Read Online Scarlet Awakening (Sweet Secrets #2) by Taylor Henderson - Free Book Online

different stores. Ella had found a cute new bikini to wear for the summer and had even planned a whole day around it. Since she’d splurged and purchased it, we had to find a good day to go to the beach and walk the boardwalk. She even came up with the horrible idea of inviting Carter along—as if that was going to happen. I was perfectly content with spending the summer with just family, and she knew that. She was just trying to get under my skin, like she knew how to do so well.
    “I don’t see how you don’t like it,” Ella replied, rolling her eyes. She raised the slice up and went in for a huge bite. The greasy imprint on the plate was so oily that there was most likely an imprint on the table as well.
    “I don’t see how you do like it,” I countered, reaching for a napkin and wiping my mouth, hands, and anything else that may have been in contact with the grease.
    Ella raised an eyebrow. “I appreciate a nice greasy pizza every now and then. I can find the beauty in everything.”
    I scoffed at her words. “Then why are no guys ever good enough to meet your standards?”
    In response to my question she shrugged her shoulders. “That’s different. A greasy pizza is one thing, but a greasy man is a whole different conversation.” She raised her pizza up for another bite, but froze moments before it reached her open mouth.
    I furrowed my eyebrows at her strange action. “Did you just realize how gross the pizza is?”
    It was as if she had seen a ghost. Her green eyes were wide with shock, and so was her mouth. Her whole body was rigid and frozen.
    Following her gaze, I went to turn and look at what she was staring at, but Ella jumped back to life and barked, “Don’t look!”
    “Don’t look?” I repeated. “At what?”
    Ella set her pizza down and wiped her hands quickly. She leaned forward across the table and focused her eyes on mine. “Okay, turn your head to your right just a little and look at that group of girls sitting near the Subway. Don’t make it obvious, but do they look familiar to you?”
    Slowly, I turned my head to the right just enough so that I was able to see a group of girls sitting nearby. They were all leaning into the center of the table, giggling about something. One of the girls in particular caught my eye. She was wearing a dressy top with a pair of skinny jeans that were rolled up to her ankle and had carefully placed rips on the knees. Her long, toned legs were crossed, and as she laughed she bounced her heel-clad foot up and down. Her strawberry blonde hair was cut into a stylish bob that I had to admit framed her face nicely. When she turned her head slightly and the freckle that dotted her upper lip became visible, recognition dawned on me. I turned back around to face Ella hurriedly with what I assumed was a look of shock on my face.
    “Wait, is that Eleanor?” My mouth dropped open to form a small ‘o.’ Eleanor Daniels was also known as the girl who’d made Ella’s first year of high school the tragedy that it had been. If manipulating Ella and forcing her to do all of her and her friends’ dirty work wasn’t enough, she ended the year with a bang when she drugged Ella and left her in the men’s restroom in a bar. One of the bartenders who had seen the girls enter the bathroom, and then exit without Ella had come to her rescue. I had been furious with Eleanor and her friends for what they had done, and even now I still felt a bubble of anger swell up in the pit of my stomach, but I pushed it away. We couldn’t change the past, and I had already confronted Eleanor about how wrong her actions were that night. Anything could have happened to Ella if the wrong person had found her, and that was what had frustrated me the most.
    Ella nodded her head slowly before focusing on Eleanor again.
    I did the same, and glanced back over my shoulder just as Eleanor turned her head and met my gaze. The realization hit her face faster than it had mine. She looked