Deeper (The Deeper Chronicles #1) Read Online Free

Jamaican words Avi had never heard before and didn’t understand.
    That summer was painful.
    Avi worked at a local ice cream parlor, where the hours were grueling and the pay was low. But the worst was speaking to a mother who never responded, not even after Avi’s multiple apologies. Returning to school that Fall was out of the question. Her mother was a single parent, and despite working hard, they never had any real extra money. Besides, Ellie was pissed. If Avi wanted to finish her degree, she would have to find a way to pay for it herself—that much her mother had yelled at her. Avi’s bank account told her even community college would be out of the question for a while. Applying for loans wasn’t an option, because Avi had no real income of her own, and Ellie wouldn’t co-sign any of the applications.
    Days flew by, and soon, the month of August was upon the Linton household. Avi’s first tuition installment was due mid-August. The summer had been lonesome; Avi missed her mother. The thought of remaining in their little town with even smaller prospects twisted her gut, but not having Ellie’s presence in her life had made the idea that much more nauseating.
    It was late, much later than Avi was accustomed to her mother being out, when Ellie walked into their tiny rental home and presented her daughter with a check to cover the first semester for her junior year. Avi’s fingers shook when she pulled the check to her, hesitant to even look at the amount. She stared with misty eyes into her mother’s somber, brown ones. Ellie’s words gave Avi real hope for the first time in months: ‘I’ve been working overtime.’ Avi’s gratefulness was expressed to Ellie’s slumped shoulders as she shuffled away.
    Things had been going well at school, and Avi had made good on her promise to take care of business, but the summer before the start of her senior year, Avi’s world was rocked again. Everything shifted when she was pulled over by two of her city’s police officers.
    Her stomach roiled at the sight of the line to enter the club, which wrapped around the building. Avi had no intention of falling back into old habits and getting off her game.
    I’ll make it up to Sofie. Take her to lunch or something.
    New York was lonely, and Sofie was her only friend since moving from Norland, Florida, but she’d be foolish to enter that club. Not when she was still paying for the consequences of her poor decisions.
    Just when she decided to hail a cab and chalk the night up to a lapse in judgment and wanting to please her new friend, the persistent wave of a slender hand caught Avi’s attention and halted her retreat. Forcing a smile onto her lips, she moved closer to the body attached to the exuberant hand that had beckoned her.
    Impatient women hiked up their already short dresses and tugged down their necklines while men eye-stalked the women they planned on approaching with a drink in hand and a dance request on their lips.
    This is going to be a long night.
    Sofie stood behind a solidly built man. The guy was like a human Hummer—all thick thighs, wide shoulders, and a foreboding countenance. No one would be getting past him. Avi stepped closer to the velvet rope, which was unclasped to provide her easy entry as if she were a VIP member. The burly man ushered her farther in, allowing her to walk past him and into Sofie’s embrace. The words ‘Club Envy’ blinked behind Sofie, who turned and pulled Avi through a black door, and then down a dark corridor that glowed with neon lights.
    She found herself anticipating the sights inside. Now I understand the line outside , Avi thought when she and Sofie reached the end of the long, narrow path. It opened to a large dance floor surrounded by leather seating arrangements, which were being tended by minimally dressed male and female servers.
    This would have definitely been my kind of place years ago.
    “Stop gawking like a country bumpkin and let’s go,” Sofie