Collide by Alyson Kent Read Free Book Online Page B

before who keeps lashing out at
the people who care most and want to help her. What is WRONG,
Maria?”
    My anger left as fast as it arrived, and I
had an idle thought that maybe Akira had been right about my
“spines” because I felt a little like a deflated puffer fish as she
stared at me, shock draining away her own anger until she looked
lost and frightened. She wrapped her arms around her body in a
gesture I was all too familiar with, one she adopted when she was
trying to hold herself together to keep from flying apart like a
jigsaw puzzle that an impatient kid throws around because they
can’t put it together quickly enough.
    “I don’t know,” she whispered, and I had to
lean forward to hear her. “I don’t know.”
    She looked up at me and her eyes did that
strange shift as her hands suddenly lashed out and shoved me, hard
enough that I stumbled backwards, tripped over the curb and lost my
balance. I twisted to try and catch myself, but I wasn’t quite
quick enough and my jaw bounced painfully off the hood of my car
before I managed to lurch drunkenly back in a semblance of
controlled balance. Once I regained my bearings I jerked back
around, shocked at the violent action that was so unlike her, and
found myself staring into strange, milky white eyes.
    “Just mind your own damn business!” she
snarled as she stalked away from my car and headed off into the
parking lot.
    “Hey, wait!” I yelled and stumbled sideways
as I reeled from the confrontation and painful throbbing in my jaw.
I wasn’t quite thinking straight and made to follow her only to be
pulled back by a hand on my arm.
    “Hey, you,” an unfamiliar voice said, and I
turned and found myself staring at an underclassman I had never
interacted with, but that I had seen following Akira around like a
little lost puppy more than once. “I hear you’re working with Akira
on a project.”
    “Yeah?” I asked with a sigh. I already knew
where this was going and readied myself to get really nasty if I
had to. Stupid girls who think they’re entitled to “own” someone
simply because they like the way they look and will fight to keep
interlopers away from their idols even if they, themselves, have
never exchanged half a dozen words with their object of adoration.
It happens all the time online between fans of certain movie stars,
but actually seeing it in person made the whole thing seem even
more ridiculous. Stupid Akira who encouraged this embarrassing
behavior by being oblivious and never really addressing it to make
it stop, though maybe he didn’t want it to stop, who knows how a
guy thinks when he has an entourage of fawning fangirls willing to
let him use them as a stepping stool if he so wished.
    “Don’t think you’re going to get too close to
him,” the girl said, and I mentally rolled my eyes at the fact that
a) she had yet to let go of my arm and b) her friends obviously
were familiar with my reputation (which was rather formidable if I
did say so myself) and had hung back as they eyed me nervously.
    “Or?” I asked nonchalantly and shifted my
body weight slightly as I glanced around at everyone else in the
parking lot. No one aside from the girl’s backup was paying
attention, which meant I was in the clear. Had anyone else been
watching, I wouldn’t have been able to get away with what I was
about to do.
    “Or it won’t be healthy for that pretty face
and hair of yours,” the underclassman threatened.
    That was such a typical, wanna be tough girl
bully comment that I nearly laughed in her face, but instead I
concentrated on nipping this brewing issue in the bud before it got
too out of hand. I moved fast. My hand darted out and grabbed her
wrist. I jerked her forward and used her surprised stumble to my
advantage and shifted her until her back was to my front with her
right arm twisted painfully behind her. She opened her mouth and
drew in a breath to scream.
    “Make a noise,” I hissed into her ear, “and
I’ll break