Better Than This by Tia Souders

Author:Tia Souders [Souders, Tia]
Language: eng
Format: epub
Publisher: Clean Reads
Published: 2018-02-13T06:00:00+00:00

* * *

The next morning came after a night of fitful sleep. No matter how hard I tried, the soft curve of Laird’s lips, the warmth of his hand, and the feel of his breath as his mouth drew near tortured me all through the night. I pictured his bright blue eyes above a perfect smile and replayed our conversations inside my head.

Eager to think about anything else, I arrived at school early. I practiced with Mr. Neely, playing our imaginary guitars and performing more newspaper crinkling and other stretching exercises. Third period study hall would have provided a lot of time to dwell on Laird, but I did my best to sink myself into the calculus homework I received the class before. Not once had Doug or my friends crossed my mind until lunchtime.

When the bell rang, I made my way to the cafeteria. The possibility Doug made good on his threat to tell Derek about my cozy encounter with Laird remained at the forefront of my thoughts. The last thing I wanted was the third degree about it, especially when I had no idea myself what Laird and I were doing.

I entered the cafeteria. The cacophony of chatter buzzed in the background like a colony of insects combined with the random clinking of plates and silverware. Like most schools, unofficial assigned seating reigned in the cafeteria. Decided within the first week of each school year, sit in the wrong spot and you were castigated.

I made my way to the back corner where my friends already sat. Ron and Derek ate from orange colored trays filled with baskets of fries and hot dogs, while Lauren sipped nothing more than a diet cola, and Faith nibbled from a peanut butter and jelly sandwich. I took the seat next to Faith, mostly to avoid sitting next to Lauren.

“Hey, we’re talkin’ about going to Ron’s for practice. We’re thinking of ditching last period. You game?” Derek glanced up at me as he spoke between bites of fries.

“I can’t. I have to go to June’s and help her out.”

“Weren’t you there last night?” He stopped chewing and watched me. His dark eyes bore into the side of my face, making me squirm. Something in them told me he knew I hadn’t been with June.

I forced a poker face and shrugged. “Yeah, but I’m supposed to help her three days a week. It’s part of my punishment for at least another month.”

Lauren leaned forward, flipping the blond wave of hair tumbling over her shoulder behind her. “Between the old lady and your missing finger, you’ll never play with us again.”

You wish, I wanted to say. Instead, I sighed and acted like what she said affected me. Little did they know the band’s future was of no concern to me.

“I know. No one’s more frustrated than I am.” And wasn’t that the truth? “I just need a couple more weeks for my hand to heal up again, and I can get back to learning to adjust and practice.

Download

Copyright Disclaimer:
This site does not store any files on its server. We only index and link to content provided by other sites. Please contact the content providers to delete copyright contents if any and email us, we'll remove relevant links or contents immediately.