Losing Her Read Online Free Page A

and wondering where in the hell I’d gone, so I quickly dismissed myself.
    That was one of the more bitter victories I’d experienced.
     
    The following weekend I was filling a red Solo cup when a hand clasped around my shoulder. I had turned with a raised eyebrow and found Wes, wearing a giant grin. Even though I hardly knew the guy, I could tell he was about to say something sarcastic.
    “Haven’t you learned not to turn your back on people?”
    I snickered and offered him the cup, which he accepted. That beer solidified our friendship. He was my best friend within weeks. Wes didn’t care about the girls I had dated, the fights that I’d been in, or what my batting average was; he was one of the first people, apart from David, that seemed to just want to know who I was.
    Wes always knew where the parties were, and I never had a problem going, even when I only knew him. Everyone knew Wes, and whether people just accepted me because I was with him, or actually knew who I was, made no difference to me. We hit up a party in the spring of our junior year, Wes had already gone upstairs with a redhead he’d been eyeing all night. I was sidled up to the keg, feeling a little bored. The party was pretty dull.
    “Hey, you’re in my English class, right?”
    I turned around to see a tall girl with hair that had been so brightly bleached it was nearly white. I took a swig of my beer, buying myself a moment to seek her motivation for lying, and watched as her eyes danced over my body with an excited gleam. She wanted me.
    “No, I’m pretty sure I’m not.”
    “I know, I just didn’t know what else to say to you!” She bounced on the balls of her feet like an anxious puppy as she talked.
    I had to give it to her. I liked the fact she was being honest, even if it made her look kind of stupid.
    “I’m Lacey.” I nodded and took another long drink, not sure why I was acting like a dick. Something just made me want her to work for it.
    “Do you go to Reynolds?”
    I shook my head.
    “Are you in college?”
    “You’d be jail bait if I was.”
    “Ah ha! So you do like me!” Her eyes lit up as she pointed an index finger to my chest. “Save the details. I don’t really care right now.” She grabbed my empty cup and set in on top of the keg, and then took my hand, pulling me toward the stairs. Maybe it was the beer, maybe it was because she was the first girl to be this bold with me in a while, or maybe it was because I’d been thinking a lot about my dad that day and wanted something to distract me, but I followed her.
     
    “Dude, everyone’s talking about you,” Wes yelled as I answered my phone on my way to class the following Monday.
    “What in the hell are you talking about? And who’s everyone?” I hadn’t been in a fight with anyone in weeks.
    “ Everyone ,” he emphasized again. “Lacey Caldwell, that girl you did at the party, she’s telling everyone you two are dating, and there are all kinds of crazy rumors spreading about the two of you and that fight that happened here. What in the hell did you two do?”
    I rubbed a hand over my head and down my face, pausing outside of class. “Is she psycho?”
    Wes laughed, obviously amused by my duress. “Describe psycho.”
    “Fuck! Why didn’t you warn me?”
    “I was a little busy. Redhead, remember? I have a weakness!”
    “Miller! Class. Now!” Mr. Forson, one of our hall monitors, barked.
    “I have to go. Do me a favor and play some offense for me. I don’t need this shit circulating to my mom.”
    “Dude, you’re a sex god. Enjoy it and stop complaining.” He hung up and I shoved my phone in my pocket as Mr. Forson glared at me with another one of his idle threats.
     
    An idle threat similar to the one Mr. Mitchell gave me as I sat in his office, waiting to hear my punishment for punching the kid that vandalized Ben’s car. His brows rose with his failing attempt to appear like a disappointed parent, causing his hair piece to inch