Blood Ties Read Online Free Page A

quietly. They were dressed in black on black, midnight hair defying gravity, white makeup, black lipstick and nails, with a couple pounds of chains and piercings. They gave her a brief nod then stared as I walked past. I gave them my best “please don’t kill me” smile. They raised a side of their mouths in half-snarls.
    She lifted her hands in the air. “Isn’t this just phenomenal!”
    I felt like a hick.
    We went through the gauntlet of introductions. It took less than a micro-second for each of their names to float off to Neverland. I’d inherited my mother’s inability to remember names upon introduction. In some ways, it’s a blessing; it left a few more uncluttered spots in my head. The good news is I remembered Jen’s. I wasn’t a total spaz.
    I ignored the whispers behind my back. Instead, I played the mnemonic game in my head, memorizing faces and personalities. I was pretty good at it. I could run into someone ten years later and remember all about them, except their name of course.
    The guys followed us around like a pack of puppies. They trapped us up against the wall. Dylan from the move-in welcoming squad was their leader. He’d put a shirt on and combed his hair. He looked better with bed head.
    Jen shoved them away. “Back off guys. She’s dating a recently paroled ‘gangsta’.”
    The silence was deafening. I turned around and gave her an eloquent look. She returned a look of innocence and shrugged.
    A few more clustered around with obnoxious t-shirts sprouting animals and guns. It was obvious they were from the Hunter-Gatherers Clan. The one wearing a PETA – People Eating Tasty Animals logo had his buddy in a headlock. His friend’s t-shirt had a giant Bambi on it with blood spurting out of its neck with the words “Got Deer?” in drippy red lettering. I had to look sideways to get the full head-on.
    It was a mistake. This morning’s accident came back in a rush, but it was like two movies superimposed upon each other. The hallway lurched under my feet, crazy images flashed in front of my eyes. It was hard to breathe, the air felt like molasses, all thick and gooey.
    “Liz, you okay?” Jen’s green eyes were only a few inches from mine.
    I nodded then bent over and braced my hands on my thighs. I focused on taking slow, even breaths. I’d never hyperventilated but if I had to guess, I was on the verge of it. Perfect timing. I had to go crazy in public.
    “Just remembering the deer,” I mumbled.
    “Deer, did I hear deer?” I bent my head up and PETA boy was in front of me. I hunched back down to hide the roll of my eyes.
    “She hit a deer this morning,” Jen said proudly, “and lived to tell about it.”
    God.
    “Yummy, what’d you do with it?”
    “It ran away .” I winced. A headache started to form right in the center of my forehead. The deer suddenly had blonde hair, stuck up on one side. It had a British accent. Why the hell it could talk was a total mystery. Hell if I knew what it had said.
    “Ahhh, they’re such frisky little critters. Fun to play with … fun to eat.”
    If he kept yapping, I was going to puke. I looked sideways at Jen and glared at her.
    She shooed them away then rubbed my back, making little coos that it was going to be alright, that I was alive, not hurt, that it was normal for me to freak-out. She rambled on about some cousin of hers that had hit a skunk until I couldn’t take it any longer. I pulled back up and leaned against the wall. My head slowly cleared. The tight pressure of pain eased. I rubbed the muscle s between my eyes.
    “All better?”
    I nodded.
    “Wanna talk about it?”
    I shook my head.
    She gave me a quick grin, a forced grin. I wasn’t sure if she was upset that I wouldn’t talk about it or if she thought she should call the ambulance.
    “Really, I’m fine. It was just a delayed reaction. I do that a lot, great in an emergency but the payback is a bitch.”
    “ Okay,” she said.
    She let it go. I’d kept my