SheLikesHimBad Read Online Free PDF Page B

played screeching brakes. What the hell was wrong with
her?
    They exchanged numbers with promises to text in the next few
days to set up a concrete time and place. Emma was only slightly ashamed of the
heart attack-inducing contents of her shopping basket. Luckily, Leah didn’t
comment on it before she went on her way.
    That didn’t, however, preclude the gum chewing,
super-pierced teen manning the checkout from speaking her mind. Much to Emma’s
dismay.
    “This looks like my cousin’s last splurge before she went to
fat camp,” the girl observed as she ran a bag of frozen onion rings across the
scanner. “You gonna eat all this yourself?”
    Emma fought and lost a battle against mortification. She
forced a smile. “Sure am. I’m treating myself.”
    The clerk’s eye makeup looked as if it had been applied by a
wily band of raccoons. Black eyeliner was liberally smudged everywhere. A tiny
diamond stud winked from her right nostril. She ran the last item, a now
melting tub of ice cream, across the belt. “Well, have a great time then. Will
that be cash, credit or debit?”
    “I will,” Emma gritted. “And it will be cash.”
    She paid the girl, grabbed her bags, and hightailed it out
of the store feeling as if a cloud of infamy followed her. She told herself
that even if she was bingeing on food, at least she wasn’t suffering from a
massive teenage forehead breakout.
    By the time her mama found her a few hours later, she was
bawling her eyes out while watching a movie she’d last seen when she was a
sophomore at Paradise High. There was evidence of her food extravaganza all
over the coffee table.
    “Emma Lee, what on earth is wrong with you?” her mother
demanded. “Where did all this food come from?”
    “The grocery store,” Emma answered around a mouthful of
deep-fried cheese sticks. So much for watching her diet.
    Mama slapped her hands on her hips and glared at her. “Did
something happen between you and Jackson?”
    Sweet Lord in heaven. Something was such an
understatement. Something was way off the mark, in fact. A bout of wild,
life-changing sex had happened. But she couldn’t tell her mother that. God no.
She’d sooner go through the checkout back at Taylor Markets with a whole new
supply of pig-out food.
    “Nothing at all,” she lied with a fake smile. “I dropped him
off just like you asked, and then I picked up a few things at the grocery
store.”
    Her mother narrowed her eyes. “I don’t believe you.”
    How was it that twenty-four hours in her childhood home
could make her feel like a tween sneaking cigarettes after school? “Don’t
believe me if you don’t want. It’s true, though.”
    “Good. Then you won’t be upset that I invited him for dinner
tonight.”
    She sat up, crumbs skittering to the floor unnoticed.
“What?”
    “I invited Jackson over for dinner.” Her mother winked.
“It’ll be like old times.”
    She’d had more than enough of old times this morning. It was
all the proof she needed they couldn’t interact as mature adults. They were
either bickering or having insane sex, neither of which was productive or a
good idea.
    “Mama, I came here to get away from people and spend some
quality time with you,” she protested. “I don’t want to have dinner with my
high school boyfriend. I can’t even stand him.”
    Okay, so that was the biggest lie she’d told so far. But her
mother didn’t need to know that.
    “Oh honey.” Her mother sat next to her on the sofa and slid
a comforting arm around her shoulders. “I know you’re upset about that awful
ex-boyfriend of yours, but it’s not good to hide away from the world. You have
to snap out of this blue mood. Besides, I’m fixing my famous beef brisket. Been
working on it since yesterday. It’s too much for just you and me.”
    Mama’s beef brisket was legendary and delicious. She hadn’t
had it in years. “I don’t eat meat,” she offered. “I can’t eat beef brisket.”
    “I’m sorry.”