Read Online Spectacularly Broken by Sage C. Holloway - Free Book Online Page A

demanded to know. “I mean, physically?”
    Lexa narrowed her eyes at him for a moment, then gave a minute nod.
    “So is it just that you don’t want to talk?”
    She shook her head. Cai frowned at her.
    Angie looked a little nervous. “I think maybe we should—”
    “So it’s, like, a mental or emotional issue?”
    Lexa nodded again. Cai gave her a smile. “Thanks,” he said. “I was just curious.”
    Lexa smiled back, and I realized that she looked very pretty when she did that. She really seemed to be quite a sweet girl, and I hoped she’d manage to get past her talking issue. I wondered what had caused it, but that really wasn’t my business.
    “Haze,” Angie called out. I drew red. Damn it. Now I’d have to tell them something about my childhood. I didn’t want to make stuff up, but I also had to remember that my history was currently Finn’s. That didn’t leave me with a whole lot of things to talk about.
    “Uh…” I studied the little candy in my hand. “When I was, like, nine, a bird flew against my window and fell to the ground, and when I looked out and saw it move, I thought it was gonna be fine. But then it stopped breathing. I cried over it for, like, a day.”
    The room was silent when I finished.
    “That’s depressing,” Jarett said eventually.
    “Yeah. Sorry.” I shrugged, feeling uncomfortable with how much I’d just shared. That memory felt personal. I remembered that bird like I’d seen it yesterday, and it still broke my heart.
    Jarett drew a purple skittle. “I’d lose some weight if I could,” he said promptly. “I’m too fat.”
    I found that almost more depressing than my bird story. I mean, it was true—he could have stood to lose a few pounds—but it sucked that he was so obviously unhappy about it. And thinking of him like that made me feel shallow.
    Hell, I probably was shallow.
    “You’re strong, though,” I pointed out. “You could probably bench-press me.”
    He looked me up and down. “Yeah, probably,” he said and brightened a little.
    I felt stupidly good about myself after that happened.
    * * * *
    Dinner that night marked the first time our group didn’t eat in silence. Lexa still didn’t talk, of course, but she listened with interest, and Nicky talked for two anyway, so it worked out. Jarett eyed my dessert brownie, and I considered handing it over but then thought about how he’d said he wanted to lose weight. I didn’t want to be an enabler. Then again, I also needed to watch what I was eating because I’d had a nightmare about no longer fitting into my pants once I got them back from Finn. Finally I split the damn thing in half for both of us.
    Man, being supportive wasn’t as easy as it sounded.
    Cai did no more than glance at me occasionally, but there was a hunger in his eyes that gave me pleasant shivers. It was obvious that he was looking forward to our after-dinner kitchen punishment as much as I was. I was pleased with how this was turning out. I definitely had use for a mutually beneficial arrangement that allowed me to keep from crawling out of my skin. Some form of a regular high was definitely needed if I wanted to survive four freaking weeks in this place.
    But before I could get my tantalizing reward, I had to work for it in the form of kitchen cleanup. Cai and I worked in silence next to each other while blue group demolished the dirty dishes—holy hell, were they efficient—and then, as if by unspoken agreement, we hurried to get the silverware sorted and the omelet ingredients measured out.
    Eventually I got bored with the silence. “How come you don’t like my cousin?” I asked.
    “Huh?” Cai grunted.
    “When you insulted me yesterday, it didn’t sound like you were all that fond of him either. Have you ever even talked to him?”
    “Oh. No, but I’ve listened to him talk. Have you? Because if so, I’m shocked you’ve never punched him.”
    “Why?” I hadn’t actually spent much time at all studying Finn’s