Read Online Heartbreaker Hanson by Melanie Marks - Free Book Online Page B

between Laurie and me. (Or,
you know, he just felt guilty that he’d tried kissing me.) (Very possible.)
    Laurie
gave me a confrontational eyeful. “It seems like you’re avoiding me.” She fully
called me out, “Are you?”
    “Um,
of course not,” I lied, fumbling with my lock combination, carful to avoid
looking her in the eye. “I’ve just been really busy.” (Avoiding your gorgeous, staring boyfriend.)
    “Well,
you’re coming to my party tonight, right?” she asked, as if of course I was.
Which would be a normal assumption, of course. But the thing is, I was
seriously thinking about calling her up around an hour before her party and
feigning a terrible headache—which just talking to her in front of Drew
was giving me anyway. So it wouldn’t really be a lie. At all. I mean, I totally
knew I couldn’t handle seeing her and Drew together all night; even though I
had lived with it just fine for the past two years. But now everything had
changed. Big time.
    “You
can bring Ethan,” she added with a sly smile.
    My
heart jolted.
    I
looked at her confused. “Ethan?”
    “Yeah,”
she smirked with a mischievous gleam in her eyes. “Don’t try to deny it. He’s
what’s been keeping you so busy these days, right? I see you two together all
the time.” Her eyes flickered with satisfaction. “He’s cute, and on the soccer
team—not your normal band-geek. So I approve.” She wiggled her eyebrows.
“What’s been going on with you two?”
    “Nothing,”
I stammered out, sort of horrified realizing I’d given her the wrong idea.
    Ethan
was just around me quite a bit at school these days, because I let him be
around—because otherwise I’d be alone, basically. I couldn’t hang out
with my normal group of friends because that would mean hanging around with
Laurie and Drew. So I accepted Ethan’s lunch escorting and let him walk me to
my classes and stuff, without realizing what it would look like to other
people.
    I
bit my lip, suddenly even more concerned about Ethan than before. Was I
unintentionally leading him on? Suddenly, I had the sinking feeling that I was.
    Yikes!
Now I felt this terrible cloud of doom hovering over me. ‘Cause it seemed
unavoidable—I had a horrible, overwhelming burden ahead of me: I was
going to have to explain my complicated feelings to Ethan, and I didn’t wanna.
That was so not a conversation I would
relish. Just the thought of it made me cringe.
    “Brooke,
don’t be shy,” Laurie smiled smugly. “He’s cute. I like him a lot better than
that loser Tony you used to date.”
    “You
didn’t even know Tony,” I pointed out without much feeling. She had always
looked down her nose at mine and Tony’s relationship, the short time we had
one. She thought he was a loser just because he wasn’t popular, or involved in
any sports, and didn’t drive a fancy car. She could not understand the concept
of liking a boy simply because he was nice and fun to be with.
    “Well,
whatever,” Laurie’s mood was too high to debate such a trifle matter—Tony.
(Who I had really, really liked, by the way.) She lifted her eyebrows, “You’re
coming tonight, right?”
    After
a moment’s hesitation, I reluctantly nodded. “Of course I am. It’s your birthday,
isn’t it?”
    “Good
girl!” She smiled happily and squeezed my arm. “See you tonight!”
    She
sashayed away, hand in hand with Drew.
    I
squeezed my eyes shut, then turned back to my locker, trying to get the image
of them holding hands and snuggling out of my tortured brain, all the while
wondering if I’d still be able to call Laurie with a sickness plea.
    Then
I noticed Rider—my kindergarten boyfriend—watching me with an inquisitive smirk on his face.
    I
quickly looked away from him, searching through my locker—for nothing.
Just frantically doing it because I could still feel his eyes on me from across
the crowded hallway, and for some reason it had my heart pounding wild. Maybe
because he looked so … hot.