Breaking the Rules: The Honeybees, book 1 Read Online Free PDF Page B

season, but I had never been able to resist them. Then I made a list of everything I’d need to buy for Taco, and sorted through the mail, which had come while I’d been out. Several credit card offers for Matt, which I threw into the recycling unopened.  
    Take that, I thought. I’m not going to bother shredding them. Maybe someone will steal your identity.
    I sighed. It wasn’t much of a comfort—and if someone did steal his identity, I’d feel horrible. I fished the credit card offers out of the recycling bag and ran them through the shredder.  
    It was only then that I noticed a letter addressed to me. It was a card-sized envelope, but the front was printed rather than hand-written. Curious, I tore it open.  
    My high school’s logo was printed on the front of the card. Oh no, I thought, chest tightening. I opened the card. Oh yes: it was exactly what I had feared. An invitation to my ten-year high school reunion.  
    Feeling suddenly defeated, tired, and heavy, I sank down into an armchair, wishing I could stretch out on the couch. Not the high school reunion , I thought. Please. Taco jumped up into my lap even though he was way too big to be a lap dog. I knew I shouldn’t encourage this bad habit, but let him stay. I needed the comfort right now.
    I wasn’t ready for a reunion. Just a month ago, when I’d realized it was coming up, I’d been excited. I hadn’t kept in touch with my friends from high school, and it would be fun to get together again. I remembered feeling like this was the perfect time for a reunion, like my life was suddenly all in place, exactly the way I’d always hoped it would be back in high school.  
    What an idiot , I thought snidely about my one-month-younger self. Now, recently single and feeling like life was unraveling, the prospect of facing my high school classmates sounded awful. Still, though, those few friends would be fun to see. The tight-knit group of girls I’d been a part of in high school included Caroline, who had always struck me as brave and willing to try anything, but a bit lost; Olivia, intuitive and perceptive, who even in high school had worn clothes I didn’t think I could pull off and always knew what new restaurants had just opened; Hannah, extroverted, social, and fun, who was always the one to plan group outings and get-togethers; and Rachel, who spent most of her free time in the art room.
    We’d called ourselves the Honeybees after Olivia had found a set of five honeybee brooches at a thrift store. They’d had long, protruding stingers and cartoonish bodies. She’d thought they were funny—why had someone made honeybee brooches? In what context did people originally wear them?—so she’d gotten them for the rest of us. We only wore them once or twice, but the name had stuck.  
    We’d all had so much fun back then, back before anything was serious, before our lives had truly started. I missed having such a strong group of friends—and I certainly hadn’t made much progress with anyone from the running group yet.  
    “I wonder what they’re all up to now,” I said aloud to Taco, who stared back at me. “You’re going to have to move, you know,” I added, starting to stand up. At the very last moment, the dog jumped off my lap.  
    Retrieving my laptop, I sat back down. Taco looked offended that there was no room on my lap for him, and he tried unsuccessfully to perch on the arm of the armchair, claws scratching at the material, before giving up and curling up at my feet.
    “Do you think you’re a cat or something?” I asked him.  
    I looked my friends up online, one at a time. Caroline didn’t have much of an online presence, though I found an email address for her easily. Olivia had several social media profiles, but they seemed to be mostly work-related; I recognized the name of her PR firm. In a few of her photos, she and Hannah were out at bars or restaurants together.  
    “Wow, they still hang out!” I said to Taco, who