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Exie snorted unladylike "I’ve got to uy And Sloane too! Sloane would die to see someone o get coffee after school?" I didn’t want to acknowledge the happiness that suddenly ping-ponged around inside of uy I wanted… literally But that thought leftto do with ave

I was so screwed up

"I am so all over this!" Exie squealed with excitement "I’ll clear it with Sloane and call you"

I jumped out of Exie’s car and into the dreary day, but the weather no longer daoodbye to my friend and headed up to ly happy to see me Even Kenna Well… kind of Kenna

I fell into the school routine easily I hadn’t been in school for six months, but somehow the constant schedule, the forty-two minute class periods, the bells and hall passes felt easily natural And I was kind of thankful for that

I liked to learn, I liked to study I even liked to take tests College would have been exactly where I wanted to go next but there was no way that was in the cards for me It was escape or enter the trade Or worse, take Nix seriously and join his household

I rapped up in those thoughts as I took a pass in English and headed toward the bathrooet excruciatingly irl voice called as Amber walked out of a stall to my left

"Hi Aly bitterness she was throwing off her in waves

"It’s because you’re easy," she saidher hands

"Excuseabout high school girls was they could be the best friends you ever had with the fiercest sense of loyalty or your worst enemy with the flick of a switch We were eirl was hard-wired with ani for me to betray them Maybe I already crossed a line with Amber and didn’t res there was no way I could have known about… and probably wouldn’t have nized the enemy inside me that I was to her It didn’t really matter because obviously Amber had it out for me

Exie would have told her to ured out just what buttons to push and dated whoever h, apparently I was already doing that

I cowered in fear

The truth was, girls scared me

"You’re easy," she repeated slowly as if to a child "Their fixation Why guys won’t leave you alone It’s not like you’re all that pretty It’s just that you’re easy and boys have short attention spans"

I thought about Sam and his attention span, how it had ultiht about Chase and how he didn’t push ht about Ryder and how devoted he was to Kenna Soh of that kind to not be completely naïve But I also knew so clarity I saved my self-esteem

It also helped that because of the curse I kneas pretty So she could suck on that one

"I’m not easy," I replied stubbornly Because I wasn’t

In return she cackled at me Honestly, she cackled

"Please, everyone knohat a skank you are," she rolled her eyes in theI’m not a skank" This was thesent away and I didn’t even really knohy I was trying She elcome to believe whatever she wanted about me In fact, Nix preferred the ruinity until he could line up a worthy buyer

"That’s not what Saht of that party," she countered bravely

That was enough to snap any calm resolve that remained "You need to stop with that," I snapped "You don’t know anything about Sa him to make up your points Sam loved me Loved me" Well, not me Sam fell in love with the curse, but A words in his mouth when it’s so unfair that he can’t defend hiot him? Paralyzed and brain dead Nobody could love you now, not after what you did to hi," she turned onorbs of hatred "You’re the reason he’s not here to defend hiht to the s as I tried to suck in enough oxygen to remain level headed Hot tears pricked at the backs of my eyes and I wanted to curl up into myself and die, or at least weep I repeated to myself that she didn’t er than this

But I wasn’t And all of the broken, shattered pieces of e of weakness

The bathrooirls walked in co mental breakdoas just seconds away froirls were, my eyes were focused on the dirty drain and broken porcelain sink I needed to hold ripped on for ?"

Kenna