Read Online Sell Out by Tammy L. Gray - Free Book Online Page A

slammed my tray on the edge of the trash bin to empty it feeling restless and slightly wild.
    It felt like a hundred years had passed by the time I pushed through the lunchroom doors. I needed to calm down. Needed to let this thing go and focus on what mattered. Winning state, getting a scholarship, and getting out of this four-year prison.
    Yet, I wandered the halls in a daze. Memories drove me to places I hadn’t visited in years. Places where the ghost of Fatty James haunted me.
    Skylar had only been here a few hours and already she had altered my world. And why? Because her dad sang about freedom and justice, and she defended Henry at our table?
    Tom Baker’s face tore through my mind and ripped through the last of my calm. I fell back into the wall, sweat beading on my forehead. For two years I endured their wrath, praying it would stop, begging God, but it only escalated. That day in the locker room was the breaking point.
    Tom’s girlfriend had been crying and sitting alone. I touched her back and offered her a tissue. She accepted it and then smiled. The kind of smile that came with tears and heartbreak.
    That was it.
    One moment of kindness. One moment of not being on guard. One moment that would change the rest of my life.
    I wiped my forehead and searched for my center the way Matt had shown me. That nightmare needed to stay locked behind its see-through wall. The one that forced me to remember and stay on guard, but kept the pain at a distance. I wouldn’t go back to the past. Not now. Not ever.
    When my eyes opened, I spotted Lindsay at her locker. The pull was strong, even from across the hall. In so many ways, we were the same. Weak. Maybe that’s why I’d always liked her more than the others. She always seemed to be pretending, too.
    “Hey,” she said, approaching.
    I pushed off the wall and met her halfway. “Hey.”
    “I wanted to thank you for this morning. You know, in the parking lot.”
    “It’s no big deal.”
    “Yes, it is. No one else would have dared to interrupt him.” She rubbed the spot on her arm where he had been gripping her. “I guess you heard, huh?” She rolled her eyes. “Of course you have, the whole school’s heard.”
    I felt like any answer would be the wrong one. “I’m sorry.”
    She shrugged, but it was sad and not very convincing. “It’s fine. I chose this. I pushed him away. It’s just that sometimes things in theory are easier than things in reality.”
    “He still loves you.” I knew that much was true, even if Skylar momentarily distracted him.
    Lindsay gripped her notebook to her chest and tears pooled in her eyes. “Love isn’t always what it appears to be.” She ducked her head and turned, her pale hair swinging across her back as she rushed down the hall.
    A part of me envied her choice—to walk away from Blake and all that he represented. I wondered how long she’d last before going back to him. Four years at this school, and I’d never seen anyone successfully take a stand.

SKYLAR
    Z oe and I had fifth period together. She was a gift. Like a Tiffany’s box with blue wrapping paper and a big white bow. We talked fashion and movies and made plans for a slumber party. She was beyond what I had hoped for.
    “So, are we going to talk about the big glaring elephant between us or what?” Zoe’s whispered question sent my pulse into hyper speed. Did she recognize me? It’d only been five hours. I didn’t even get a whole day.
    “What elephant?” I choked out, wishing our teacher would start talking, and I could avoid this conversation.
    “You and Blake.” She furrowed her brow. “Why? What did you think I was talking about?”
    My relief was so huge it came with muffled laughter. “No. I-I knew you meant Blake. Of course. I mean, it’s Blake .” Sheesh. I was the world’s worst liar.
    Her head tilt and inquisitive stare said she didn’t believe me.
    “He, um, asked me out for this Saturday.” I hadn’t planned to say anything,