Suffer Love by Ashley Herring Blake Read Free Book Online Page A

nearly had a stroke. As a result, she doesn’t stop Jocelyn from reporting any disturbing details of my life she gets wind of to my mother. And therein lies Kat and Jocelyn’s naiveté—thinking that information of my declining reputation will enliven my mother into action.
    â€œLook, it’ll be old news by tomorrow,” I say, waving a hand. Then I stuff it under my butt because I realize it’s shaking a little. “I just messed up with Josh.”
    â€œJenny dumped him. I talked to her in Trig. Apparently they’d just gotten together near the end of the summer, but he told her he really liked her and then something happened with meeting her parents and he totally freaked. She seemed okay, though.” She runs her hand over my comforter. “I don’t think she had anything to do with the whole locker thing.”
    I scratch my head with my pencil, squeeze my eyes closed. “Can we not talk about this right now? It’s been a crappy day.”
    Kat puffs out her cheeks. “Right. Sorry.”
    â€œIt’s fine.” I flip through vocabulary, tracing over the words with my capped pen.
Absolution. Blighted. Credulous.
    â€œSo get this,” Kat says, crossing her legs. “You would’ve been proud of me at practice today.”
    â€œOh?”
Defunct. Exculpate. Fractious.
    â€œLike, buy-me-a-pint-of-Peanut-Butter-World-ice-cream proud.”
    â€œThat’s serious.” I lay down my vocab. “Peanut Butter World is not intended for the average accomplishment.”
    She nods, a half smile on her face. “I talked to Rob.”
    I let my eyebrows speak for themselves.
    â€œYep. For warm-ups, I was anchor on a freestyle relay and my team won. He complimented me on my
form.
” Predictably, her cheeks pink up. “Can you believe it?”
    â€œYes, I can.” Kat is one of those girls who has no idea that she’s beautiful or funny or talented. Her dad’s been out of the picture since she was ten, but until Jocelyn finally kicked him out, he enjoyed whittling his daughter down like a piece of wood about everything from her nonexistent weight problem to an A-minus on a spelling test. When Kat met my dad in the swim class and his gentle voice actually encouraged her through the water, I’m pretty sure it took her a week to realize he was talking to her. Several years later, Rick, who would become her stepdad, wooed her mother with such swoon-inducing tenacity that he restored Kat’s confidence in romance, but not so much in herself.
    â€œAnd what did you say back?” I ask.
    â€œI said thanks.”
    Again, I let my eyebrows do the talking.
    â€œWhat?” she says. “That’s a lot for me. Plus, I got flustered. He was just standing there, smiling down at me, and his chest and stomach were all wet and slippery-looking and there were little drops of water on his lower lip, just hanging there, and—oh my God, what is so funny?”
    â€œNothing, nothing!” I laugh into my hands. “You’re just so hilarious when you get all hot and bothered about Rob. It’s as if you’ve spent your pubescent years underground and have just now been set loose. Hide your teenage sons, Woodmont! Rawr!”
    She crosses her arms, hands hooked on her elbows. “No. No ‘Rawr’! I’m not hot and bothered. I’m . . . appreciative of his . . . his . . .
form.
”
    â€œYou’re horny.”
    â€œHadley!”
    â€œConcupiscent. Libidinous.”
    â€œHadley Jane!”
    â€œPrurient.”
    â€œI don’t even know what those words mean.”
    â€œThey mean ‘horny.’”
    â€œGod help me.”
    I grin and lean my hands on her knees. “Come on, Kitty Kat. Admit it. Rob is so hot that whenever you see him, your panties get a little—”
    â€œOkay, okay!” She slaps her hands over her ears. Kat hates the