Sweet Agony (Sweet Series Book 1) by Jessie Lane Read Free Book Online

only to succeed in knocking my head against the tree behind me.
    The marker disappeared, and a strong hand gripped my shoulder to keep me still.
    Turning my head to see who it was, I was shocked speechless to see it was the one person who made my stomach do somersaults and my heart stop beating.
    Lucas Young. My best friend’s eldest brother. The boy who would rather ruffle my hair and call me a kid than see me as the girl who only had eyes for him.
    Not that I could blame him. He was a junior, and I wasn’t even a freshman yet.
    Everything about us was totally opposite. He hung out with the varsity football team, and I sat quietly with his sister at lunch. Olivia might be a social butterfly, but I didn’t have it in me to talk to our other classmates the way she did. So while she sat and chatted away, I drew in my notebook.
    Lucas wasn’t exactly an outgoing guy himself. Sure, he had loads of friends and ran with the popular crowd, but he didn’t talk much. He was more of an observer than a participator. And even though we had that in common, we were on totally opposite ends of the spectrum. He was the epitome of confidence, while I was afraid of my own damn shadow.
    Sort of like now.
    I didn’t know how he did it, but the guy had a knack for sneaking up on me like a ninja. There were days I thought about tying a bell around his neck so he couldn’t scare the crap out of me like this anymore.
    “Sh … Gin, it’s just me,” he said soothingly with that familiar, sad look in his eye.
    I inwardly cringed at that expression. It was like he knew I was damaged goods somehow, even though he still didn’t know about my past. I sometimes wondered if that was why I was infatuated with him. He had this way of looking inside of me, as if he could see all my nightmares and scare them away. If he only knew in my dreams he did …
    He was my knight in shining armor. Only, I wasn’t a princess, not anymore. No, I was a raggedy peasant girl with two left feet who couldn’t look him in the eye without blushing beat red.
    Seriously embarrassing.
    “W-what are you d-doing here, L-Lucas?” God, I was such a dork. I had this annoying tendency to stutter whenever someone startled me like this.
    One side of his mouth hitched up in a crooked grin like he found me amusing. “I was headed toward the theater with Johnny and some of the other guys when I saw you sitting over here. I figured you hadn’t noticed how late it was getting, so I thought I’d come sit with you until you were ready to go home. You shouldn’t walk home in the dark, Gin.”
    Could my mortification get any worse? Would there ever be a day when he wouldn’t see me as his little sister’s best friend? Someone he had to take care of?
    After leaning forward so I could look behind him to see his friends disappearing off in the distance, I looked back at him and mumbled, “You d-don’t have to stay here with m-me, Lucas. I’ll be okay.”
    He laughed and bumped his shoulder into mine. “It’s all good, Gin. I like watching you draw, anyway.” Holding the rose red marker back up to me, he continued, “I think this color would go well with the purple.”
    I was too surprised to say anything. He actually wanted to spend time with me? Not with his friends? My stomach started doing somersaults again, and I looked down at my mermaid to hide my face. My eyes caught on her hair, and it suddenly clicked that Lucas was right. The rose red would look awesome with the purple, blue, green, and teal in her hair. Without looking back at him, I grabbed the marker from his hand and muttered a thanks.
    I couldn’t allow myself to dwell on the fact that the boy I was in love with was sitting next to me so close his arm was brushing my own. Or the fact that he had ditched his friends to stay with me. After all, if I let myself think about it too much, I might get my hopes up, which was something I totally should not do.
    If only my speeding heartbeat would figure that out