Total pages in book: 93
Estimated words: 87152 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 436(@200wpm)___ 349(@250wpm)___ 291(@300wpm)
Estimated words: 87152 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 436(@200wpm)___ 349(@250wpm)___ 291(@300wpm)
“We’re pretty much fucked either way,” I mutter while my insides boil the way they have since yesterday. Like somebody turned on a stove burner that’s been blazing ever since Sarah confessed what really happened, how she was really hurt. Something has to bring the temperature down before I boil over again, but nothing has worked so far. Not a workout this morning or a hot shower or jerking off. I’m still dangerously close to the boiling point with no end in sight.
“Holy fucking shit.” I barely have time to turn toward Easton before he drives an elbow into my ribs. But when I follow the direction his attention drifted in, I understand why. My stomach drops and my pulse picks up; this can’t be real.
“Are you fucking kidding me?” I whisper. The girls wander back, distracting the rest of our friends, meaning only Easton and I are paying attention to the girl with tight, blonde curls and a string of pearls around her neck. She’s wearing literal pearls with a white T-shirt and a knee length cardigan. How old does she think she is?
“Who is that?” Of course, Wren would notice. Out of the corner of my eye, I see her craning her neck, then she makes a dismissive noise in her throat. “I guess she’s new. I’ve never seen her around.”
“Oh, you know everybody now?” Briggs teases, throwing his arms around her on the other side of the long table. Her giggles and squeals as he tries to steal a sip of her smoothie might as well be nails dragging down a chalkboard when I’m in a mood like this.
“I can’t fucking believe it,” Easton whispers. No big surprise, the two of us being on the same page. The blonde sits at an empty table in the corner—she doesn’t look around, but instead keeps her head down, opening a book right away while a sandwich sits untouched on her tray.
“What are the chances, do you think?” I ask, but he only shrugs. It’s a rhetorical question, anyway. What are the chances of her going to this school? Walking into the cafeteria at the exact time we’re sitting here with our friends?
“Looks like somebody’s interested in the new girl.” Maya snickers and wiggles her eyebrows suggestively. “You should invite her over to sit with us so she doesn’t have to be alone.”
“No,” we both bark. It’s not the first time we’ve spoken in unison—one of those twin things neither of us can explain.
“Wow.” Elliana, Carter’s girlfriend, winces before laughing softly. “What did she do to you guys?”
Rather than answer her, I meet Carter’s gaze and give him a slight nod. His eyes go wide before he turns to look at the girl sitting alone. “You’re serious? That’s her?”
“Her who?” Maya asks.
“Just somebody we ran into yesterday,” Easton tells her. He is quicker than I am when it comes to shit like this; finding the right thing to say when he’s put on the spot. I usually need a little more time to get my thoughts together.
Right now, there’s only one direction my thoughts want me to go in. “I wanna talk to her,” I mutter to Easton while the conversation around us turns toward what we’re going to do this coming weekend.
“You think that’s a good idea?” he asks. He hasn’t looked away from her since she walked in. I can feel his anger, almost rolling off him in one wave after another—I can definitely relate, too.
“Fuck, yes,” I hiss. “Think about it. She’s the only person who witnessed what happened. If she knew why we did it, she could…”
“What? Go back and say she was wrong about what she thought she saw?” The way he smirks tells me what he thinks of that idea. There are times I would like to make it so we don’t look so much alike, since I can’t stand when he gets that know-it-all attitude with me. A broken-then-reset nose might be what helps people tell us apart.
“It can’t hurt,” I tell him. “What happens if the cops find out who she is and question her? Or what if Brody decides he wants to press charges, anyway? It’s Sarah’s word against his—and it’s our word against this girl’s.”
The idea of that bastard lying about what he did to my sister makes flipping this table seem like a good idea, but it’s the girl in pearls I need to be worried about now. “She doesn’t have to lie, but she could… I don’t know, soften it up a little. You know right now, if anybody questioned her, she would make us out to be a couple of monsters.” I can see her in my head, putting on that fake, brave act when it was so obvious she was shaking like a leaf and probably asking herself why she got involved. I would like to know the answer to that question myself.