Read Online Anabel Unraveled by Amanda Romine Lynch - Free Book Online Page B

up. Please tell me you made that up.”
    I looked down, ashamed. “I’m sorry, Sam.”
    The council members all exchanged glances, but I was pretty sure any image they had of me as the poor innocent victim had flown out the window. I turned around and ventured a glance at Matt, but he wouldn’t catch my eye.
    I still didn’t know what he did. Sam had been very elusive on that point.
    So I sneaked a glance at Jared, who looked smug. He sat back in his chair, his arms folded, smirking at me. “You shut up,” I admonished him.
    “I did not say a thing, babe,” he grinned, self-satisfied.
    “I think now is a good time for lunch,” proclaimed Ms. Fischer. “Mr. Sorensen, we will hear from you after the break.” They filed out, and Sam was still staring at me like he had never seen me before.
    “I just thought it would be a way to put him in his place. I felt like he was wronging the both of us, treating me like that. And I thought it would be a way to get him back. You know, tell him I’ll put out and then take it away.” I shrugged my shoulders. “I just figured he wasn’t used to rejection.”
    “I can’t even look at you right now,” he stated. “Behaving like that . . .”
    I touched his arm. “Please don’t be mad at me. I wasn’t thinking. I just wanted to get back at him, you know? I didn’t know any better!”
    “You didn’t know any better?” He repeated. “You know what? It’s no wonder what happened with you happened. I am at a loss, Anabel.” He stood up and walked away. I crossed my arms and put my head down on the table. I had broken my brother’s heart, and he had cut me down. I could not go any lower.
    And then, of course, he was there. “Hey.”
    I looked at him through the pile of my hair. “What?”
    “I heard what Sam said. You didn’t deserve that.” Jared stopped, and then asserted, “You definitely didn’t deserve what happened.”
    “I don’t want your pity.”
    “Still, it was uncalled for. Anabel . . .”
    “What?”
    Jared was smirking at me. Again. “I can’t believe you told them that.”
    I turned my head back so it faced the table. “I had to tell the truth, right?”
    “You just didn’t show yourself in the best light, is all. I’m surprised that you would do that for me.”
    “I didn’t do it for you. I did it because it was the right thing to do,” I muttered.
    “Well it was nice of you. Made me look a little less awful. Made you look a little less pure.”
    I sat up and looked at him. “Jared, I was behaving like a horny schoolgirl, I don’t think there was any way to portray myself so I looked good.”
    “You could give your own revisionist history.” He was smiling at me now. I smacked his arm.
    “Stop that,” I ordered. “It doesn’t work on me anymore.”
    “I doubt that very much, love.”
    “Leave her alone, Sorensen,” came a voice. I smiled hopefully at Matt. He didn’t smile back. “Anabel, I’ve been instructed to take you to eat.”
    “I’m not hungry,” I grumbled, but I got up anyway and left Jared there, staring at the both of us openmouthed.
    Which was what he deserved, after all.
    I had to almost run to keep up with Matt. His legs were longer than mine. “Thank you for getting me out of that. I was uncomfortable.”
    “I bet,” he agreed. “What do you think you can keep down?”
    “Um, there’s a smoothie place around the corner, I usually—wait,” I stopped, realizing that he knew. “Did Sam tell you?”
    He gave me a curt nod, and I wasn’t quite sure why, but I felt a sense of disappointment. Even though I couldn’t quite explain it to myself, for some reason, I didn’t want him to know. I looked down at my shoes, suddenly unsure. “How long have you known?”
    “I knew it the moment I saw you,” he admitted. He leaned in a little closer, and in an undertone said, “I don’t think this is the best place to be discussing this, Anabel.”
    I agreed. So I let him buy me a strawberry banana