Torn to Pieces (The Boys of DownCrash #2) (new adult contemporary romance / rockstar romance) Read Online Free

the sound of the radio playing over the speakers that just a few minutes ago screamed the notes DownCrash played.
    “Why is it hard?” Scarlett asked.
    “Because I don’t want anyone to think the wrong thing anymore.  And I don’t know what to do about it.”
    Promises, Maggie, okay?  We all have to keep our promises... or else...
    I shut my eyes and sighed. 
    “You think Tatum thinks you’re some slut?”
    “Maybe,” I said.  “Maybe not.  I don’t know.  What I do know is that I’ve been up since like five in the morning and I’m tired.”
    “What’s another hour or two?” Scarlett asked.
    She wasn’t begging me right then, she was trying to help me.  And while I appreciated it, it only killed me more on the inside.  I didn’t want to be helped.  Or pitied.  Or anything like that.  I honestly wanted to go home and sleep.  I wanted to let things blow over like they always did.  Give it another couple weeks, maybe a month, and then I would just be Maggie again.  Nobody would have any stories about me.  Nothing about me getting crazy drunk, making out with a couple guys, and enjoying myself but never going too far.  Like I said, they always made up the other stuff... which was because I let them make it up and maybe because I whispered dirty stuff in their ears, wanting to create a struggle between fantasy and reality. 
    “Let me walk you to your car then,” Scarlett said. 
    “No,” I said.  “It’s seriously a few blocks away.  Go enjoy Tripp and the band.”
    I swallowed and Scarlett put her hands to my shoulders and started to shake me.
    “You have to stop,” she said.
    “Stop what?”
    “Thinking about what you saw.  I already told you like a hundred times.  I’m sorry.  If I knew you were into Tatum...”
    “I’m not worried about that,” I said, lying through my teeth.
    ...promises... lies...
    “You’re a liar,” Scarlett said.
    I shook my head.
    I kept my mouth shut. 
    “All you need to do is walk back with me,” Scarlett said.   “You can bust into the room, walk up to Tatum, grab him, and kiss him.  As much as you want, as hard as you want, as deep as you want.  Then we’re even.”
    “And then party-girl-slut Maggie is alive and well, right?”
    Scarlett frowned.  “Whatever then.  I’m going to tell Tatum you were asking about him at least.”
    “That’s fine.”
    “Maybe I’ll slip in your number.”
    “Yeah, that’s cool, because we’re in high school...”
    Scarlett stuck her tongue out at me and walked away.  She started out with a couple steps and then broke out into a jog.  Whatever crazy connection existed between she and Tripp, they couldn’t keep their clothes on and their hands off each other. 
    I turned around and started to leave.  I had the horrible feeling that I was completing the walk of shame and that everyone was staring at me.  Nobody was but it just felt weird.  I even stopped walking and purposely checked my cell phone, then looked around to see if anyone was actually looking at me.  When I saw that not a single set of eyes were upon me, I felt foolish.  With my cell phone tucked back into my pocket, I left but not before looking over my shoulder one last time.  But it wasn’t because I wanted to triple check for people staring at me, it was because I had to think about what could have been.  If I had just gone back with Scarlett... I could be talking to Tatum.  Enjoying myself even.  Maybe even slipping in the truth about the crazy stories going around campus about me. 
    But seriously, did rockstars really care about that stuff?
    The sidewalks and street were just as busy before the show.  The only difference now was that with most of the people drunk, it was three times as loud.  I couldn’t get away from there fast enough.  I kept my head down and power walked, watching the blackness of the sidewalks in the dark and then watching the light of lamp posts flood around me.  It was like a slow moving