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Never Always Sometimes
Adi Alsaid
Never date your best friendAlways be originalSometimes rules are meant to be broken.Best friends Dave and Julia were determined to never be clichés so they even wrote their own Never List of everything they vowed they’d never, ever do in high school.Some of the rules have been easy to follow; But Dave has a secret: he’s broken rule #8, never pine silently after someone for the entirety of high school. It’s either that or break rule #10, never date your best friend. Dave has loved Julia for as long as he can remember.So when she suggests they do every Never on the list, Dave is happy to play along. He even dyes his hair an unfortunate shade of green.It starts as a joke, but then a funny thing happens: Dave and Julia discover they’ve actually been missing out on high schoolAnd maybe even on love.Praise for Adi Alsaid'Reminiscent of John Green’s Paper Towns' - School Library Journal'Balances both the quirky fun and the harsh realities of adolescence’ - Entertainment Weekly‘Let's Get Lost is an absorbing, beautiful novel we all need in our lives. Phenomenal!’- Pretty Little Memoirs'a sweet tale with real heart – get in early before the rest of the reading world catches up’- Heat'For readers of John Green' - Fresh Fiction
Praise for ADI ALSAID (#ulink_a82dd152-dc98-5afa-8caa-7664b6ec4a97)
‘Captivating, mysterious, fun and deep … for readers of John Green’
—Fresh Fiction
‘If you’re looking for the perfect summer read, this is it.’
—Hannah Harrington, author of Speechless and Saving June
‘Five love stories, beautifully woven together by a special girl […] A do-not-miss.’
—Justine magazine
‘A captivating cross-country journey, where four strangers’ adventures collide into one riveting tale of finding yourself’
—YABooksCentral.com
‘Mesmerising. A story of love, loss, ambition and finding the true meaning of life’
—Glitter magazine
Never
Always
Sometimes
Adi Alsaid
www.miraink.co.uk (http://www.miraink.co.uk)
ISBN: 978-1-474-03339-8
NEVER ALWAYS SOMETIMES
© 2015 Adi Alsaid
Published in Great Britain 2015
by MIRA Ink, an imprint of HarperCollins Publishers,
1 London Bridge, London SE1 9GF
All rights reserved including the right of reproduction in whole or in part in any form. This edition is published by arrangement with Harlequin Books S.A.
This is a work of fiction. Names, characters, places, locations and incidents are purely fictional and bear no relationship to any real life individuals, living or dead, or to any actual places, business establishments, locations, events or incidents. Any resemblance is entirely coincidental.
By payment of the required fees, you are granted the non-exclusive, non-transferable right and licence to download and install this e-book on your personal computer, tablet computer, smart phone or other electronic reading device only (each a “Licensed Device”) and to access, display and read the text of this e-book on-screen on your Licensed Device. Except to the extent any of these acts shall be permitted pursuant to any mandatory provision of applicable law but no further, no part of this e-book or its text or images may be reproduced, transmitted, distributed, translated, converted or adapted for use on another file format, communicated to the public, 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 publisher.
MIRA Ink is a registered trademark of Harlequin Enterprises Limited, used under licence.
Version: 2018-10-26
For Sylas and Lucy
Contents
Cover (#u637269d6-dfae-520b-b4ec-7db94644aae0)
Praise (#uc4c225bd-4b8a-538a-bdff-b599219f879c)
Title Page (#ub792da21-5d89-53f3-9477-a83a75ccf8b2)
Dedication (#u56c229d6-88b1-569c-9c39-582073a10652)
PROLOGUE: THE LIST (#u1e97dfa6-9ef0-57da-8b91-32fe3ece4109)
PART 1: DAVE (#u59f56876-2c33-5e26-b0c7-8c0f87a8b486)
ALMOST FOUR YEARS LATER (#u6e806972-8112-57eb-8903-cfda5cca4030)
FRIDAY AT THE KAPOORS’ (#uf7a491f8-c804-5846-a2b6-5f9ab4910048)
EMPTY COLORING BOOKS (#u098b13c4-f44b-59bd-a5e0-42ad364897de)
HOMEROOM & HAPPY HOUR (#u06bc9189-5b3a-54bb-a4d7-b3dcd8f6a35a)
MAKING A MESS (#ua88f4b25-b4cd-5f8d-97d2-478d1177cbb2)
PARTICULAR SHADES (#ub5ae6eaa-9973-53b0-aade-17e467c50f68)
VIRAL (#litres_trial_promo)
SOLVE FOR X (#litres_trial_promo)
TREE HOUSE (#litres_trial_promo)
DATE (#litres_trial_promo)
NUTELLA & CUPCAKES (#litres_trial_promo)
CHEMISTRY (#litres_trial_promo)
NEVERTHELESS BELONG (#litres_trial_promo)
AGAINST THE CURRENT (#litres_trial_promo)
PART 2: JULIA (#litres_trial_promo)
WITHOUT KNOWING (#litres_trial_promo)
APOLOGIES (#litres_trial_promo)
CUE THE MONTAGE (#litres_trial_promo)
JUST LIKE THIS (#litres_trial_promo)
THE PROMPOSAL (#litres_trial_promo)
ROAD TRIPPOSAL (#litres_trial_promo)
THAT TEENAGE FEELING (#litres_trial_promo)
PART 3: DAVE & JULIA (#litres_trial_promo)
BECAUSE I’M DUMB (#litres_trial_promo)
PERFECT (#litres_trial_promo)
SUNRISE (#litres_trial_promo)
RIDICULOUS (#litres_trial_promo)
LAZY (#litres_trial_promo)
ENERGY (#litres_trial_promo)
OFF (#litres_trial_promo)
WITHOUT HIM (#litres_trial_promo)
MESS (#litres_trial_promo)
MORE OR LESS (#litres_trial_promo)
CEILINGS (#litres_trial_promo)
FLOAT (#litres_trial_promo)
PROM (#litres_trial_promo)
ACKNOWLEDGMENTS (#litres_trial_promo)
ABOUT THE AUTHOR (#litres_trial_promo)
Extract (#litres_trial_promo)
Endpage (#litres_trial_promo)
Copyright (#ua9c1f928-0f79-5b86-b46b-66953c6e2eeb)
PROLOGUE: THE LIST (#ulink_845f22e5-123a-5497-b81d-9bfc38484637)
DAVE DROPPED HIS backpack by his feet and slid onto the bench that overlooked the harbor at Morro Bay. He loved the view here: the ocean sprawling out like the future itself, interrupted only by the white tips of docked sailboats and the rusted railing people held on to to watch the sunset. He loved how far away it felt from San Luis Obispo, even though it was only fifteen minutes away. Most of all, he loved when Julia would appear in his periphery mock-frowning, how she would keep her eyes on him, trying not to smile as she walked up, then she would slide in right next to him like there was nowhere else she belonged.
“Hey, you goof. Sorry I’m late.”
Dave looked up just as Julia was sitting down. She was wearing her usual: shorts, a plaid blue shirt over a tank top, the pair of flip-flops she loved so much that they were now made up of more duct tape than the original rubbery material. Her light brown hair was in a loose ponytail, two perfect strands looped around her ears. If the lights ever went out in her presence, Dave was pretty sure the brightness of her eyes would be more useful than a flashlight.
“S’okay. How was hanging out with your mom this weekend?”
“Greatest thing ever. Don’t get me wrong, the dads are awesome. But my mom is the coolest person alive.”
“Hyperbole foul,” Dave said.
Julia crossed her legs at the ankles and looked around the harbor. “Did I miss anything interesting?”
“There was a couple breaking up by the ice cream shop. I couldn’t hear what they were saying, but the girl was such a sad crier. I wanted to go give her a hug, but that might have been a little weird.”
Julia gave him a smile and stole a sip from the bubble tea he’d been holding.
“Tell me more about your mom. What makes her so cool?”
“Everything,” Julia said. “She lives the kind of life that I didn’t even understand was an option. She once biked from Canada to Chile. On a bicycle. For, like, months. Other adults work from nine to five and then go home to watch TV. She bikes a whole continent.”
“Huh,” Dave said, impressed. “That is pretty cool. How come she’s never come by before?”
“She’s too busy being awesome,” Julia said. She glanced around for a little while, swirling the drink in her hand. Dave followed her gaze to a little boy riding his tricycle down the harbor, his parents walking calmly behind, beaming with pride. “So. High school tomorrow. Big day.”
“Yup,” Dave said with a shrug, reaching for his tea back.
He imagined what other kids might be doing in anticipation of starting high school. Picking out outfits, getting haircuts, quarreling with parents and siblings, texting each other messages that made more use of emoticons than proper punctuation.
“Any thoughts? Concerns? Schemes?”
“Oh, you know. Nothing specific to high school. Take over the world.”
She scrunched her mouth to one side of her face, then looked straight at him, which always made Dave feel like he was either lucky or about to turn into a puddle. A lucky puddle, that’s what he’d felt like ever since he’d met Julia. “We’re still gonna be us?”
“What do you mean?”
“I mean...we’re kind of different from most people, right? We don’t do what everyone else does. We’re more likely to bike a continent than watch TV all afternoon.”
“I guess so.”
