The Boyfriend Thief by Shana Norris Page B

lip and staring at the floor. Was this payback for trying to keep her from going out with Elliott? Maybe I had let my guard down too much with her. Maybe I had trusted too much that she wouldn’t hurt me. I hated the sting of tears in the corners of my eyes.
    After the falling out with Hannah and Elliott, I’d spent all of eighth grade distancing myself from the rest of the kids in school. I talked to them only when necessary, but I never hung out with anyone on weekends. I became so good at protecting myself that by the time ninth grade started, everyone had given up on speaking to me.
    But then Molly came along and somehow she found a way through the walls I’d built around myself. I’d become soft, I realized. I had trusted too much and opened myself up to being hurt again.
    I hugged my arms tight across my chest and held my shoulders back, lifting my chin.
    “Well,” I said in a cold tone, “I’ll be sure to be bubbly and chirpy around Zac, since my real personality won’t win him over.”
    Molly let out an exasperated huff. “Don’t get touchy, Avery. You know you’re not exactly welcoming and warm.”
    I shrugged, trying to act as though her words didn’t affect me. “I have to go.”
    “Remember what I said,” Molly told me. “Win him over. Charm him. Seduce him!”
    Thank goodness it was so late in the afternoon that the halls were empty and no one was around to hear Molly tell me to seduce Zac Greeley.

Chapter 9
     
    When I pulled up in front of Greeley Lock & Key, a small brick building with a sign shaped like a house key hanging over the front door, I could see Zac inside through the big plate glass window. He stood behind the register, nodding his head and bouncing around as he hung keys on a giant pegboard on the wall. He danced in the space between the counter and the wall, spinning circles and doing crazy disco moves mixed with what looked like the Macarena, as if he didn’t care that anyone driving or walking by could see him.
    I sat there in my car in front of the store for a long time, watching Zac dance around in his own little party inside his dad’s shop. It was hard enough forcing myself to do the Hot Diggity Shuffle a couple times a week, and yet here Zac was dancing as if he never wanted to stop. How could he dance so freely without worrying about being interrupted by someone walking in the front door? What would it be like to feel that carefree?
    When I stepped inside Greeley Lock & Key, I had expected to be greeted with a blast of loud, fast-paced music from the way Zac still danced around the room. But instead, a tinkling of soft muzak met my ears.
    The bell over the door chimed when I walked in and Zac turned toward me, still dancing away. He grinned wide and gestured toward the pegboard behind him.
    “Hey,” he said. “Just doing a little work. Hanging new key blanks.”
    I raised an eyebrow at him as he launched into the Running Man. “Do you always dance while you work?”
    “Sure,” Zac panted. “Doesn’t everyone?”
    “Only when someone insists on seeing the Hot Diggity Shuffle.”
    Zac looked at me as if I were the crazy one. “You need to dance more often,” he said, pointing a key blank at me. “Come on, let’s see your moves.”
    I shook my head. “No way.”
    “Come on.” Zac moved from behind the counter and danced his way toward me. “A little disco, maybe?” He rocked his hips back and forth, pointing one hand toward the sky. “Or the Robot?” His arms and torso twisted around with stiff movements for a moment before he grinned at me again.
    “How about homework?” I asked, tapping my bag. “Economics class, remember?”
    “Oh, I see.” Zac nodded, a smug smile on his lips.
    “What?”
    He shrugged and returned the handful of key blanks to a box on the counter. “Nothing. Just that you can’t dance.”
    “Just because I don’t want to dance doesn’t mean I can’t,” I snapped.
    Zac hopped up onto the counter, kicking his legs back