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

saying she was pretty tired of all the talk too. If it
wasn’t for Ben, she’d probably break away from that group with
me.
    “It reminds me
of how things were when we first started high school, you hanging
out with one group, and me with another. It’s kind of sad,” she
said.
    “I suppose, but
you have to admit that you’ve been pretty caught up with Ben these
last few months. I didn’t really spend that much one on one time
with you anyway.”
    “I guess, well,
I’ll make sure I see you after school, I’m sure we’ll be ok.”
    “Trina, you and
I will always be ok.”
    Cassie wasn’t
quite as understanding as Trina was. Despite knowing that I had
been with other girls besides her, she seemed to think she had some
kind of claim on me. I get that sleeping with her a few times must
have meant something to her, but I was always clear with her. I was
always honest, so I didn’t understand what her deal was.
    She was quite
put out with me for refusing to take her as my date to the year ten
formal, although she kept calling it a prom – she’d watched so much
Gossip Girl, that I seriously thought she was deluded about what
country she was in.
    Some of my
other friends were planning on hiring a limo together and going as
a group, and I was happy to be in on that. Trina wanted to join in
too, but Ben had other plans. Plans that I eventually overheard
when I was in the change rooms after our school's sports
afternoon…
    A bunch of guys
from year ten to twelve were on the school’s basketball team. It
wasn’t much of a commitment. We just had to train on a Monday at
lunch time and play a game on a Thursday afternoon against one of
the other schools in our district.
    There were
maybe twenty of us in the change rooms. I was in taking a shower
and when I came out, I could hear Ben telling Aaron all about the
things Katrina would let him do to her. I did my best not to listen
in because it seriously made my chest hurt to hear him talk about
her like that, but my ears wouldn’t tune him out.
    By the time I
was dressed and had my shoes on, I knew exactly how far she had let
him go, in explicit detail. I swear that steam was coming out of my
ears as I tried to breathe through my anger.
    “I reckon if I
play my cards right, she’ll let me go all the way at the Formal
After Party,” he bragged, earning himself a high five from
Aaron.
    “She’d better
put out. All the other girls are giving it up, and you’ve waited
nearly six months for her,” Aaron said.
    “For sure man,
I so deserve this.”
    I’m not sure
how I got from the other side of the locker room to standing behind
Ben, but all of a sudden I was there saying, “Do you know what you
deserve Ben?” I don’t even think he realised who it was, because he
turned around grinning like a fuckwit. “This,” I told him as I
rammed my fist into his gut, doubling him over as he stumbled back
into the wall behind him.
    “You fucking
bastard!” he spat at me as he righted himself.
    “Stay the fuck
away from her!” I yelled.
    “I knew it. You are into Katrina? Well, too bad mate. She doesn’t want you.
She wants me. I’m the one that’s touched her in those special places. Not you,” he taunted me, getting spit in my
face as he leaned in close to prove his point. “And I am going to
fuck her after the formal. All. night. long. and there’s nothing
you can do about it.”
    A rumbling
growl built in my chest and exploded out of me, echoing through the
change rooms as angry red colours coated my eyes, and my fist shot
out and slammed into his jaw, sending him reeling backwards.
    I physically
launched myself against him, ramming him into the brick wall behind
him where we embarked on a blow by blow fist fight. There was
cheering and yelling around us, and eventually, I was hauled off
him, kicking and spitting, swearing that I was going to take his
life if I ever heard he touched her.
    “You’re fucking
crazy!” he yelled at me.
    Immediately, we
were