Breakable Read Online Free Page A

her pale, platinum hair, or
her flashing blue eyes. Or her dimples – everyone loved the stupid dimples.
    Instead,
Mark stared at his feet, squeezed my hand and said the words the sent my heart
into freefall.
    “She
helps me forget.” He smiled uncertainly and wouldn’t meet my eyes. “She doesn’t
know anything about Dad. She doesn’t care if I’m on student council, or if I
make starting guard next season… She doesn’t care about anything. She just
wants to be with me. And when I’m with her, I don’t care about that stuff
either.”
    The
expression on his face was a mallet to my frozen heart. It shattered.
    I
tried to breathe.
    “Stace?”
    I
was saved from replying by his door opening. But then the most irritating
little-girl voice on God’s green earth piped up.
    “There
you are!”
    Mark
swung around and I didn’t have to see the smile break on his face like a
sunrise, because his voice dropped into the deep, heavy tone he reserved for
whoever he was lusting after at the time, and he said “ Hey .”
    That
one syllable held more desire, more pleasure in it than every kind word
he’d ever said to me. It took the broken pieces of my heart and stamped on
them, because I’d been so sure that the next time that voice showed up, it
would be for me .
    “You’re
late,” Karyn squealed. Like a tiny, fat, piglet.
    “Sorry,
got held up.” Mark pulled himself out of my car and wrapped his arms around
her, his chin dropping to rest on the top of her head.
    You
got held up by your abusive father, Mark. Tell her that. Go on. Tell her about your screwed up life.
    Oh,
wait… you don’t want to. I’m the one who gets to mop you up, then watch you fall
into someone else’s arms.
    I
couldn’t bear it. I threw my door open and jumped out.
    I
should have known she wouldn’t let me leave unscathed.
    “Hey,
Stacy,” Karyn squeaked.
    “Hey,
Karyn.” I said without looking at them, then locked the doors and muttered “See
you guys inside.” I started towards the building as fast as I could go without
actually being seen to flee.
    Which,
unfortunately, wasn’t fast enough to avoid hearing the stage-whispered “You
told her? Finally!”
    And
to hear Mark murmur, “I told you I would. Don’t worry. It’s all good.”
    It
was all good.
    Yeah,
Mark. Sure. It was brilliant.
    Just
freaking wonderful.
    Excuse
me while I go bleed to death internally.
    It’s
all good.

 
    Chapter Four
     
    Doc
examines his thumbnail. While I'm grateful for the lack of eye contact, part of
me is offended that he can listen with such detachment. I’ve just told him my
high school sweetheart was almost killed by his father, and oh, by the way, I
talk to myself in the mirror. To my other self.
    If
he’s read my file, he knows where this is going.
    "Karyn?"
he says to his thumb. "The same Karyn who was involved in
your…incident?"
    I
frown. Is this some kind of trick? Surely he’s more interested in the mirror?
I’d rather talk about that than Karyn.
    But
he waits, so I have to reply.
    "Yes."
I spit the word. It is the wrong way to respond. Doc's gaze has risen to meet
mine.
    "That
must be hard, looking back."
    I
scoff and cross my legs, tipping my weight so I don't stretch the scars on my
side. "Where do I start?" It was rhetorical, but he answers anyway.
    "The
beginning. Did Mark introduce you?"
    “No.”
I try for an ironic chuckle, but it comes out cold. “I introduced them.”
    Both
of Doc’s eyebrow’s pop up, just a little. “So, you were friends with Karyn
first?”
    Sigh.
“I was friends with all of the girls first, Doc. I was popular until eighth
grade... Sort of. Mark didn’t even go to the same school as all of us until
freshman year.”
    “How
so?”
    “His
dad sent him to some private, rich-kid middle school in the next town over.”
    Doc
looks at his notes, frowns. “So, tell me about your relationship with Karyn,
and the other girls, back when you still categorized them as friends. I’m
especially