Read Online Inbetween (Kissed by Death, #1) by Tara Fuller - Free Book Online

watch me do my homework? I can do that without you here.”
    She sighed. “You’re sure you’re okay?”
    “Yes!”
    “Okay…I’ll be home right after the open house then. Don’t leave the house until I get home. Got it?”
    “Yes. Got it.”
    “Love you.”
    I told her I loved her, too, then leaned back against my pillows and clicked through the pictures I’d taken at last week’s pep rally until the images blurred together. The boy’s green eyes stayed superimposed on the backs of my lids, offering a glimpse each time I had to blink.
    My bedroom window slid open and a gust of cool air swirled into the room. Cash. He must have heard already. Crap.
    “What are you doing here? Don’t you have calculus this hour?” I asked, refocusing on the camera.
    He ignored my question and turned on the lamp by my bed. “Are you okay?”
    I closed my eyes. “How did you find out?”
    “Are you kidding? I got three texts before I even got to school. Not to mention the mess they’re still dealing with out front.”
    I considered watering down the truth. If I told him everything, he was just going to worry. But if I didn’t tell him, he would just find out from the gossip queens at school, and then he’d be pissed. He was a pain in the ass when he was pissed.
    I let my head thump against the bed frame and stared at the ceiling. “The sign fell while I was standing under it. Somebody knocked me out of the way before it landed. End of story. It’s not a big deal.”
    He leaned on my desk, his brows pulled together. “Don’t tell me it’s not a big deal. You could have died.”
    Like I needed him to remind me. We both knew this wasn’t the first time I’d had a close call like this. And whether he wanted to admit or not, we both knew it wouldn’t be the last. Thinking about all of the times I’d only been a second ahead or behind being the victim of a major “accident” made me want to swathe myself in Bubble Wrap and never leave my room. “I’m fine.”
    Cash folded his arms across his chest. I could hear the worry in his quiet sigh, could feel his eyes on me, looking for scratches, bruises, anything that might drive me over the edge. “Do you need to go to the hospital? Just to make sure—”
    “The paramedics already checked me out at school. I have a scratch on my knee, that’s it.” I looked over at him. “How did you get out?”
    “You act like it requires blueprints and some big escape plan to get out of that place.” He sat a little paper sack and a foam coffee cup on the table. “I just left.”
    “You’re going to get detention again,” I said. “And your dad is going to flip out.”
    He shrugged. “That’s okay. You can make it up to me. We can order pizza for lunch and watch really bad daytime television.”
    I slumped farther into the bed, wanting to do just that. Hide in my hole and refuse to face the rest of the world. But I couldn’t. Not when Mom was forcing me to take this stupid yearbook class.
    You’re not involved in anything, Emma. You need a dose of normal. How about more school activities?
    “You know I can’t,” I said. “If I don’t get the senior pictures for yearbook ready by Mr. Hall’s deadline, he’s going to fail me. Missing today is already going to screw me. I’m going to have to work on it from home.”
    Cash frowned. “You wouldn’t even be worrying about this if it wasn’t for your mom. It’s total bullshit for her to make you take yearbook our senior year. You’re not supposed to be taking pictures of the memories—you’re supposed to be making them with us.”
    “I know.” I sighed, then turned back to my camera, hoping he’d drop the drama. I clicked through a picture of our mascot doing a cartwheel. The cheerleaders spurring on the crowd that sat in shiny silver bleachers. Two football players in blue and white face paint. Half of them were ruined, marked up by a random white spot that kept appearing on the prints. “Have you met the new