The Stranger Inside Read Online Free Page A

you suddenly freak out and act like you didn’t know me? Why the big change, Kenzie?”
     The unexpected name gave my heart a jolt. “Kenzie?”
    “Yeah, that’s your name isn’t it?” He gave a bitter laugh. “Well, that’s what you told me it was. I guess it’s not, huh?”
    “No,” I said slowly. Why would I have told him my name was Kenzie? Weird. He must have misheard. Or got me confused with someone else. Maybe he picked up girls at the mall all the time. Maybe he couldn’t keep us all straight. Sheesh, how many girls did he pick up just today? Ew. “My name’s Jodi. Look, I have no idea how we met.”
    He blinked, then swept his blond hair out of his eyes, for a moment saying nothing. “Are you messing with me?”
    “No. I wish I was, but I’m not. Seriously. The last thing I remember was being at the mall. I was trying to get a job.”
    Sawyer slowly nodded. “Yeah. I know. Your applications are still out in my car.”
    “So, Sawyer,” I said, attempting to sound conversational, like my next question wasn’t going to make me sound like a screwed up loon in need of a place called SunnyBrook Farms or Port Haven Mental Institute, “how did we end up kissing on your bed?”
    “I don’t know,” he said dryly. “I thought it was because we were mutually attracted to each other.” He ran his hands through his hair. “Are you playing a game with me or what?”
    I shook my head. “It’s not a game.” I totally understood his disbelief. I couldn’t believe what had happened myself. Grief makes people do weird things, apparently.
    “Figures,” Sawyer muttered. “I meet the nymphomaniac of my dreams and she ends up being split personalities.”
    My stomach dropped. Whoa. What? I swallowed, my heart spazzing. “You think I have a split personality?”
    “You called yourself Kenzie—like, multiple times. And you were all over me. You even sounded different when you talked, like you weren’t as well educated or something. No way was the girl I started kissing the same girl who left my bedroom.” He watched me a moment, noticed my shaking hands, then flicked his gaze back to my face. “And you said you can’t remember anything after being at the mall.”
    He said all this like he was putting together a puzzle—like it was a theory, but it was based on facts—facts I told him.
    … Split personalities.
    The thought never crossed my mind. Never. I was just suffering from grief, right? I’d just blacked out for a bit. Selective amnesia or something … right?
    Right?
    I wanted to believe I was right. Of course. I wanted to believe it so bad. Go on believing what I had been, that I have tiny time lapses—now and then. Annoying, yeah, but not that big of a deal.
    At least I didn’t think the lapses were a big deal—until today.
    But learning I called myself by another name kind of shed a new, horrifying light on my lapses. Suddenly, I had to consider what Sawyer said as more than just a possibility. It was as though someone else—this Kenzie—had been using my body for the day and just now grew tired of it and decided to give it back.
    I felt sick, like I might throw up. The grief counselor hadn’t warned about becoming someone different while experiencing the grief process. I definitely would have remembered something like that.
    “I don’t know.” Sawyer rubbed the back of his neck. “I’m not a psychiatrist—obviously—but what else explains it? You were totally different this afternoon. Totally .”
    I buried my face in my hands. “I was? What was Kenzie like?”
    “I don’t know. Different. She was fun. Kind of wild.”
    I glanced up at him, remembering something he said earlier, about meeting the nymphomaniac of his dreams. Suddenly the statement made me sweat. “What’d we do today?”
    Sawyer flicked me a look, mischief in his eyes. “We had the most incredible sex—all day. We did it all day.” He smiled, raising his eyebrows. “You were great.”
    I just stared