Starbound: A Starstruck Novel Read Online Free PDF

If you’re scared or have some problem, I want to help. Don’t shut me out.
    The pleading edge to his thought twisted my heart—I knew how I’d feel if he were doing this to me. I don’t want to, Rigel, I promise. But there’s stuff I can’t…that would be bad if you found out, okay?  
    Bad? You mean it would piss me off? It’s something about Sean, isn’t it? I know you were at his house last night.
    I sighed, exasperation starting to crowd out sympathy. No. It’s not. Please don’t push me, Rigel. It only makes it harder.
    Fine. Sorry.  
    But I could tell he wasn’t going to give up and I couldn’t really blame him. I’d be every bit as obsessed with finding out the truth if he were hiding things from me.  
    As we were leaving class, he came close enough to “accidentally” brush my hand. “Don’t put up walls, M,” he murmured so no one else could hear him. “I just want to help. You know that.”
    “I know.” I started to link pinkies with him, like at my party, but noticed Trina watching us, her eyes narrowed. I took a reluctant step back from Rigel and turned away. We’ll talk later, I promised him silently. Not that there was much I could safely tell him.
    Rigel wasn’t in my next class, which I spent trying to convince myself there was nothing to worry about. I’d just go to Mars and do whatever the Scientists there told me to do. Until then, I didn’t need to think about it at all. Which meant there wouldn’t be anything for Rigel to accidentally “overhear.”
    That pep talk helped me relax a bit next period. While I could sense Rigel’s amused irritation at Trina’s blatant flirting, I deliberately didn’t probe his actual thoughts, since I wasn’t willing to share most of mine. Trina clung to his arm all the way to Earth and Space Science, something she did way too often now I was supposedly dating Sean. Even though it distracted Rigel from trying too hard to get into my head just now, I still didn’t like it.
    Once in class, I tried my best to focus on what the teacher was writing on the board about the space program. But when I heard Trina whispering softly to Rigel right behind me—they were lab partners—of course I had to pay attention to that . She probably didn’t think I could hear but, like all Martians, I had super-sensitive hearing. It wasn’t always an advantage.
    “—deserve so much better, Rigel,” she murmured, probably right in his ear. “No girl in her right mind would throw you over for someone else, even if he is a junior and can invite her to prom. After all you did for her last fall, too, plucking her from obscurity and making her more popular than she’s ever been in her life. Believe me, before you did that, somebody like Sean never would have asked her out!”
    I knew I should be happy Trina was distracting Rigel so effectively, but happy wasn’t how I felt when Rigel responded.
    “M’s free to date whoever she wants. She and I are…over. We’re just friends now.”
    Ouch. I mean, that was the front we were putting on these days, but it stung to hear him say it to Trina, of all people.
    “Then you need to move on, Rigel. It’s pretty obvious she has, the way she’s practically glued to Sean O’Gara these days.”
    It was hard not to turn around and contradict her, but Rigel did it for me. Sort of.
    “They’re close, yeah, but mostly just friends. We’re all friends.”  
    “Friends? Don’t make me laugh! Maybe they act that way when you’re around.” Trina snickered softly. “Behind your back, they’re all over each other, believe me.”
    Not true! Not true! I thought quickly to Rigel, breaking my mental silence.  
    Oh, so you are there? The resentment that came through with his reply proved I hadn’t been as subtle about blocking him as I’d hoped.
    “Everybody knows she’s over at Sean’s house practically every night,” Trina continued with smug mock-sympathy. “You need to forget her, Rigel, give other girls a