Hush, Hush #1 by Becca Fitzpatrick Read Free Book Online Page B

way too formal, I shook it.
    “And this is Jules,” he added, jerking his chin toward his friend, whom Vee had grossly underestimated by calling “tall.”
    Jules lowered all of himself into a seat beside Vee, dwarfing the chair.
    She said to him, “I think you might be the tallest guy I’ve ever seen.
    Seriously, how tall are you?”
    “Six foot ten,” Jules muttered, slumping in his seat and crossing his arms.
    Elliot cleared his throat. “Can I get you ladies something to eat?”
    “I’m fine,” I said, raising my cup. “I already ordered.”
    Vee kicked me under the table. “She’ll have a vanilla-cream-filled doughnut. Make it two.”
    “So much for the diet, huh?” I asked Vee.
    “Huh yourself. The vanilla bean is a fruit. A brown fruit.”

    59
    “It’s a legume.”
    “You sure about that?”
    I wasn’t.
    Jules closed his eyes and pinched the bridge of his nose. Apparently he was as thrilled to be sitting with us as I was to have them here.
    As Elliot walked to the front counter, I let my eyes trail after him. He was definitely in high school, but I hadn’t seen him at CHS before. I would remember. He had a charming, outgoing personality that didn’t fade into the background. If I wasn’t feeling so shaken, I might have actually taken an interest. In friendship, maybe more.
    “Do you live around here?” Vee asked Jules.
    “Mmm.”
    “Go to school?”
    “Kinghorn Prep.” There was a tinge of superiority in the way he said it.
    “Never heard of it.”
    “Private school. Portland. We start at nine.” He lifted his sleeve and glanced at his watch.
    Vee dipped a finger in the froth of her milk and licked it off. “Is it expensive?”
    Jules looked at her directly for the first time. His eyes stretched, showing a little white around the edges.

    60
    “Are you rich? I bet you are,” she said.
    Jules eyed Vee like she’d just killed a fly on his forehead. He scraped his chair back several inches, distancing himself from us.
    Elliot returned with a box of a half-dozen doughnuts.
    “Two vanilla creams for the ladies,” he said, pushing the box toward me,
    “and four glazed for me. Guess I’d better fill up now, since I don’t know what the cafeteria is like at Coldwater High.”
    Vee nearly spewed her milk. “You go to CHS?”
    “As of today. I just transferred from Kinghorn Prep.”
    “Nora and I go to CHS,” Vee said. “I hope you appreciate your good fortune. Anything you need to know—including who you should invite to Spring Fling—just ask. Nora and I don’t have dates … yet.”
    I decided it was time to part ways. Jules was obviously bored and irritated, and being in his company wasn’t helping my already restless mood. I made a big presentation of looking at the clock on my cell phone and said, “We better get to school, Vee. We have a bio test to study for. Elliot and Jules, it was nice meeting you.”
    “Our bio test isn’t until Friday,” said Vee.
    On the inside, I cringed. On the outside, I smiled through my teeth.
    “Right. I meant to say I have an English test. The works of … Geoffrey Chaucer.” Everyone knew I was lying.
    In a remote way my rudeness bothered me, especially since Elliot hadn’t done anything to deserve it. But I didn’t want to sit here any longer. I wanted to keep moving forward, distancing myself from last night.

    61
    Maybe the diminishing memory wasn’t such a bad thing after all. The sooner I forgot the accident, the sooner my life would resume its normal pace.
    “I hope you have a really great first day, and maybe we’ll see you at lunch,” I told Elliot. Then I dragged Vee up by her elbow and steered her out the door.
    The school day was almost over, only biology left, and after a quick stop by my locker to exchange books, I headed to class. Vee and I arrived before Patch; she slid into his empty seat and dug through her backpack, pulling out a box of Hot Tamales.
    “One red fruit coming right up,” she said, offering me