Split - A.M. Bryker (top 10 books to read TXT) 📗

front of her. She raises an eyebrow at me. I make myself grin, and it doesn't take long for her to smile hesitantly back at me.

     She lifts her cone to her mouth and licks it a few times before she seems to realize that I haven't touched mine.

     "You gonna let that melt?" She asks, sounding amused.

     "Perhaps," I say, picking up the cone and examining the ice cream in mock suspicion. "Sometimes one must truly decide if they really want to eat something that looks so… twisted."

     I actually do want to try it. It looks delicious and refreshing. Across from me, Jade smiles and laughs quietly under her breath.

     "You're different," she states, and I quirk an eyebrow. Then she adds, "You're strange. But in good ways. I kinda like that. It sets you apart from other guys I know."

     She smiles warmly at me, and I'm not very worried about the ice cream melting—there's me to worry about. And here I thought I was going to be a hardened guy after all that I’ve been through.

     I realize that I'm staring when her cheeks turn red, and she continues to lick her cone. Smiling inwardly, I take a tentative bite out of my ice cream. The taste explodes in my mouth, and I have to force myself not to consume the whole cone in two bites.

     Jade regards me thoughtfully. "How is it?" She asks, lifting one cheek to form a half smile.

     "It's…" I try to find a word good enough to fully describe it, but then I remember that I'm supposed to have eaten one before, so I say, "It's pretty good. Best one I've had, actually."

     She smiles in satisfaction, but it quickly turns into amusement.

     "What?" I ask. What did I do?

     "You have a, um…" she trails off, pulling a napkin from a box on the table.

     Leaning over the table, she gently dabs at the side of my mouth. I'm a little mortified that I made a mess of my face, even if it's a small mess.

     I look at Jade. Suddenly, I'm gazing into her eyes and can't look away. For a second I'm alarmed, but my mind senses no immediate danger like it did when Amaya had looked at me. This time I have a good feeling, and knots form in my stomach. She hasn't pulled away, and her hand still clutches the napkin above the table.

     I barely register the fact that I quietly say, "Thank you."

     She starts leaning toward me, but I sit back in my seat, not wanting to be too close despite how comfortable it seems.

     This can’t be happening. This girl bears too much resemblance to the one who killed my sister. The memories that flood me are painfully overwhelming. This has to stop. I have to do something.

     "Hi, Jade. Bek."

   The voice makes us both jump and Jade sits back against her seat, looking slightly embarrassed before she quickly masks her surprise. I’m barely able to restrain a huge sigh of relief.

     "Oh," Jade says. "Hey, Ashley."

     I glance up at the girl who saved me from an awkward situation and wondered why I hadn’t seen her before she showed up out of nowhere.

     Ashley brushes light brown hair away from pretty green eyes. I can tell that she's short, even though I'm sitting down. She's tan, like most girls in California. She wears a white t-shirt with the words "Embrace Insanity" on it and blue jeans capris. In her hand is an iPhone with a green and black case. She seems to be occupied with it, quickly typing in words to a text or something.

     After a few seconds, she looks up and smiles mischievously, raising an eyebrow. "You should seriously consider waiting a little while," she says to Jade. "Not trying to be the bad guy—'cause there's a way better candidate than me—but you should keep it down to a bare minimum, unless you want spider coconuts crawling into your dresser drawers and haunting your dreams."

     Creepy. "Wait, how do you know my name?" I ask.

     She winks at me, replying, "I know everything. Don't forget that. Anyhoo, I'll see you later."

     As she begins typing again and walking away, I hear her exclaim under her breath, "Ooh, brain storm!"

     I watch her walk toward another table and sit down next to a guy with sandy blond hair and blue eyes. Strange how I hadn’t noticed him before. He glances at us and smiles, waving his hand a little in response to our confused stares.

     "Who was that?" I ask, turning to Jade.

     "That was Ashley Green, the craziest person I know," she replies in bewilderment. "And the guy with her is Aiden. Dunno much more about him than that, other than he's really nice."

     We sit there in silence for a few minutes, finishing our ice cream.

     I decide to break the silence by asking, "What do you think she meant? About waiting, I mean."

     She shrugs shyly. "Well, think about it. What was going on when she appeared out of nowhere?"

     “Gotcha.”

     "Yeah."

     A few minutes pass in a somewhat awkward silence. Jade breaks it this time.

     "She's pretty, though," she remarks. "Despite her total insanity."

     I look behind me and take in Ashley's features again. She glances up from her laptop (wait—laptop? Where did that come from?) and wiggles her fingers at me. Then she whispers something to Aiden and they both laugh.

     I turn back to face Jade and reply, "Eh. She's okay. Not to be rude or anything, but I've seen better." Besides, I muse to myself, it looks like she already has a boyfriend.

     Jade seems to notice that I gazed at her while speaking and she lowers her eyes to stare at the table, a slight smile playing at the corners of her lips.

     "We should probably go now," she says, checking the time on her phone. "School is almost out."

     I nod. "Okay. I'm finished with insanity."

     She laughs, and I realize that I like her laugh. "So am I. For a while, anyway."

     "Good luck escaping it!" Ashley exclaims from her table.

     We leave the building more quickly than is probably necessary.

Thirteen

Jadelynn

 

That has to be one of the weirdest things that has ever happened to me. First I get caught up in Bek's eyes, then Ashley appears out of the blue and threatens us with spider coconuts (whatever those are) if we don't wait, and then she suddenly has a laptop in front of her. And what's she doing out of school, anyway?

     "I wonder how…" I start to say as we head down the sidewalk, but I trail off.

     "You wonder how…?” Bek encourages.

     I stare at him, confused. "I can't remember what I was going to say."

     He raises an eyebrow at me. "How can you forget what you were going to say in a span of—?”

     A blank look crosses his face and he stops walking. "That was the weirdest thing I've ever experienced," he says. "I knew exactly what I was going to say and then I just… forgot. It's almost like someone erased the thought before I could say it."

     I have to laugh at the expression on his face. "That's how I felt." I take his hand and pull him with me toward the school that is now spitting out eager students from its doors.

     Quickly, I withdraw my hand and shove it in my pocket when I see Alexis, Cody, and Justin. Wait—Justin? What's he doing with them? I didn't think they got along very well with each other.

     Bek and I approach the trio. Justin eyes us both in suspicion, but Alexis and Cody don't seem to care that we were out of school before they were.

     "Hi," I say.

     "Hey," Cody replies. "Where did you come from?"

     Okay, so they might care a little. Raising an eyebrow at him with a grin, I say, "Rephrase that question."

     He rolls his eyes but smiles and demands, "Okay, where were you five minutes ago?"

     "At that one fast food place in that one area down that one street." My grin widens.

     "Oh, okay," Cody says, nodding in understanding.

     Alexis frowns. "What were you doing there?"

     "Getting some ice cream," I answer.

     "Did you guys ditch?" She asks, her eyes widening.

     Laughing, I reply, "You know I don't ditch."

     "Then why were you there?" Justin inquires.

     I'm about to answer, but Bek beats me to it.

     "Jade passed out right before gym," he explains. "Coach Fields wanted me to stay with her while she got some food."

     "You passed out?" Alexis exclaims, reaching for my free hand. I stuff that one in my pocket as well. "Why? Did you exhaust yourself somehow? Are you gonna be okay?"

     Sighing, I say, "Lex, I'm fine. I just got dizzy and a little nauseous. Nothing serious. Don't worry about it."

     Cody wraps his arm around her shoulders and hugs her close to his side. She looks up at him and smiles. I mouth the words "Thank you", and he winks at me.

     "Would you like a ride home?" Justin asks me.

     I force a pleasant smile and answer, "No, I think I'll walk. Thanks anyway."

     His eyes shift from me to Bek, then back to me again. "Okay then. I'll see you later."

     He walks swiftly toward the school and disappears into the gym with a couple of his friends.

     Turning to Cody and Alexis, I ask, "Are you two going home?"

     Cody shakes his head. "Nah, I'm going to basketball practice. Alexis is gonna watch. Wanna join her?"

     I bite my bottom lip. So that's the connection between Justin and Cody. The idea of sitting through practice had appealed to me yesterday, but now… it doesn't.

     So instead of accepting his invitation, I say, "No, that's okay. I've got stuff to do at home. Maybe some other time."

     Cody shrugs and then pulls Alexis toward the gym with him. She waves at me, shouting, "See you tonight!"

     I wave back and start walking away.

     "So where do you live?"

     I jump away five feet from where I was originally standing before I take another breath.

     Bek stares at me in surprise.

     "Don't scare me like that!" I exclaim, my ears starting to burn with embarrassment.

     He replies calmly, "I apologize for scaring you. But I have a question… Where on earth did you come from?"

     I blink. "Excuse me?"

     He shakes his head quickly, like he's trying to erase a thought from his mind. "Never mind. Sorry." He takes a deep breath and smiles a little. "Shall we go?"

     I nod quickly. "Sure."

     We walk down the sidewalk in silence, lost in thought. Every now and then I catch him looking at me as though he's trying to put together a puzzle.

     Thinking about the incident, I berate myself for losing control of my reflexes. What if anyone else had been around? It’s bad enough that Bek was standing right there, and noticed what had happened.

     Does he think I'm weird? I wonder. Some kind of freak? Man, I really blew it. Good thing I didn't jump twice as far—that probably