Twisted Palace by Erin Watt Read Free Book Online Page A

repeat impatiently. “What is it?”
    Bitsy raises a hand to hide a smirk.
    The douche’s face twists into an indignant sneer. “Aspen,” he replies tightly.
    “Aspen? For real?” What a dumb-ass name.
    Bitsy’s laughter is barely being contained at this point. “It’s Aspen, for real,” she chokes out.
    “Jesus, okay. Here’s the deal, Aspen . I’ve dealt with more in my short life than you’ll ever experience, so all the idiotic insults you can come up with only make you look pathetic. I don’t give a rat’s ass what you think of me. Actually, if you don’t step back and rethink your decision to even look in my direction, I’ll make it my sole goal for the rest of this semester to drive you literally insane. I’ll stuff week-old seafood in your locker. I’ll destroy your homework. I’ll tell each and every girl in this place that you have gonorrhea. I’ll have pictures of you wearing girl’s undies made up and distributed in giant full-color prints around school.” I smile coldly at him. “Do you want that to happen to you?”
    Aspen’s face turns as white as the snowy town he was named after. “I was just joking,” he mumbles.
    “Your jokes suck. Hope you have a job with your daddy waiting, because I can’t imagine your little brain making it through college.” Then I spin around and face the front of the room.
----
    A t lunch , our table is subdued. I fill Val in about Steve’s sudden reappearance, but we don’t get a chance to discuss how shaken up I am about it, because Reed, Easton, and Wade join us instead of sitting at the football table.
    That’s the first sign that something is wrong. I mean, Reed’s been charged with murder, so life is very wrong in general, but the fact that he’s not sitting with his teammates tells me that things are worse than I thought.
    “You really didn’t get in trouble for fighting at school?” I murmur to him as he settles in the seat next to mine.
    He shakes his head. “Got a warning.” Then his expression grows tortured. “But you know it’s gonna get back to Dad and my lawyer. They won’t like it.”
    I don’t like it, but I paste on an encouraging smile because I know he’s already under enough stress as it is. It’s just…
    I love Reed, I really do, but his temper is his own worst enemy. If he can’t get himself under control, things could get a million times worse for him.
    Across the table, Val moves her kale salad around her plate. Her gaze keeps darting toward Wade and then back to her plate. Wade is doing the same thing—sneaking peeks at Val before focusing intently on his burger.
    They’re making obvious efforts not to look at each other, and for some reason that cheers me up. It’s nice to see that I’m not the only one in a state of pure misery.
    Immediately, guilt gets the better of me, because if Val’s studiously avoiding Wade and he’s too embarrassed to meet her eyes, then something bad must have happened. I make a mental note to ask Val about it when we’re alone.
    “So,” Wade says when the silence becomes unbearably long. “Who’s excited about Winter Formal?”
    Nobody answers.
    “Really? No one?” He slides a pointed look to Val. “What about you, Carrington? Got a date?”
    She gives him a stony glare. “I’m not going.”
    The table goes quiet again. Val picks at her salad with the same half-hearted energy I’m using to pick at my chicken.
    “Not hungry?” Reed asks gruffly.
    “I don’t have much of an appetite,” I admit.
    “You worried?” he murmurs.
    “A little.” More like a lot, but I tamp down the truth and paste on another smile.
    I think Reed sees through it, because he leans over and kisses me. I let him distract me with his mouth because it feels good, but deep down I know that kisses are a temporary fix.
    Pulling back, I tell him that. “You can’t kiss the worry out of me.”
    His hand roams up my side to settle right under my breast. His thumb brushes the bottom curve,