Halfway Perfect by Julie Cross Read Free Book Online Page A

“Wow, okay, I can see you modeling for sure, but I totally didn’t see that coming. So, you’re not still modeling, are you? I’ve only seen you go to class and study, unless you sneak out in the middle of the night for glamorous photo shoots.”
    I attempt a smile, but my hands are shaking. I’ve only ever told one person about me and Wes and it completely backfired. “No, I quit a few months before I turned seventeen. I actually walked away from a huge campaign with Gucci. My agency made up stories about me, and the tabloids came up with their own reasons. Rumors and more rumors—”
    â€œYou didn’t want to do it anymore?” Steph prompts. “Because of…?”
    I blew air out of my cheeks. “Wes.”
    â€œWes,” she repeats. “What did Wes do? Take all your money?”
    â€œNo, that would be my parents,” I say bitterly.
    By the time I realized they had been spending all my money, I had already quit and only had a couple of checks still coming in from jobs I’d done six months before returning home. Getting those envelopes in the mail had been like staring at the last candy bar left while stranded on a desert island. And even worse was writing that big fat check to the Columbia bursar’s office. I broke out in a cold sweat and nearly had a panic attack.
    Steph shifts on her bed, pulling her knees to her chest. “So if Wes didn’t take your money, what happened?”
    I wring my hands together. I have to tell her something. He might come back here.
    â€œPromise this is just between you and me?” I’m already chewing on a fingernail, my eyes focused on the floor. There’s so much shame and a degrading weight that comes with admitting the truth. “When I was fifteen, we started dating—”
    â€œFifteen?” she says. “How old was he?”
    I release the air in my lungs and close my eyes so I don’t have to see her reaction. “Twenty-four.”
    â€œWow.” She’s quiet for way too long and I have to open my eyes and make sure she’s still in the room. “So he’s how old now?”
    â€œTwenty-seven…I think.”
    â€œOkay, right.” She nods, faking calm. I’m taking in her expression, taking in the fact that she doesn’t look disgusted.
    â€œHonestly, it was okay for a while. I loved him. And he took care of me, which I never wanted to admit that I needed at that age. It’s just…he’s so intense and he’s got a temper that would put drunken trailer-trash men from my town to shame. It took me a long time to decide to leave.”
    â€œAnd you didn’t tell anyone?” Steph asks. “The tabloids surely would have loved that story.”
    My palms are sweaty, and I have to rub them on my teal comforter before answering. “I told Wes’s boss. I thought he’d do something. I thought maybe he’d get me a new agent and make sure I didn’t have to see Wes anymore.”
    I close my eyes for a second, remembering that day in Josh Valentine’s office. I had gone the nice route. I’d wrapped a scarf around my neck to conceal the stitches I’d gotten after Wes got pissed off at me and threw a chair at a glass china cabinet, causing glass to fly everywhere. “He brought Wes into the office and asked him, right there in front of me, if he was involved with me romantically. And Wes looked right at him and lied. And I knew if I didn’t leave right then, the confrontation later would be hell. I was scared, so I left, and part of me figured he’d come after me and it would be better with us, but he didn’t. And then my career was in the toilet. It was so stupid. I should have gone to the shoot and gotten my huge check from Gucci. Then I could enjoy being a scholarship finalist instead of thinking about how I’ll pay for tuition next year if I don’t win.”
    Steph covers her mouth