Heart's Reflection Read Online Free Page A

starting toward the street in the
direction of my parked car. I was about halfway there when a low, teasing voice
came from behind a bush.
    "Whew. You
sure made him mad."
    Startled, I jumped
and whirled to face Keagan.
    "How long
have you been hiding here?" I demanded, my mind furiously racing over the
conversation Liam and I had.
    "Long
enough," Keagan said, stepping out and under the full force of the
streetlamp. "Long enough to hear you making a very provocative offer."
    A blush caught
fire in my cheeks. Thank heavens for the cover of the dim light. "I don't
know what you're talking about."
    "Sure you
do," Keagan drawled. "My brother is a real fool. If you offered me a
night of passion at the reserve I wouldn't turn you down for football."
    "I bet."
Managing to make my statement a monotone and keeping all reaction from
registering on my face, while my heart was doing more flips than an Olympic
gymnast, was one of the harder things I'd ever done.
    "Yeah. I'd
have jumped at that offer in a heartbeat." Keagan's low, sensual baritone
teased as if he knew exactly what I was feeling. "A chance to pop the
cherry of a gorgeous and notorious virgin weighed against a mere football game?
No contest."
    "You're crude
and disgusting." Turning on a heel, I presented a stiff back to him before
walking away.
    "And you love
it." The low rumble of his laugh burned my ears. "You were my little
champion back there. Trying to get Liam to go to bat for me with Dad."
    "Like I said
to Liam, that was for him and not you." My car parked at the end of the
block seemed like a mile away.
    Keagan grabbed my
arm and pulled me to a stop. Turning in reluctance, I saw his face set in a
serious frown.
    "Sure,"
he said. "I know it's Liam you love and Liam you want. But no matter who
you did that for, you shoulda saved your breath."
    "Why? It
would solve everything if you would just come back to our school."
    "Even if Dad
would send me, I'm not going back to that toity Academy and its hoity students.
I'm happy where I am. And it'll be my personal pleasure to make sure my brother
never sees the end zone let alone a UGA scholarship. Liam's ass is
grass—or in this case Astroturf— on Friday."
    * * * * *
    The next
day— Thursday—I spent most of the morning trying to get Liam to talk
to me with no luck. He remained furious. In all the years we'd known each other
we'd never stayed mad for more than a few hours. I felt completely unsettled.
The earth was off its axis and all I could do was list around helplessly.
    I'd gone through
the denial phase, then the anger phase, and then started bargaining, but
nothing worked. Every time I managed to touch Liam...nothing. No vision of a
new and different death. He was still on course to die at Keagan's hands during
the game. With so little time left, how was I going to stop Liam from playing
in that game if he wouldn't even speak to me?
    In a depression, I
escaped to the girls' room and locked myself in the middle stall. I sat down on
the seat and put my head in my hands.
    The bell for fifth
period rang. The chattering of the girls who'd been washing their hands and
putting on make-up trailed behind them as they left. The outer door swooshed
shut and just as quickly swooshed open again.
    "Are you
okay, Tara?" My friend, Juliette's voice, high-pitched and dripping in
placid concern, echoed against the tile walls. "You've been acting weird.
I'm worried about you."
    "I'm okay. Go
on," I said. "You'll miss class."
    "No,"
she replied. "I have an appointment with the guidance counselor and she
said it was okay to ... anyway, I don't have to go."
    As she chattered I
glanced up. The graffiti carved on the inside of the door screamed out at me:
Tara Sucks.
    Lashonda had
carved those words into the stall on the first day of the school year when I'd
refused to join a group of the cheerleaders in a drinking party. She seemed
certain I could pass for twenty-one and buy them a supply of beer. I refused,
as did Juliette.
    "You