Prophecy by Julie Anne Lindsey Read Free Book Online

nut friend, Lance, asked in a stupid jaunty voice. “Used to be you, Ingram. What can you do?” And he’d rhymed too, lucky me.
    “Kill myself?” I passed the couple with a quick glance to keep from knocking into them in the crowd. I concentrated on their legs and feet to avoid retinal scarring from sight of their tongues.
    “Did you hear that, Hannah?” Lance asked in the same singsong voice. “Ingram wants to kill herself because you took her place under Kirk.
    I didn’t look back, but I hoped Hannah kneed them both in the groin for basically calling her a whore. Justin paused at my side and I tugged him along. “Don’t worry about it,” I whispered.
    I took a deep settling breath and focused on the stairway ahead. With the day I was having, I’d probably trip up the steps and get trampled to death.
    Liam Hale passed us in long strides, clearing the steps two at a time and breaking my heart. He’d heard Lance. He must have. First impression of me: I was a loud mouth and a klutz. Second impression: I was a stalker. Third impression: I was an insensitive whore who missed her place under Kirk the jerk and talked about suicide as if it was a joke, knowing his great-grandmother had hung herself. Three strikes.
    Justin and I stopped outside the glass wall of the school library, my study hall, and watched the passing crowd.
    “You know, I haven’t kicked his ass yet because you’ve asked me to stay out of it.”
    “I know.” I locked eyes with him. Fury burned there.
    “I listened because I care about you and it’s what you wanted. What went on between you and Kirk had nothing to do with me. I was here for you and nothing more.”
    He’d used a lot of past tense in those sentences.
    Justin dropped my bag between us on the carpeted hallway outside the library and took my hands in his.
    I inhaled deeply from the warmth of his touch. The skin on his palms was rough and calloused and the sensation of our differences heated my belly.
    His crystal blue eyes narrowed on mine and he pulled in a full breath.
    “If this”—he lifted our joined hands in the air between us—“becomes something…more… I won’t allow Kirk or anyone else to speak to you or about you that way. What happens to my girl happens to me. Do you understand what I’m saying? I know you want me to stay out of it, but you need to know that’s how it’d have to be if things change between us.”
    I nodded.
    The bell rang before I could answer him properly, so I dropped his hands and forced a smile. Justin smiled in return, accepting my nod as enough for now. I lifted my bag and darted through the doorway where Liam, the librarian, and six other study hall students had watched me though the glass from their desks.
    Stupid small town schools.
    No one spoke for the full hour during study hall, and I managed to keep my eyes to myself. I sat motionless, counting book spines on over-filled shelves until the final bell rang. I dazed through the rest of the afternoon in a similar fashion, craving the quiet pool where I could untangle my thoughts and make sense of what Justin had said. He’d thought of being more than friends, too. He’d protect me from taunting and ridicule. Be my guardian. All roles I’d imagined him playing and enjoyed. All roles I suspected Justin excelled at naturally.
    I, on the other hand, wasn’t a great damsel in distress. I didn’t want rescuing or sheltering. I didn’t want the perfect image I had of him ruined, carved through with the lies and deceit that came with love. Most of all, I didn’t want to lose him and I would if we complicated things with romance. As his friend, I knew he’d honor and protect me in any way I let him. As his girlfriend? My heart cringed when I thought of the possibilities.
    After school, I took my time at my locker, sorting and gathering things, as students poured out into the sun. Satisfied the bulk of my classmates were gone, I ducked down the long narrow hallway to the school