Breaking Nova by Jessica Sorensen Read Free Book Online Page B

any happiness in the room. I’ve only seen that much sadness in one person’s eyes.
Ever.
And when they lock on me, it’s like I’m drowning in his sorrow—Landon’s sorrow.
    I continue to stare at him, and I can tell it’s making him uneasy, but I can’t seem to look away. It’s like I’m waking up a year ago and he hasn’t left me on the hillside, alone, not just on the grass, but in the world.
    “Are you okay?” The sound of Tristan’s voice slams into my chest and rips me from my daze.
    I tear my eyes away from the guy and blink up at Tristan. “Huh?”
    He has a small shot glass in his hand that’s topped off with a crystal clear liquid. “You look upset.” He glances over at the guy and then back at me. “Are you okay, Nova?”
    I nod, snatch the shot out of his hand, and slam it back, basking in the burn. Then I set the empty glass down on the table and press my hand to my burning throat. “I’m fine. I’m just tired.”
    Tristan’s not buying it, but he doesn’t press. We’re not good enough friends for him to press. He takes a seat in the tattered leather recliner that’s shredded to pieces. I try to keep my gaze fixed on the popped seams in the armrest, but I can’t help but glance over at the guy with honey-brown eyes, even though I don’t want to.
    He sits down on the sofa to the side of me, and the blonde strategically places her ass onto his lap. She giggles as she runs her fingers over his head, but he only seems mildly interested as he retrieves a pack of cigarettes from the coffee table and pops one into his mouth.
    “So did Dylan wander back there?” Tristan asks, sipping on his beer.
    The guy shrugs as he cups his hand around the end of the cigarette, flicks a lighter, and the end crinkles and shrivels. “I think they went into his room, but I’m not sure.” Smoke snakes out of his lips.
    “With that bitch Delilah,” the blonde says, shooting me a malicious look.
    Okay, so she knows Delilah and obviously hates her, which isn’t surprising—most girls do. But why does she seem to hate me?
    “Oh shit,” Tristan says, smacking his head with the heel of his hand. “I totally fucking forgot introductions.”
    “We already know who she is,” the blonde sneers, glaring at me. “That’s Nova Reed.”
    I have no clue what her names is, and I think Tristan can tell. “Nikki, quit being a bitch,” he says.
    Nikki.
It clicks. She used to go to school with me before she dropped out. She also used to have a crush on Landon right before I started dating him at the beginning of senior year. She’s changed a lot, put on some weight in the chest area, and her hair used to be light brown, not bleached blonde.
    Nikki huffs, poking her chest out as she crosses her arms, then she reclines against the guy’s chest. “Quit being an asshole,” she snaps at Tristan, and then bats her eyelashes at the guy.
    The guy shifts his weight, throwing her off balance, and she slides off his lap and lands on the couch. “Sorry, but he’s my cousin and this is his house. If he says quit being a bitch to Nova”—he glances at me with a quirk at his lips and a furrow at his brows—“then quit being a bitch.”
    I don’t like the way my heart leaps in my chest when he says my name or that he remembers my name when he only heard it a minute ago. I hate how I can’t seem to look away from him and find something to count, because if I could, then I could call down the storm building in my chest.
    Nikki looks pissed, but she keeps her lips sealed. The guy takes a deep inhale from his cigarette as he reaches for the remote on the coffee table. Tristan gets up from the recliner and heads down the hall. It grows quiet, and the guy whose name I still don’t know picks up a remote and flips through the songs on the stereo. Nikki makes it her mission to glare at me, but I barely pay attention. All my focus is on the ghost of a memory sitting next to me. I know he’s really not Landon, but he’s