by Alex Flinn
Now, I stared down at Lisette. I still couldn’t see her face. She’d pulled the piece of fabric from her bag. It turned out to be a shawl, which she sniffed deeply before draping it around her stooped shoulders. She knotted the broken bag, then pulled it the rest of the way toward the doorstep. Guilt tugged at me, urged me out. I knew I should go down the ladder. I didn’t. In my lap, my hands were working. I pulled out a page of Vanity Fair, then a second. Only when my hands were so full of the crumpled, ripped pages that I couldn’t hold any more did I stop. What was I doing?
Lisette rang the doorbell. No one answered. She rang a few more times, then she sat down on the garbage bag and cried some more, great, racking sobs that shook her shoulders. We sat that way for a long time, me in the tree house, Lisette sobbing by the door.
It struck me for the first time that my father was a jerk. A real jerk who’d left his wife and daughter and had never seen her again, just like my own father had. Lisette and I were the same.
Finally, the air was quiet. This was my chance, my one chance. I had to sneak down when she wasn’t looking.
The tree house creaked as I made my way down the ladder. Instead of walking toward the porch, I went in the opposite direction, toward the street.
Just as I reached it, she looked up. She stared at me full in the face and smiled through her tears.
In that moment, I knew I hated her.
Lisette was the most beautiful girl I had ever seen, more beautiful than Courtney or any of the popular girls at school, more beautiful than my dolls. She looked like a grown-up, like one of those people on Inside Edition. Her eyes were the same color as the sparkling, royal blue shawl, and her lips were large and a shade of red my mouth only got if I drank a red Slurpee. I knew the girls at school would soon make her their queen, and that made me hate her even more.
“Are you Emma?” she said, and I could only nod, frozen.
“Oh, God! I’m so glad!” She rose to walk closer to me. Her eyes fell on my book. I should have left it in the tree house.
But Lisette’s eyes grew even wider. “Wow, you’re reading that?” When I nodded again, she said, “You must be really smart.”
I went through a big-time internal debate about whether to nod again or deny it. Finally, I said my first words ever to my new stepsister.
“Well, I’m bad at math.”
“Really? Math’s my favorite. I’m bad at English. Maybe we can help each other out.” Then, she opened her arms and said, “Oh, Emma, I know we’re going to be just like real sisters.”
And, in that moment, I really wanted to believe her. A sister had to love you, right?
BACK ADS
BOOKS BY ALEX FLINN
NOTHING TO LOSE
BREATHING UNDERWATER
BREAKING POINT
FADE TO BLACK
DIVA
BEASTLY
A KISS IN TIME
CLOAKED
BEWITCHING
CREDITS
Cover art © 2012 by Howard Huang
Cover design by Sasha Illingworth
COPYRIGHT
Nothing to Lose
Copyright © 2004 by Alex Flinn
All rights reserved under International and Pan-American Copyright Conventions. By payment of the required fees, you have been granted the nonexclusive, nontransferable right to access and read the text of this e-book on-screen. No part of this text may be reproduced, transmitted, downloaded, decompiled, reverse engineered, or stored in or introduced into any information storage and retrieval system, in any form or by any means, whether electronic or mechanical, now known or hereinafter invented, without the express written permission of HarperCollins e-books.
Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data
Flinn, Alex.
Nothing to lose / by Alex Flinn.—1st ed.
p. cm.
Summary: A year after running away with a traveling carnival to escape his unbearable home life, sixteen-year-old Michael returns to Miami, Florida, to find that his mother is going on trial for the murder of his abusive stepfather.
ISBN 0-06-051750-6
ISBN 0-06-051751-4 (lib. bdg.)
ISBN 0-06-051752-2 (pbk.)
EPub Edition © FEBRUARY 2012 ISBN 9780062208224
[1. Runaways—Fiction. 2. Wife abuse—Fiction. 3. Murder—Fiction. 4. Mothers and sons—Fiction. 5. Trials (Murder)—Fiction. 6. Miami (Fla.)—Fiction.] 1. Title.
PZ7.F6395No 2004
2003013959
[Fic]—dc22
First paperback edition, 2005
www.harpertempest.com
ABOUT THE AUTHOR
ALEX FLINN loves fairy tales and is the author of the #1 New York Times bestselling BEASTLY, a spin on Beauty and the Beast that was named a VOYA Editor’s Choice and an ALA Quick Pick for Reluctant Young Adult Readers. Beastly is now a major motion picture starring Vanessa Hudgens! She also wrote A KISS IN TIME, a modern retelling of Sleeping Beauty, and CLOAKED, a humorous fairy tale mash-up, as well as BREATHING UNDERWATER, BREAKING POINT, NOTHING TO LOSE, FADE TO BLACK, and DIVA. Alex lives in Miami with her family. Visit her online at www.alexflinn.com.
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Table of Contents
COVER
TITLE PAGE
DEDICATION
ARTICLE
THIS YEAR
THIS YEAR
LAST YEAR
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THIS YEAR
LAST YEAR
THIS YEAR
THE NEXT DAY
THREE HOURS LATER
EPILOGUE
ACKNOWLEDGMENTS
EXCERPT FROM BEWITCHING
CHAPTER 1
CHAPTER 2
BACK ADS
BOOKS BY ALEX FLINN
CREDITS
COPYRIGHT
ABOUT THE AUTHOR
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