Entice by Amber Garza Read Free Book Online Page A

over running into Scarlet. I wondered if she was somewhere in this theatre. It seemed like he was wondering the same thing by the way his gaze scanned the room instead of focusing on the screen.
    He looked over at me and I felt embarrassed that he caught me staring. I flashed him a smile and looked back at the movie. As I did, I saw a man standing in the corner of the room facing me. He wore a hood over his face, but his arm was out and he beckoned me with a slow roll of his bony fingers. A chill ran down my spine. I squinted, trying to make him out in the dim light. He reached his skeletal arm up and lifted off his hood, revealing his face. It was Wesley. I gasped. He smiled.
    “What’s wrong?” Tanner asked. The rest of our group turned to me, perplexed. Panicked, I looked back to where Wesley stood but no one was there. I exhaled. It was just a figment of my imagination. That was all. Most likely spurred on by this violent movie.
    “Sorry, it was nothing. Just startled by the movie.” I attempted a lighthearted giggle, and shrugged my shoulders. Tanner smiled and nodded, as if to tell me he understood. But of course, he didn’t. Nobody did.

    After Tanner dropped me off, I started feeling really bad about keeping Isaac in the dark about him. If I wasn’t doing anything wrong, there was no reason to hide it from him. So, after slipping into my pj’s I sat on my bed and dialed his number. It was after ten o’clock and his voice was groggy when he said hello.
    “I’m sorry. Did I wake you?” I hugged my legs to my chest.
    “It’s okay. What’s up?”
    “Nothing. I just wanted to hear your voice.”
    I felt sick. I didn’t want to tell him now. What if he got mad at me? I didn’t think I could take it. I’d already lost one friend recently.
    “Is everything okay?” I could hear the rustling of covers in the background. I pictured him sitting up in his bed.
    “I wish you were here,” I whispered, feeling close to tears.
    “What’s going on, Kenz?”
    “I just….well…I need to tell you something.”
    “You can tell me anything. You know that.”
    “I know.” I pinched the bridge of my nose. “Isaac, I haven’t been completely honest with you lately.”

Chapter Nine
     
    “What do you mean?” I detected the wariness in his voice.
    “It’s not that I lied to you or anything. I just didn’t tell you everything.”
    “You’re scaring me, Kenzie.”
    I was scaring myself. If only I hadn’t started to talk. It's not like he would have ever found out about Tanner and furthermore, nothing was going on between us. We were just friends. But now that I had made such a big deal about it, he would think there was something going on. Maybe I should just tell him something else. Yes, that was it. I could tell him about thinking I saw Wesley at the theatre. I sat up, and the cross necklace rubbed against my skin.
    No, I had to tell the truth. I knew better than anyone how dangerous a secret was; how it could fester and poison.
    “Remember how I told you I made a new friend at church?”
    “Yeah.”
    “The friend is a guy.”
    “And?”
    “That’s it. That’s what I didn’t tell you.”
    A relieved laugh slipped through the retriever. “Kenzie, you’re allowed to have friends who are guys. I thought you were going to say you had feelings for him or something. But as long as you’re just friends that’s okay.”
    My heart soared. I had been worried for nothing. I should have known Isaac wouldn’t be mad. He wasn’t weird or controlling. Besides, he trusted me.
    “Yeah, we’re just friends.”
    “And it’s not like you hang out alone together,” he added. “You went out with a group from church, right?”
    “Yes, I did.” My stomach clenched. It was true that we had gone out with a group to the movies, but Tanner and I had spent plenty of time alone together. I made a vow to stop doing that. From now on, I would make sure we were always in a group. Then I would have nothing to feel