Twisted by Amity Hope Read Free Book Online

the beach had now been switched out to cobalt blue. I commented on it as we crossed the quad.
    “Coach Pat won’t let me have multi-colored hair when I cheer. She can’t do anything about the black but I’m not allowed to have the streaks. I have to use extensions,” Hailey informed me with an enormous huff and an exaggerated roll of her eyes. “I don’t think that’s fair. Isn’t that against the law or something? I mean, she’s like violating my cibil rights.”
    “It’s civil rights,” Phoebe corrected.
    “That’s what I said,” Hailey grumbled.
     
     
    ***
     
    I told myself I wasn’t looking for Ben, even though it’s kind of pointless to lie to yourself. I also hated to admit that the reason I was looking for him was simply because he’d told me to stay away. Kind of despicable, I know. But it’s right along the lines of you always want what you can’t have. Or somebody telling you that you absolutely cannot look inside of the gift bag when you’re all alone in the room. Making it the one thing you want to do the most. So I guess my interest fell somewhere along those lines.
    Only when I finally did see him, I almost wished I hadn’t.
    I knew lockers were in alphabetical order. Mine, of course, was one of the first. Phoebe Baxter was just down the row. Ben McCaffey, however, was closer to Hailey Marshall so I made my way down the hall with the presumed intent to meet up with Hailey. Or to just keep right on sashaying down to Olivia Walker.
    I spotted Ben right away. He was without a baseball cap, of course. His previously overgrown hair was now close cut. He seemed to focus all of his attention on his combination lock. I had no intention of stopping to say hello. But stop, I did, several feet away.
    A guy I didn’t recognize came up behind Ben and spun him around, causing the books he’d just removed to fall to the floor. He then slammed him into the bank of lockers and sucker punched him in the stomach. Ben flinched but made no move to retaliate. Even more peculiar, even though there were students wandering by, no one stopped. No one said a word. There was no gawking, no jeering like I was used to seeing and hearing when a fight broke out. If anything, there were a few startled glances and then everyone scurried away. It reminded me of the muggings you hear about in New York City where everyone just turns a blind eye because no one wants to get involved.
    Ben was tall with lean, defined muscle mass. This attacker had sandy-blond hair and was several inches shorter but bulkier. He grabbed Ben by his shirt, shoving him into the locker. He poked his face up close to Ben’s. I saw his lips moving but the bustling crowd drowned out the words. Ben calmly replied to whatever was said to him. The guy gave him one final jerk, probably a glare I couldn’t see from my vantage point, and then joined Blake who I realized was standing on the sidelines. The two of them walked away.
    “It’s not polite to stare,” Hailey said as she skipped past me.
    I fell into step behind her. By the time we’d reached her locker, about half a dozen before Ben’s, he’d already picked up his books and went on his way.
    “What was that about?” I asked.
    “Personal matter,” Hailey said in a case-closed kind of voice.
    I looked at her with questioning eyebrows.
    “We better hustle or we’ll be late,” she said as she slammed her locker shut. “I’ll meet you by the bench at the north end after school, okay?”
    I nodded and headed off in the direction of American Literature.
    Ben was already in his seat. My heart sputtered in my chest. I had gone through four periods and lunch without even seeing him. Now I found I had a class with him. I searched for an open seat close to him. I ended up one row over and two seats back. He never looked up at me. Nor did he look up when the sandy-blond haired guy walked in. The guy walked by, glaring at Ben with such hatred it made my stomach clench. The rest of the class