Breaking Beautiful Read Online Free PDF Page B

Andrew is gorgeous. His hair is the same color as mine, but curly, falling in soft waves over his ears. His brown eyes are framed by long eyelashes and he’s tall, with Dad’s broad shoulders. He would have filled out like Dad, played football and basketball, and every girl at school would’ve been after him. I could have been strapped in that chair instead of him. Dad talks about people coming back from the war with survivor’s guilt. I’ve had survivor’s guilt since birth.
    “There you are, Allie.” Hannah sweeps into the special ed room. “Hi, Andrew.” She puts a hand on his shoulder. He drops the spoonful of potatoes he was working into his mouth and turnsred. She smiles at him. “Did you actually grasp what Mr. King was trying to tell us in physics yesterday?” Andrew bobs his head up and down. “I might have to pick your brain later,” she says. Andrew beams, and Hannah turns back to me. “I saved you a place at lunch.” She hesitates. “Unless you want to eat in here. I could bring you a tray.”
    I can’t believe Hannah is being nice to me. I would rather stay with Andrew, but he waves me off so I follow Hannah to the commons. Her friends Angie and Megan are already there. James and Randall, Trip’s friends, aren’t around. Last year Angie and Randall were joined at the hip and usually the lips. I must have missed a break-up somewhere. That doesn’t surprise me. They fought all the time when they were dating.
    When I saw James and Randall in the hall, they wouldn’t look at me. I couldn’t look at them either. It must be weird for them to see me without Trip. Truthfully, it feels weird for me to be walking around school without him.
    Lunch is strained conversation and awkward silence. I pick at my food and wish I had stayed with Andrew. It’s a relief when lunch is over, and Hannah heads to the opposite end of the hall for her honors classes.
    I finally see Blake when I walk into art. He’s lying with his head on his desk, the hood of his white Volcom sweatshirt pulled up over his ears and a black cord trailing from the hood.
    I glance around, out of habit, to see if anyone is watching before I approach him. He startles when I tap him on the shoulder, pulls the earbuds out of his ears, and blinks up at me like he’s surprised to see me, or maybe just surprised I’m talking to him in public. “Why didn’t you tell me you were coming back to school?”
    I sit in the desk next to his. “I didn’t really plan on it. It just sort of happened.”
    He coils the cord from his earbuds around his fingers. “So you and Hannah are buddies now?”
    “I don’t know.” I squirm. He must have seen me sometime this morning, even if I didn’t see him. “She sort of accosted me when I walked in.”
    “She’s been playing the widow since you’ve been gone. Playing up her relationship with Trip to get attention. Now that you’re back, I guess she’ll have to share that attention.” There’s an edge to Blake’s voice that bothers me, like he’s accusing me of using Trip’s accident to get attention, too.
    “She could be sincere.”
    “Doubt it.”
    “What if she’s genuinely hurting?”
    “Right.” Blake kicks the leg of his desk and it pings loudly. “Hannah can’t stand that your accident took all the attention away from her winning the pageant. The only loss she’s mourning is the death of her spotlight.”
    “People can change, Blake.” I’m not sure why I’m defending her, except that she was nice to Andrew. “Why don’t you give her a chance?”
    “Maybe because nobody in this town has ever given me a chance.” To signify that our discussion is over he puts his earbuds back in his ears and lays his head back down on the desk.
    I want to say more, but the teacher, Ms. Flores, walks in. She ignores Blake, but I’m not so lucky. She makes a big fuss about me being back in school and how everyone was so worried about me, and did I get the cards her seventh graders made? By