With Strings Attached Read Online Free

Corey now felt confident she wouldn’t harm herself that way either.
    So she asked mildly, “How come?”
    Amanda grimaced. “Brittany is going out with Jared now.”
    “Oh no. Doesn’t she know that rule about not going out with your friends’ exes?”
    “Apparently not.”
    “It bothers you?”
    “Yeah.” Amanda blew out a breath and paused in her stirring of some melted chocolate. “She’s such a suck-ass poseur. She pretends to be all depressed and sensitive, but her life is perfect.”
    “I thought she was your new friend.”
    “Yeah. I thought so too. I helped her with her English assignments…that poem we had to write.”
    “How’d you do on that?”
    Amanda’s scowl deepened, but her bottom lip quivered a little. “I got a C. My teacher said it was emo drivel.”
    “Really?” Corey paused to stare at Amanda. Amanda was such a good English student with a talent for writing. Sure, she liked to put a lot of her emotion into her writing, but that was good, wasn’t it? “I don’t think your teacher should talk to you like that.”
    “Well, maybe she didn’t say those exact words. But she didn’t like it. Meanwhile, she gave Brittany an A-. After I practically wrote it for her.”
    “Oh no.” Corey could see where this was going. She’d had a bad feeling about this sudden friendship with Brittany, and Amanda spending all that time helping her with her homework.
    “I helped her with other stuff too, and then she turns around and…and…” Corey watched Amanda swallow and bend her head, blinking rapidly. Corey’s heart squeezed. “She knew I liked Jared.”
    “Oh crap.” Corey’s insides tightened. This wasn’t the first time Amanda had been hurt like this. She gave so much of herself, helping everyone, doing anything for anyone.
    “Brittany’s one of the ones who thinks Justin’s crazy,” Amanda said, her voice thick. “And because he’s crazy she thinks there’s something wrong with me too. She used me and then turned Jared against me, and…” Her voice broke. “And she’s going to turn all my other friends against me too.”
    Corey’s own eyes stung, and she set down the piping bag and crossed over to Amanda. She wrapped her arms around the girl and hugged her tight. “Oh, honey.”
    Even at fifteen, kids had pretty intense feelings, although she knew for a fact Jared and Amanda’s relationship had been tame. But Amanda had been heartbroken and had spent hours in her room writing poetry and listening to My Chemical Romance and Dashboard Confessional.
    Sometimes Corey didn’t know what to say, sometimes she felt like a fraud trying to mentor Amanda and help her deal with her issues, when Corey knew she still had so many issues of her own. But the program people assured her that it was enough for Amanda to have someone to talk to, to confide in, someone who understood. And Corey understood.
    “It’s not fair,” Amanda sobbed.
    “No, it’s not.” Corey remembered how often she’d thought that same thing as a teenager, though she’d had nobody but herself to say it out loud to. Her mother had been institutionalized by that point, and her foster families sure as hell hadn’t cared that she thought life was unfair. They thought she should have considered herself lucky to have been taken in by them, even though she was nothing more than some extra money coming in and an extra pair of hands to do dishes and clean the bathrooms. “It’s not fair. But it’s life. It’s what we have. I made it, Amanda, and you will too.”
    Amanda clung to her for another minute, then stepped back, her face a smudgy mascara mess. She swiped at her eyes. “Sorry. I’m going to go use the bathroom. Be right back.”
    Corey smiled and nodded as Amanda disappeared up the stairs to her apartment. She sighed as she turned back to her chocolates, her heart aching for the young girl. Amanda’s problems were different than her own had been, but she understood exactly how Amanda felt, how