From the Damage 1 - Opposites Attract Read Online Free Page A

side of town?”
    “I had an errand to run.”
    “An errand, huh?” He almost laughed at that, because he knew the rich kids from Clearwater only came to Westview for drugs. “You’re awfully preppy to be running errands down here.”
    “I’m not preppy.”
    He glanced at her, taking in the Abercrombie backpack, the American Eagle logo on her tank top and capris. Those pants alone must have cost fifty dollars—on sale , he reasoned and smiled at her in a yeah-right sort of way.
    “Okay, so maybe a little preppy.” She sighed and dug in her bag. “You mind if I smoke in here?”
    He played his fingers over the grooves in the steering wheel, full-on irritated by his good side, by his offer to give her a ride. “Roll the window down.”
    She twisted the knob and slid the window down. She lit a Marlboro Light, and then held the pack out to him. “Want one?”
    He eyed the soft pack with the white and gold wrapper as the smell of the smoke flitted to his nostrils and made the nicotine cravings kick in. If I have one...just one…will it matter? Yes, he answered himself. He knew he could never stop at just one, just like those stupid potato chips on that commercial, and he didn’t have the money to waste by picking up the habit again. “No thanks.”
    “Ah.” She nodded knowingly and blew her smoke out the window. “You’re what I call one of the converted.”
    “Converted?”
    “Yeah, you know...the people who quit smoking because television ads tell you it’s bad for you. What they don’t tell you is that you breathe in toxins every day—
    especially you, working around cars, with exhaust fumes and stuff.”
    He smirked as he turned down the road that led to her school. “Are you some kind of environmentalist or something?”
    “No. Well, I used be on the Green Team. It’s our school’s—”
    “I know what it is. We had a Green Team at Westview.”
    “Oh. Were you on it?”
    He laughed. “Hell, no! I was too busy getting arrested.”
    The shock that washed over her face had him laughing even harder.
    “Don’t worry,” he assured her. “It wasn’t violent crime. Vandalism mostly.”
    “Oh.”
    Silence fell over the cab of the truck for a few minutes. Then Kelly threw her cigarette out the window and turned to him. “So, that shooting—”
    His grip tightened on the wheel as he cut her off. “This isn’t a therapy session.”
    “It’s just…Ryder said the shooter was your friend.”
    “And I said this isn’t a therapy session.” He tossed her a glare to make her back off.

    She shrank back against the door. “Sorry.”
    “What about you? Why do you make out with people you’re not dating?”
    “I don’t know.” She picked at her fingernails. “He hit on me, and it just kind of happened…I guess I was lonely.”
    He’d said it to be mean; he never actually expected her to answer and wasn’t prepared to handle her response. Something in her face made him fight the urge to say something cruel. It took him a minute, but he managed to come up with, “Well, people get lonely sometimes.”
    She glanced at him. “Yeah.”
    He pulled up in front of the school.
    “Thanks.” She pushed the door open. “What do I owe you?”
    “I’ll tack it onto the bill,” he said, even though he knew he wouldn’t. “You get out of school at three?”
    “Three fifteen, I think.”
    He nodded. “I’ll try to have your car back by then.”
    She stepped out of the truck. “Thanks.”
    “Yep.”
    As soon as she shut the door, he took off.
    ≈≈≈
    Meagan walked quickly down the crowded hallway of Clearwater High.
    Classmates snickered and sneered in her wake, and she felt her cheeks burn with embarrassment. She was completely unable to shake the feeling that every single one of their jeers were aimed at her.
    Stopping at her locker, she saw the word WHORE spray-painted on it in big, bright red letters. At first the word hit her with a sting of pain, but that pain quickly turned to