Aftershocks by Monica Alexander Read Free Book Online Page A

front, my cheeks burning in embarrassment, as I tried not to let him see that he’d been able to break through my icy exterior even though there was a theoretical puddle of water around my feet at that point.
    He was just trying to be nice. I could at least give him a little credit for that, and as soon as the thought hit my brain, I knew something had shifted. I wondered how on earth I could go from hating someone one minute to lusting after him the next. It just wasn’t normal.

Chapter 5
    “So, I guess I’m off to English. A Hal is that way, right?” Connor asked, as we were leaving physics, pointing the wrong way. I reached up and moved his arm so it was pointing in the right direction.
    After Mr. Winters had passed out our sylabuses and talked about what we’d be learning that year, he’d let us have the rest of the class to ourselves, so I’d gotten to talk to Connor a little more and decided I was on the fence about him being a jerk. Yes, he’d hit me and my car, and he had horrible taste in women, but that didn’t necessarily make him a bad guy.
    I’d softened a little when he told about his old school in Austin and how he’d left behind friends he’d known for years. Starting over was hard, and I suddenly remembered the first night I’d seen him looking so distraught outside of his house. I again wondered who he’d been talking to and if his move to Massachusetts had fueled their disagreement.
    “Right,” Connor said, “I guess it wil take me some time to get used to where everything is in this place.”
    “I’m actualy heading to the same hal. I’l walk with you, so you don’t get lost. I would hate to be sitting in calc thinking about you walking in circles because you couldn’t find your class.” I flashed him a sarcastic smile.
    “Thanks, Abby,” he said, smiling at me as we walked together.
    We compared schedules along the way and saw that we also had fourth period American History together, right before lunch. Before we parted ways, I gave him brief instructions on how to get to his third period class, bid him good luck, and told him I would, hopefuly, see him in history.
    He laughed. “I look forward to seeing you too,” he said, and the way he said it made me stomach flip so much that I had to remind myself that he had a girlfriend, and he was not flirting with me. “I’l save you a seat if I get there first.”
    “Deal,” I said, looking for a response that was short and sweet. I did not need to start flirting back. Alexis had eyes al over the school and the last thing I needed was someone teling her I was after her boyfriend.
    “Abby,” Connor said when I was a few feet away.
    “Yeah?” I turned around to face him, noticing the smirk on his face that was just this side of sexy.
    “Glad I could prove you wrong.” His smirk inched up into a half-smile.
    I couldn’t help the smile that crept onto my face. My mouth had a mind of its own, but it didn’t seem to know how to respond with words. It seemed Connor wasn’t waiting for an answer, though. My smile had given me away. He just winked once before opening the door to his classroom, and I felt the blood rush to my cheeks. I took a deep breath, shook my head a few times and turned in the direction of my calculus class, although no matter how hard I tried, that damn smile wouldn’t wipe off my face.
    The morning passed in a blur of new sylabuses, new books and new teachers. I had always loved the first day of school and felt pretty good about the classes I was taking. When I arrived in history, I saw that Connor had arrived first and had saved me a seat on the far side of the room.
    “Hey you,” he said, grinning and putting his arms out as if presenting himself. “Are you proud? I found it al by myself.”
    I raised my eyebrows and smirked at him, my stomach doing that flip-flop thing it did when a cute guy was paying attention to me. “I guess there’s hope for you yet,” I said, slightly shocked that I was able