Torn - Part 1: The Torn Series by Ellen Callahan Read Free Book Online

serious. Or much of anything at all. Especially not while I was still sharing an apartment with Tyler. I honestly wasn’t over it yet; part of me still hadn’t given up hope.
    I didn't want to jinx things by asking. I didn't want to look like a naive little girl.
    It turned out to be a little bit of a culture shock hanging out with Mallet’s crowd. They were so loud and so vulgar, and had little regard for the other customers. It just wasn’t how I was raised and wasn’t how I’d grown up. In my life, it was all about being quiet, avoiding notice, being good and polite all the time. Manners and appearances were important.
    These people didn’t care much about appearances. It took them an extra moment to take in my whole punk look when I met them, but nothing more than that. None of them curled their lip and called me a freak like Tyler had when he saw my hair for the first time.
    They were a little loud and a little crass, sure, but they were also really genuine from what I could tell. I liked them all immediately, tense as I was.
    “Having a good time?” Mallet asked. He followed me to the jukebox and wrapped his arms around my middle as I flipped through the selection. I glanced around us - would anyone see him with his hands all over me like this? What would they think?
    I had to stop caring, I knew.
    “Relax,” he said as if he could hear my thoughts racing. His fingers gently stroked my ribs. “No one’s paying attention.” He pulled me tighter against him, my back to his chest. He was so warm and so solid. It felt good - really good. I sighed as I sank into his embrace.
    “You’re a strange girl,” he said, his lips close to my ear.
    “I don’t know how to take that.”
    “I’ve hung out with you twice and I’ve already decided that you’re the jumpiest person I know. But you’re so comfortable onstage.”
    “Yeah?” It was true. I had my issues but stage fright was never one of them.
    “Yeah. You’re a contradiction.” He kissed my temple. “It’s… interesting.”
    He thought I was interesting. He had his hands all over me in front of his buddies and he thought I was interesting. I needed to talk to someone who would know how to interpret that. My best friend from back home would be as clueless as I was, so who did that leave? I hadn’t exactly been a social butterfly while I was dating Tyler. My list of confidants was depressingly short.
    Why not ask Jen? She was cool and collected and she had encouraged me to hang out with Mallet in the first place. She’d have some insight, I was sure of it.
    I excused myself to the bathroom and shot her a quick text about the situation - “Hanging w/ Mallet and co. at a bar, pda all over the place, what does this meeeaaann??!” Okay, a little more dramatic than it needed to be, but I wanted a fast answer.
    Luckily I didn’t have to wait long for a reply - “it means he wants to bone u like I said, go for it!! <3” I started to compose another message but my phone buzzed with another message from her - “don’t read into it, he is a nsa type, just have fun!”
    NSA. No strings attached. Could I do that? I checked myself out in the mirror. My eyeliner was still miraculously unsmudged. I didn’t look like Alexa, the girl from the suburbs who led a quiet and uninteresting life and had a serious and hardworking boyfriend. I looked like Riley, punk girl, too cool to care. Punk goddess, I corrected myself, and giggled.
    I sent Jen a quick “thanks” with a bunch of little hearts, reapplied my deep red lipstick, and pointed my feet back towards Mallet and the bar.

CHAPTER 5
     
    “I thought you fell in,” Mallet said with a smirk when I found him. I playfully punched his shoulder.
    “Maybe I did. Took a while to swim back.” It was a lame joke but he smiled anyway.
    He passed me a new glass of beer. “One more,” he said, sipping from his own, “Then you’re gonna let me take you home with me.”
    I tilted my head and tried to hide my