#Scandal Read Online Free

didn’t even see him walk up.
    “What?” I shove the phone behind my sash so fast I get, like, sash-burn. “I don’t have a crush. Ellie and I were just—”
    “I was taking about him .” Cole nods across the gym toward Marceau, who’s joined up with the gnomes and a leprechaun couple in matching green tuxes. They’ve all got their phones in the air, filming the outrageousness from above. “He’s been checking you out all night. Asked me earlier if we were together.”
    “What did you tell him?”
    Cole’s eyebrows shoot up, and I rush to explain. “I mean, you didn’t tell him I liked him, right? Because—” 20

    “ Do you?” Cole’s eyes are fierce and fiery, the smile gone from his lips.
    Is he . . . jealous?
    High above, a glitter cannon explodes, and a huge canvas banner of Jayla Heart flutters beneath the basketball scoreboard, vomiting sparkles on our heads.
    “I don’t,” I whisper. “Like him, I mean.” It takes a second for the world to start spinning again, and then it’s like, Welcome back, Cole’s smile! Oh, how we’ve missed you!
    “You’re off-limits, anyway.” Cole brushes glitter from my shoulder. “I told him you’re my favorite groupie.”
    “You wish! Drummers don’t get groupies; singers do.
    Ask John.”
    “Drummers get all the groupies. And for your 411, I’m an excellent singer.” His green eyes lock on mine, and right as I’m about to pass out from lack of oxygen to the brain, Cole nudges my arm. “I’m ready to blow this disco inferno.
    You’re crashing at the cabin tonight, right? Ellie told you about the party?”
    Party?
    “I’m . . . I can’t. I have to go home.” Faking it through dinner and dancing was hard enough. Besides, Ellie didn’t mention it. Apparently the Rent-a-Princess list of duties stops just short of “attend intimate all-nighter at my boyfriend’s secluded mountain cabin.”
    21

    “Your parents don’t trust me?” Cole says. “I’m totally trustworthy.” He holds up his fingers, Scout’s honor, but he knows my parents adore him—always have. When he and Ellie hooked up, Mom was all sad-faced and, “Huh. I always thought you two would get together, sugarplum. I didn’t even know Ellie liked him.”
    “There’s an Undead Shred tournament,” I explain. “My crew’s counting on me. You have to stay together or you die. Or get incapped. That’s slang for incapacitated, which you get when you don’t . . . stay together.” I shut my eyes, wondering if that useless fairy godmother is around. After five seconds I’m still standing here mortified, so . . . nope.
    “I know incapped,” Cole says. “I’ve dabbled in the undead arts before.”
    Mortification be damned. I open my eyes and cast a suspicious glare. “Did you just say ‘dabbled in the undead arts’?”
    “Don’t hurt me.” Cole holds up his hands in surrender.
    “Point is, using zombies as an excuse to ditch me? That’s beat, Vacarro. What kind of prom date are you?”
    “The beat kind, obviously.”
    Cole’s mischievous grin rises once again, custom-made by the fates to be my complete undoing.
    “It’s just a party,” he whispers. “What’s the worst that could happen?”
    22

    FRIENDS DON’T ll E T FAIRIES DRINK, WA X P O E TIC, STRIP, AND SWIM
    I nquiring minds want to know, Lucy Vacarro.” Griffin discovered the video function on her phone, monster created, and now she’s filming us in the Fosters’ bathroom.
    “How far are you willing to go as Ellie’s prom surrogate?” I pause mid–eyeliner application and frown playfully at her reflection in the mirror. Somehow she ended up with Marceau’s devil horns. “Brunette Griffin was nicer.”
    “There’s no denying that Cole is adorable.” On the countertop, my phone buzzes with Ellie’s number, a call instead of a text. There’s a fire in me, guilt and desire, and I bury them both. The party hasn’t even begun, and it’s already my worst idea ever. Even though it was Cole’s