Shade Me Read Online Free PDF Page B

look confident, unfazed by how close his assessment was. “I just didn’t expect to see her looking like that, I guess. I didn’t know how bad she was.”
    His eyebrows went up. “Her?” He motioned toward Bay 19. “You know her?”
    I nodded. “It’s Peyton Hollis. Everyone knows her.”
    â€œHollis?” he repeated. He seemed to be searching for the name. “As in Bill Hollis?”
    I nodded. “The producer. That’s her dad. Like I said, everyone knows her. I have no idea why I’m here.”
    He arched one eyebrow. “You’re part of everyone, aren’t you?”
    I cocked my head to the side. “Not to Peyton Hollis. I’m no one.”
    He gave me a long look, then flagged down a nurse and whispered to her. The nurse nodded, pulled a piece of paper out of her pocket, jotted Peyton’s name on it, and hurried away.
    I set the cup on the counter behind me and finally stood, forcing him to shuffle back a step. “What happened to her?” I asked.
    â€œI was hoping you could tell me that,” he said.
    I glanced at the curtain again. I had left it open a crack when I’d backed out of it, and I could see crimson glowing out, could see one of Peyton’s closed, swollen eyes. I swallowed. Confidence, Nik. Cold confidence. That’s not your mother in there. It’s not. “I have no idea.”
    â€œYou’re not friends at school?”
    â€œNo. Not at all. I mean, I knew her. Know her,” I corrected, realizing I had just spoken about her in the past tense. “I actually haven’t seen her at school in a couple of weeks.”
    Now that I thought about it, the last time I saw her at school was the day she showed up with her perfect, shiny blond hair chopped into uneven, dry-looking hunks and dyed mousy brown. Everyone was talking about it, and saying she’d also gotten a tattoo on the side of her neck. On someone like me these changes would have looked “gross” and “skanky” and everyone would have assumed I was suddenly on drugs or had joined a gang or something. But on Peyton Hollis they were cool rebellion, and soon everyone would be cutting their hair that way and begging their parents for neck tattoos.
    The next day, she was nowhere to be found. Somepeople said she quit school, but nobody really believed it. Royalty like Peyton Hollis didn’t quit school. Crowds were their lifeblood.
    â€œYou never hung out?” Detective Martinez asked.
    I shook my head.
    â€œEver meet her family?”
    I shook again.
    â€œKnow of any enemies Peyton might have had? Anyone who might want to hurt her?”
    I thought it over. Did Peyton Hollis have enemies? Yes, and no. Everyone envied Peyton. She was so popular, everyone wanted to be her friend. Hell, everyone wanted to be her . But her popularity also made everyone hate her in their own way. Wasn’t that how it always worked? People killed themselves to put you up on a pedestal, just so they could watch you lose your balance and fall, and even pull you down when you weren’t falling fast enough. When the whole world idolized you, did that mean the whole world was your enemy, too?
    But the phone call I’d gotten before the hospital had called. The one that had said my name and hung up. I didn’t have the first clue why, but I was now sure that call was Peyton. And, if it was, there had been a male voice in the background. Was that person an enemy?
    How on earth would I know? And why would I want to? Why help this cop, when cops had never done anything tohelp me? Hadn’t I asked as many questions about my mom’s death ten years before? Hadn’t I gotten big old shoulder shrugs from everyone? Whoever was in the background of that phone call was presumably still out there. It seemed safer to just stay out of it.
    I shrugged. “Not that I know of. Like I said, I wasn’t . . . am not . . . part of her group