The Beast of Beauty by Valerie Johnston Read Free Book Online Page B

gasped, “You can’t be
serious. You had sex for the first time?”
    I laughed, “No…”
    She grabbed me by the arm and
yanked me to the couch. She sat down beside me, and her eyes started to well
up, “Jasper, this is no laughing matter. You don’t have to do things like that
to be cool, or loved, or accepted.”
    I was touched by her concern, but
I did everything I could to hide it, “Are you going to accept me now that you
know I have done those things?”
    “Of course,” she answered.
“You’re my son. No choice that you make, no matter how good or bad, will ever
change that. However, I can’t condone that kind of behavior because of our
religious beliefs. You know that, right?”
    I nodded.
    “God doesn’t want you to do that
anymore. It doesn’t matter if you have already. You can decide today to never
do it again, and he will forget every time you’ve made a mistake before, okay?”
    I nodded again.
    “I’m going to go for a walk,” she
said as she squeezed my arm. “I love you.”
    “Love you too,” I murmured.
    Her words stung somewhere deep
inside of me, but I ignored it. I was going to do it again, probably today.
After all, it was a Saturday.
    Part of me hoped that Daniel
wouldn’t come back at all so that I didn’t have to listen to him whine about
not making the team, but part of me wanted to see him upset about what Zoey and
I had done.
    It would serve him right for
always making me feel like crap for all of those years. I was good and tired of
coming in second to him, and being first at everything wasn’t enough. I had to
serve my revenge cold; I had to hit him where it would hurt the most. I saw his
face when Zoey got into the truck with me, and it made me feel like I had won
the lottery. Sure, she talked a lot and was pretty full of herself, but none of
that mattered. Honestly, she didn’t matter. All that mattered was getting back
at Daniel and showing him who the better man really was.
    I chuckled and texted Zoey to
meet me later.
     
     

Chapter
Fourteen: Adeline
     
    The book was as
much a mystery the second time as the first. It took me a while to find the
spell that had changed me, and it was more than halfway through the book. I
felt discouraged, for I had hoped that I wouldn’t have to read much in order to
understand the spell. Now it seemed as if I would have to read the entire book
in order to figure out what on earth was going on.
    Each page held
something quite different. It wasn’t long before I realized that the book read
like a diary. I would read a little while about what was going on in, what I
guessed, was Amara’s life, and then there would be random spells throughout it.
    I was still
blown away by the fact that the book didn’t have an author or a copyright page.
    “Maybe it WAS a
diary,” I whispered, “And someone got hold of it, typed it up, and had it bound
like a book so that it would last.”
    I looked at
Daniel to make sure that I hadn’t woken him up, but he slept soundly.
    It all made
perfect sense. This book certainly didn’t read like a novel, and it hadn’t
actually been published.
    I felt better as
I had solved another part of the mystery, but there was too much still hidden
to feel completely victorious. I still had no idea why it was in our school.
    My blood ran
cold as I realized another option of what could have happened; Mrs. Stacy may
not have been the one who handed me the wrong book.
    Jasper had taken
my book from me.
    I shook my head.
He only had the book for a second; there was no way that he could have switched
books without my noticing.
    Then again, he
wasn’t afraid of me when he saw me, even though he was drunk.
    My speculations
made my head hurt, and I hadn’t even begun to figure out what had happened to
me.
    I read and read
in the book while Daniel slept. Nothing that I read had anything to do with a
beast. There were remedies for sicknesses, spells to keep loved ones safe,
enchantments for good harvests, and a plethora