Read Online Shadowed Strength: Shadowed Series Book One by Wendi Wilson - Free Book Online Page A

into his chest and
started walking away.
    I can do this, she thought. I can be his friend, and not think about…other
things. She heard footsteps running up behind her and felt hands grab her
sides and squeeze.
    “Don’t do that!”
she yelled.
    “I’m sorry. I was
just playing with you.” Jeremy’s face fell again.
    She put her hand on
his arm. “I know. I’m just…really ticklish and I don’t like it. Sorry I
yelled.” She wouldn’t look him in the eye, because he would know she was lying.
    Melanie dropped
her arm and they walked silently through the front doors of the school. She was
so embarrassed. She was ticklish, but that’s not why she yelled. It was a
knee-jerk reaction because she knew he would feel the pudginess around her
middle. She knew if he felt it, he would be disgusted. She tried to change the
subject.
    “So, I saw that
dog last night,” she stated when they got to her locker and he handed her
backpack back to her.
    “You did?” he
asked. “Where?”
    “In my backyard.”
    “Huh.”
    “Really, that’s
all you got is ‘huh’? I was under the impression you thought I made him up in
my head and that he wasn’t real.”
    “That’s not true.
I said that I didn’t see him, not that you didn’t see him. I always believe
you.”
    Now she felt
really crappy about the “ticklish” lie. “Listen Jeremy, I really am sorry I
yelled at you. I didn’t mean it.”
    He smiled and flipped
his head back to get the hair out of his face. “It’s ok,” he replied. Then gave
her a hug and walked her to first period.
    At lunch, Jeremy
sat with Mel, Tara and Chris again. Mel silently scolded herself for being so
nervous. Friends are not nervous around friends.
    “How’s that salad,
Mel?” Jeremy asked her. She’d been stirring it with her fork for at least five
minutes without taking a bite.
    She took a huge
bite and replied with her mouth full, “Ish reawy goot.”
    Oh, God. Did I really
just talk with my mouth full? Did I spit salad on him? Oh my God, kill me now.
    Melanie plopped
her forehead down on the table. The word “embarrassing” didn’t even begin to
cover what she was feeling. She kept her head down and swallowed what was in
her mouth. She felt a kick on her foot from across the table, and kicked Tara
back without even looking up. Maybe she could just stay here until school was
over. Or run out now and go straight home and die there.
     She was
still contemplating her choices when she felt a big, warm hand on her knee. She
sat up quickly, eyes trained on that hand, with a loud intake of breath.
    “Sorry,” Jeremy
sad quietly as he pulled his hand away. “I didn’t mean to…just, sorry.” He
focused back on his lunch and picked up what was left of his pizza slice.
    Melanie stared at
her knee for a few more seconds, then looked up across the table at Tara
incredulously. Tara had a smug look on her face that said “I told you so.”
Melanie looked back at her knee again, then sneaked a peek at Jeremy from the
corner of her eye. He looked all red, like he was blushing, and he was staring
holes into his pizza. She noticed that his lips were moving, just barely, like
he was swearing to, or at, himself.
    What is going
on? Melanie thought to herself. It’s like I’m in
some parallel universe and I have no idea what’s going to happen next.
      She really, really wanted to believe that what it looked like
was happening was actually happening. It looked like Jeremy was blushing
because he showed her affection and thought she rejected him.
    As if! But that couldn’t really be what was going on. Could it? Her
thoughts were all jumbled.
    She looked back up
at Tara helplessly and gave a slight shrug. Tara narrowed her eyes and nodded
in Jeremy’s direction. Melanie gave a slight, almost imperceptible shake of her
head, but Tara got it. She narrowed her eyes even more and nodded a little
harder at him. Melanie took a deep breath and let it out on a sigh. Tara was
never going to