash with him, but he knows that his puppy will remain at his side until they reach their destination¬– home. Cars pass him on the road, their headlights making his shadow reach to the end of the street, then shrink back to an inch.
This young, simple child, with his new best friend, is happier than he has been in a long time.

I stopped and looked at him. “How long?” I asked.
“Um… that was like… four seconds, or something,” he said. “How did you do that?” I didn’t answer, just gave him a new piece of paper. He started trying to copy my drawing while I muffled my laughter. By the time he had finished the man, I’d made a decision.
“By the time I leave here, I’m going to make an artist of you.” For the rest of lunch, we drew. I gave him tips on how to improve his artwork, and he learned quickly. When lunch was almost over, Jack came back in.
“Collin, lunch is almost done. If you haven’t finished cleaning, you should probably go do that now.”
Collin and I stood up, and he gave me a hug. “I’ll see you tomorrow, okay?” he said, and I nodded. “Promise?” I nodded again, and he gave me another hug, squeezing me tight before he left.
When everyone came in, the first thing Carl did was walk over to me. He stood possessively, the same way a slave holder would stand next to his slave. He didn’t touch me, though, as if he only wanted me so that no one else could have me. His stance made me angry, but I didn’t say anything. The tension in the room hung in the air like fog.
The conversation was shallow, no meaning to any of our words. It was, as a whole, a meaningless waste of time.
Of course, I was happy for the time with my friends, and I loved seeing my parents. But with all the tension, everyone was afraid to talk, scared that they would say the wrong thing and blow us all up.
As we sat in the room talking, I noticed that every once in a while, Carl would glance at the doorway, as if he was on the lookout for someone. Finally, I couldn’t stand it anymore.
“Carl, you can stop it. He’s not going to come by to see me right now, so you might as well just stop looking for him. And while you’re at it, it would be nice if you stopped treating me like something you own. We may be getting married in two days, but I will never be something that you own, something that you can call yours. What happened in that room was completely innocent, and it was exactly what I told you- nothing more, and nothing less.” I stood up and started walking out of the room, but Jack stopped me with his arm.
“You two need to work these things out. If you’re fighting like this in front of our parents, and still end up getting married, imagine what they’ll think. If that happens, then they’ve got to think that something’s going on here, and we can all get in trouble.” He focused his eyes on me.
“Penny, I know that you don’t want to do this. I know that you don’t want to get married, especially when you’re this young, and especially in front of your parents, and especially when you don’t love the guy. But you’ve got to be strong. Only five more days, and we’ll be done. We won’t have to lie anymore, and if you want, you’ll only have to see Carl at night. But you have to understand how important these last few days are. While our parents are here, you’ve got to stop fighting.”
He took a deep breath, and then began speaking again. This time, he was looking at Carl. “Carl, you’ve been my best friend for a long time, and you’re like a brother to me. But you’ve got to stop acting like you own her. She’s not your pet, and she’s not your toy. She’s my sister and your friend. Ease up a little on her. You’re making her life miserable. She might not mention it often, but I can see it in her eyes. If you don’t back down a little, she’ll end up killing you.” He paused for breath, and then looked at Macy and Mary. “You two, come with me. We need to give these guys some time alone so that they can sort these things out.” The girls followed him out and the door shut with a loud bang.
I looked at Carl, and he looked right back at me. I was the first to speak. “I’m not backing down on this,” I told him. “You need to stop being so controlling. You used to be like a brother to me, and now I can’t even stand looking at you, or being in the same room as you. All because you can’t even let me do my own thing. You know that I don’t love you, but you still treat me like this is the real world, and we’re getting married because we love each other and we want to do this. But I don’t, Carl. I don’t love you, and I don’t even like you anymore. This whole thing has morphed you into someone that I don’t know. Someone who I don’t even want to know.”
I turned and walked out of the room, but then turned around a second later. When I walked in, he was in the exact same spot as he had been before. He had a sad look in his eyes, but I had lost all compassion and sympathy for him. “Get out of my room,” I said slowly. He hesitated for a second, but then obeyed.
I sat down on the bed and started crying, wishing for all of it to be over. I longed to have someone with me, someone who could help me through everything. I knew that Macy would try to help me, try to understand. But she wouldn’t succeed all the way, because she wasn’t Collin. Collin always found something that kept me standing, always discovered a way to understand. He was the only one who could help, and he was the only one I wanted.
I curled up on my blankets and remained there for the rest of the day. Macy came in to check on me, and she felt my forehead to discover that I had a high fever. When it was time for dinner, she came to check on me once more. Since I wasn’t feeling any better, she brought me soup after they were all done eating. By then, my parents were back and Mom and Macy tool turns checking on me to make sure I had everything I needed.
I don’t know when I fell asleep, but I know I woke up in a bed that was soaked with my own sweat. I sat up quickly, causing a massive headache to appear. Once it was reduced to a small throbbing in my brain, I tried standing.
Big mistake. The contents of my stomach climbed up my throat and spilled onto the floor with a horrendous sound that almost made me hurl again. “Macy,” I said, waking her up. “Macy, I need help.”
I wanted to sit down, and I didn’t care at all where I sat. Without realizing what I was doing, I sat on the floor, right where, only seconds before, I had puked my guts out.
Macy sat me on her bed and started undressing me, peeling the sweaty, puke-covered clothes off of me. Then she wrapped me in my blanket and had me sit on my bed. After she was confident that I wasn’t going to fall off the bed, she left the room to find someone who could notify the cleaning crew.
While she was gone, my parents walked in. I could hear them in the hallway, talking about how proud they were of us kids. Actually, my mom was doing to talking. My dad let out an occasional grunt, but I knew that he wasn’t really listening to a word she said.
When they walked in, it took a minute for them to soak in everything. When their eyes came to rest on my pale face, their expressions turned from ones of disgust to ones of concern. Even my dad, who I knew was extremely mad at me, was rushing to my bed to make sure I was okay.
While I was in the middle of explaining to them what had happened, Macy came in with Collin at her heels.
“I asked for him specifically,” she said to me. “I figured it might make you feel a little bit better.” She turned to my parents. “Guys, let’s leave so that they can get this cleaned up.” She started guiding my