Read Online According to Jane by Marilyn Brant - Free Book Online

I need to be for it." He arched a victorious eyebrow in my direction, then turned back toward Angelique. "Au revoir, ma cherie," he told her.
    Then, very deliberately, he eyed a sophomore female I recognized all too well. The girl stood along the wall with a small troupe of friends nearby, and Sam made sure I knew who he was looking at before striding toward her.
    With Terrie glaring at his back and my cousin staring at him with an expression of pure astonishment, I told myself I was glad to see Sam walk away. I just wished he'd have walked toward almost anyone else.
    Ellie, stop this, Jane ordered. Feel no regret in his departure. You are right to be rid of him.
    Yeah, probably, I said as I watched him sidle up to Stacy Daschell and grin at her in that charming, charismatic way that came so naturally to him.
    Jane's disdainful sniff echoed in my mind. He would have brought trouble upon you, and you know too well he meant only ill will to your cousin.
    I know. Then the voices outside my head began debating and I was forced to pay attention to the females I could see.
    "He's an, um, interesting guy," Angelique said.
    "He's a little snot," Terrie replied. She made a fist, punched it into her opposite palm and caught my eye.
    I blinked but tried to keep my expression impassive. Jane was right, of course. Sam's intentions toward my cousin were hardly, as she would say, "honourable." Especially not now when he had his arm around Stacy's shoulders. Damn him.
    Angelique saw where I was looking and frowned. "Um, Ellie, is something going on that I should know about? Should I not be talking to him?" Her forehead creased and she squinted at me with a look I interpreted as total bewilderment. "There was an odd...oh, je ne sais quoi , I guess, between you two. Sorry about the French." She nibbled on her lip.
    I almost laughed. "Yeah, I don't know what it is either, but total hate has to come pretty close." I shrugged at her, trying to keep the hurt from showing. "Talk with him, if you want. I don't care."
    Terrie's gaze flicked toward the ceiling and back, but she refrained from saying the "Yeah, right..." that I knew she was thinking. Terrie had, after all, caught me writing "Ellie Blaine" on a piece of scratch paper back in September.
    As we watched Sam pull Stacy away from her friends and toward a darkened corner, Terrie motioned us closer. "Stacy's totally wasted," she said, the voice of authority on school gossip. "And she just got dumped, you know."
    "Really?" I didn't know. I didn't think anybody ever dared to cross Stacy, not even her upperclassman, wrestling-champion, now ex-boyfriend. And he dumped her! Huh. Wonders never ceased.
    "You mean that blond girl, right?" Angelique jabbed her finger in Sam and Stacy's direction. "The tall, snooty-looking one with the really pointy nose?"
    In spite of myself, I did laugh this time. Sometimes it was easy to appreciate my genius cousin. "The very one."
    Do not look , Jane told me.
    Why not? I looked anyway.
    Across the gym, Sam whispered something in Stacy's ear, which made her crack a smile. Then she leaned against him and touched her pointy nose to his straight one. He grinned at her again, extra brightly.
    I swallowed.
    Terrie grabbed a few more brownies from the refreshment table. "Here," she said, thrusting the dried-out chocolate squares at my cousin and me. Repulsive, but eating them gave us something to do.
    When I stepped away to toss out my napkin and scavenge around for another Dixie cup of soda, I saw a couple of guys from Terrie's biology class talking to her and Angelique. All four of them spontaneously laughed about something.
    I downed my thimble of Pepsi and took a step back toward them just as that Spandau Ballet song came on. It was "True."
    Do not look , Jane said again.
    But I ignored her and glanced over at Sam, who had his lips on Stacy's neck. Stacy, meanwhile, threw her head back and put her hands on Sam's ass.
    Aw, no.
    I saw my friend and my cousin being led to