The Beauty in Between: Too Close (A Beautiful Series Novella) Read Online Free PDF Page A

justified
spending more time with Cassie, even though she’d gone and told
everybody those lies about me.
    Cassie’s
parents worked a lot, and were seriously lax in their parental
supervision when they were home. Our group used to spend a lot of
weekends at Cassie’s house, having parties in this little
self-contained living area – The Granny flat. Every teenager wishes
their family had one for them to hang out in. It had one bedroom, a
bathroom, and a small living area with a simple kitchen.
    It was about
two weeks after the dance at school that we were all there again,
Katrina had gone to sit by Cassie’s pool and ‘talk’ to Ben, and I’d
done my best to be cool with that and just focus on what was
happening inside with everyone else.
    “Can I talk to
you?” Cassie asked, coming up to stand beside me.
    “Sure,” I
shrugged, not paying that much attention as my eyes flitted toward
the sliding door through which I could see Trina and Ben sitting
together with their feet in the water.
    “In private,”
she said, inclining her head toward the bedroom door.
    I followed her
eyes and then looked back at her. “I don’t know if I want to do
that Cassie, you kind of made shit up about me last time we were on
our own.”
    “Well, that’s
kind of what I want to talk to you about,” she whispered, giving me
one of those big round eyed pouty looks that girls are so good
at.
    “Fine,” I said,
earning a broad triumphant grin from her as I followed her into the
room under the watchful eyes of everyone else in the flat.
    Now, Cassie was
hot. She’d grown her hair, and it fell into these long glossy waves
that touched just below her shoulder blades. She had big blue eyes,
full lips, and curves in all the right places. I was attracted to
her looks, but I was wary of her personality. I wasn’t sure what I
was about to get myself into by entering the room with her.
    “Firstly, I
want to apologise. I shouldn’t have let them think that we had sex
when we didn’t.”
    “Alright,” I
said, dropping my guard a little as I leant against the wall while
she stood in front of me.
    “And secondly,
I wanted to know if you maybe wanted to go out with me?” she
asked.
    “What? Like be
your boyfriend?”
    “Well yeah,
that’s what ‘going out’ means isn’t it?”
    “Um, listen
Cassie, you’re a nice girl and all, but I’m not interested in
having a girlfriend right now.”
    “So you’ll make
out with me, and you’ll dry hump, but you won’t actually date
me?”
    “If I recall
correctly, it was you doing the dry humping.”
    “It’s because
of Katrina isn’t it?”
    “What? Why
would it be about Katrina?”
    “Because you’re
like, always together.”
    “She’s my best
friend,” I shrugged. I felt that was all the explanation that was
required.
    Cassie sat down
on the bed in a sulk and folded her arms across her chest.
    “I’m sorry if I
upset you. I just don’t want a girlfriend, and it has nothing to do
with you or Katrina, or anyone. I just don’t want one.”
    “Don’t you
think I’m pretty enough?” she pouted.
    Feeling sorry
for her, I sat on the bed next to her and lifted her face by the
chin so she was looking at me. “Cassie, you’ve got a mirror. You
know you’re gorgeous.”
    And that’s when
she kissed me. At first, I didn’t respond, but a little voice
inside me said ‘What the hell? They all think you’re in here
screwing her anyway.” So I went with it, and this time when she
reached for my belt. I let her.
    ***
    I wish I could
say that was the one and only time that Cassie and I had sex, but
it wasn’t. I guess for me, I felt that I may as well be doing the
thing I was being accused of. I told Cassie that it didn’t mean we
were together in any way. I refused to spread my time between two
girls. Katrina came first for me.
    Although,
Katrina obviously didn’t feel the same way. On that same night, her
and Ben became a couple.
    “So is it true
that you slept with Cassie