Rush (The Beat and The Pulse #9) by Amity Cross

Author:Amity Cross [Cross, Amity]
Language: eng
Format: epub
Publisher: Amity Cross
Published: 2017-05-09T18:30:00+00:00

15

Jade

I don’t know what came over me.

I bolted down the stairs, pushed out onto the street, and kept running. Well, it was more of a fast walk than a full-on sprint.

My hands shook as I put distance between Ryan and myself. I was so confused. That kiss had come out of nowhere, and our argument was just as mysterious. Things had just blown up. Just like that.

I was not biding my time until I could go back to Hunter. Not this time. I was all grown up and nothing like that seventeen-year-old girl who was dying to be accepted by the in-crowd. Even as I told myself, I knew it was a lie. I was still doing it all these years later when I should know better.

Margaret was still pulling my strings, manipulating me into being a follower and pushing my accomplishments down until I thought they were nowhere good enough to feel proud of. I was still killing myself at work to be the best, and for what? So I could be thrown a tiny scrap of praise from my friends that would later be taken away from me? Because I wanted the world to think I was a well-to-do, put-together young woman who should be put up on some pointless pedestal?

Crossing the car park of the local McDonalds, I went inside, ordered a coffee and a macaroon, and sat in an isolated corner by the front windows.

Watching people navigate into the drive-through, I fought back tears. Everything was a mess. Everything. If Ryan was right, I hadn’t changed at all.

Sorting through my handbag, I pulled out my purse, compact, an old lipstick I’d forgotten about, a book I’d been reading, my phone…it all went on the table in front me. Flipping through the novel, I picked out a receipt that had worked its way between the pages.

Soothing the folded receipt over the table, I realized it was from the day after I’d found Hunter with that woman. It was the rundown of all the things I’d bought from MAC Cosmetics after brunch with Margaret, Heather, and Belinda. Thinking about our weekly meeting, I realized I’d missed today’s bitching session. Snorting, I knew I would cop it soon enough—and would’ve been the topic of choice—but I hardly cared.

All I could think about was Ryan. Ryan, Ryan, Ryan.

Turning over the receipt, I realized I was holding my bucket list. Reading over the things I’d written down that day at lunch with Ryan, I smiled, remembering each thing we’d conquered together. Experience the world like a child. Hot air ballooning. Free Fall. Pull an all-nighter.

My fingers brushed over bucket list number five. The big question mark signifying the great unknown of my future. Where to now, Jade? But maybe, just maybe, it wasn’t about what but who. Who could help me awaken a side of myself I’d never discovered before?

Ryan Harper.

Dumping my bag into my lap, I shook out the lining. Finding a hole in the bottom corner, I cursed. This was a five-hundred-dollar handbag, and now it had a hole.

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