Jaded Read Online Free PDF Page A

him. You know my stepmother and biological dad.”
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    This sounded complex. “Look,” I murmured. “I don’t really want to hear your
    family’s genogram.”
    “That’s okay,” she said brightly. “I don’t really want to tell you my family’s genogram. We’re messed up, that’s the gist of it.”
    “And why are you talking to me…?”
    “Because you shagged my brother and didn’t give him the time of day
    afterwards.” She grinned and it lit up her face and eyes. Corrigan would’ve called her hot without the smile, but he would’ve considered her deadly with the smile. “I wanted to meet you.”
    “Nice to meet you,” I said dully and dismissed her as I turned my back to leave. I expected her to say something, but she didn’t. When I got to my locker, I realized why— she’d followed me.
    “What?” I grabbed my sixth period book.
    “I thought maybe,” she shrugged. “I don’t know. Maybe we could be friends?
    You know who I am and you don’t care about my brother. I like that. And I heard around that you don’t have a lot of friends.”
    “I don’t do friends.”
    I cringed inside. Bad choice of words.
    “This isn’t about popularity. Trust me.” She assured me and gestured to the hallway. I glanced around and saw a good portion of the guys were eyeing us, up and down. I’d grown immune to the attention, but I shouldn’t have been surprised they were watching her.
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    Mena waved them off and added, “I know who my brother is. I can be popular off his name. I can be popular on my own too. I was Homecoming Queen at my last school for the junior class. I went to the largest high school in Manhattan. I’d like to think that says something.”
    “Becky Lew likes friends,” I mentioned. Becky Lew liked followers.
    Mena parroted my thoughts as she snorted, “Becky Lew likes to be followed
    around and fanned. She wants errand girls, not friends. I was lucky to get a few good friends at my old school. I like you. I heard all about you from Denton and this morning around school. You don’t give a crap what people think of you. It works for you.” She stepped closer and said, “And you don’t play those childish games that all girls inevitably do. I’m tired of that life.”
    I frowned and moved away from her. To be truthful, I didn’t know what to think of this girl. Luckily, Corrigan interrupted us as he stopped and asked, his back turned to Mena, “Do I need to know what happened between you two?”
    Corrigan did that so efficiently. It was a perfected technique that effectively cut out anyone else.
    For a moment, I thought he meant me and Mena, but then comprehension dawned
    and I whispered, “No. You don’t need to know because I don’t even know.”
    He meant Bryce and myself.
    “Bryce is furious. I’m asking.” He shifted closer to me. “Should I know what happened?”
    “You want to know all the dirty secrets?” I teased. “You want the play by play?”
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    Corrigan took the hint and returned smoothly, “You taped it. Right? Tell me you taped it.”
    Mena shifted farther to the side as Corrigan dropped to lean against the locker that she had been standing against.
    She frowned at his back, but all of our attention was thwarted when Bryce
    stopped beside us.
    He ran his eyes over Corrigan and myself before he drawled, “Principal wants to see us.”
    I groaned and buried my head in my locker.
    “Hope your nooner was worth it. I heard you guys were supposed to be at the
    library instead.” Corrigan leered knowingly.
    “We skipped because you were hungry,” Bryce pointed out.
    The leer disappeared.
    Becky Lew chose that moment to stop with her usual crowd of minions behind
    her. She smiled seductively at Bryce and ran a hand down his chest while she purred,
    “Hey, guys.”
    No one knew what to do.
    It was common knowledge that Bryce was off-limits when I was around. There
    was a reason why Stephanie Hills scampered