Ungifted by Kelly Oram Read Free Book Online Page A

love that. I’m going to throw it away. The media would have a field day with my being on antidepressants.”
    Cynthia sighed again. “Grace, I think you should listen to Dr. Carroll.”
    “What?”
    “You have to admit there’s something up with you lately. First you go off on Ethan, then your dad this morning, and now today in class?”
    It was my turn to sigh. “I don’t know what’s going on with me. I guess I’m just sick of it all, you know? I hate my life. I hate everyone in it except you. Ethan drives me crazy, and you’re right about my dad. He sucks as a parent. I used to be able to ignore it all, but lately I can’t. I feel like something’s missing. My life is completely empty.”
    Cynthia thought about it for a minute and then said, “You know what you need?”
    I held up my prescription. “A daily dose of Paxil?”
    “No. A boyfriend. A really hot and incredibly funny boyfriend to keep you distracted.”
    I couldn’t help sneaking a glance back at Cynthia’s brothers. They were all still watching us, and all four of them grinned at me. For a brief instant my eyes met Preston’s, and then Caleb pulled my gaze when he blew me a kiss.
    “Not exactly the person I was talking about,” Cynthia grumbled.
    “Sorry.” I snapped my attention back to my best friend. “It’s a great theory, but, uh, don’t you think I’d have a boyfriend already if I could?”
    “But what about—”
    “Cynthia, if you say Ethan Dunn I swear—”
    “Grace, what the hell? You went off on him and all it did was make him try harder. I’m telling you, the guy is crazy about you.”
    “Ugh.” It was hopeless. We’d been having this argument since we met and Cynthia was never going to give up. “Forget the boyfriend. Maybe what I really need is to develop an obsession for Edgar Allan Poe and start wearing all black.”
    “Goth Gracie. Awesome. We’ll go shopping for fishnets and choke collars.”
    “What about fishnets and choke collars?”
    Cynthia and I both jumped at the interruption. Cynthia was pissed, but I was just glad it wasn’t Ethan.
    “What do you want, Caleb?”
    “Down, girl!” Caleb said to Cynthia and then smiled at me. “I just noticed that Grace’s usual escort isn’t here, and since we both have math next I thought I’d help her get from here to there without killing herself.”
    I frowned at Cynthia and glanced around the cafeteria. Sure enough, Ethan was nowhere to be seen. When he never showed in math, I knew something was up. Ethan hadn’t missed a single class in the entire six years I’d known him.
    After class I tracked down Cynthia and tried to ask her if she knew what was up. She dodged my questions the way she’d dodged me when I asked her where she had been during lunch. Then I tried to ask her more about Andrew and she freaked out that I’d even mentioned his name. It was so not like her that I started to get a sick feeling in my stomach.
    By the time I was halfway though the last class of my day—of which Ethan was, again, conspicuously absent from—I had a really bad feeling that something was terribly wrong. I was also sure that my best friend knew what it was and was keeping it from me.
    There was only one thing I could think of to do, and I really didn’t want to do it. But I did want answers, and it was clear Cynthia wasn’t going to be any help. With only fifteen minutes left in the school day, I claimed my leg hurt and asked for a hall pass—but instead of going to the nurse, I went to the library.
    . . . . .
    Preston Layton was sitting at the same table I always saw him at on the few occasions my English lit class spent the hour in the library. He was alone at his table reading a thick book while the other kids with independent study were clumped in small groups whispering and flirting with one another.
    He’d always been a bit of a loner, even though by rights he shouldn’t have been. He was gorgeous. Not pretty like Ethan, though—he was more of a