The Beauty in Between: Too Close (A Beautiful Series Novella) Read Online Free Page A

to
have boyfriends you know. Ben’s right – you don’t own me.”
    It was painful
watching her walk back towards the school buildings. How could I
get her to understand how wrong Ben was for her without looking
like a jealous wanker myself?
    I watched until
she was safely inside and then crossed the street to McDonalds to
wait out the rest of the dance. A few other kids had abandoned the
school dance as well and were over there eating and laughing. I
went and ordered a meal and sat down with them.
    “Hey David!” a
girl named Loren yelled a little too enthusiastically to me from
across the table. “Is it true what Cassie’s saying?”
    I shook my
head, “No. She's full of shit. She tried, and I said no. I didn’t
want to fuck her against the side of the school building.”
    “Told you she
was lying!” Loren’s best friend Erin yelled to her. “No girl’s
first time is that awesome.”
    I laughed,
suddenly feeling that little bit lighter. Finally, someone believed
me.
    ***
    Trina’s dad
picked us up from the dance and drove us home. We barely said a
word to each other the entire ride home, and even Mr Mahoney
noticed something was going on.
    “Bad time?” he
asked, glancing at us in the rear-view mirror.
    “David can just
be a real jerk sometimes,” Katrina said, folding her arms tightly
over her chest and staring out the window.
    Mr Mahoney met
my eyes in the rear-view mirror and raised his eyebrows in
question. I shrugged my shoulders and looked out the window on my
side, just wanting this night to be over.
    “Thanks for the
ride Mr Mahoney,” I said softly, as I opened the door to get out of
the car. “See you later Trina.” She briefly met my eyes before
looking straight ahead, effectively giving me the cold shoulder.
Sighing, I closed the door and went inside to where my mother was
waiting up for me.
    “How was it?”
she asked when she heard the door click shut.
    I walked over
to where she was sitting watching tv and sat next to her with an
exaggerated sigh. “It was shit.”
    “David!
Language!”
    “Sorry.”
    “You want to
talk about it?”
    For a while, I
didn’t speak, not sure how my mum would take hearing what had gone
down that night. I was risking her never letting me out of the
house again if she reacted badly.
    Needing to get
it off my chest and have someone close to me believe me, I took a
deep breath and started. “Everyone thinks I had sex with Cassie
Green.”
    “They
think?”
    I then told her
the PG version of what happened between us, and how the rumour went
crazy. Then, I told her how I reacted when I saw Katrina with
Ben.
    “You dragged
her out of there?” she asked incredulously. “Oh David, that was way
out of line. I know you love Katrina- ”
    “I don’t love her!” I interrupted, angry that she was jumping to
conclusions.
    “David. Let me
finish. I was meaning that you love her like family and feel very
protective of her. But you can’t protect her from everyone. She
needs to make her own mistakes with boys – every girl does.”
    “I just don’t
want to hear them talking about her like they do the other
girls.”
    “Then maybe
it’s time you got some better friends.”

    Later that
night, I was lying in bed, tossing and turning because I couldn’t
sleep. Eventually, I gave up and put my clothes and shoes on and
climbed out my window. Ever since I first went to her window the
night that my dad left, I’d gone back whenever I was really
troubled about something. She always made me feel better.
    This time I
wasn’t going there for me, I was going there for her. I needed to
apologise.
    “What are you
doing here David? Haven’t you done enough?” she asked through the
screen.
    “I’m sorry
Trina. Let me in. I just want to talk.”
    Reaching up,
she twisted the hinges that locked the screen in place and popped
it out for me to catch. I placed it on the ground beside me and
climbed through with a tumble. She was pissed at me, so I guess she
didn’t