The Divide (The Divide Series Book 1) Read Online Free PDF

giving me something, like a human being. So I’d hid my money in a shoebox under my bed. I’d ended up breaking rule number one. My mother had somehow found out about our little arrangement and she’d torn my room apart looking for the money. My father had chastised me, but he’d continued giving me the money, so I’d decided to keep it on me until I came up with the bright idea of keeping it hidden in the school. I’d asked Agathy if she could find something I could store it in, and the next day she’d given me a small wooden box with a key. It had worked perfectly, and I had been able to hide it without anyone ever noticing. 
    I never used a dime of the money though. I was saving it for the day I would run; that was my goal. Since the day he gave me the money, I had been planning my escape; I was going to flee on my eighteenth birthday. I didn’t tell anyone, not even Agathy. If my father ever found out she had helped me with any of it, he would do something detrimental, and I would never forgive myself. So I kept it secret. When I was fifteen, I’d found a small abandoned lodge deep in the woods. It was a good three-hour hike to get there. Rust and mildew freshened the air of the lodge, but it was an excellent place to start hiding items I would need when I escaped. So for the past year and a half, I had been loading up that place a little at a time. I didn’t see my future here in Gildonia. I saw my future out there in no-man’s-land, making my own way by teaching little kids. I would be abandoning my family, but we weren’t much of a family to begin with. My mother was a drunk and my father was abusive. There was no way I’d not take a chance. 
    Trying to block the sight of prying eyes, I hovered close to my locker as I unrolled the money from the rubber band and slipped out a few bills. I grabbed enough to pay for two hot chocolates and two cookies before rolling the rest of it back up, placing it back in the box, and slipping it all the way into the back. I stuck two books in front of the box to help keep it hidden. As I stuffed the bills deep inside my pocket and slammed the locker door, I turned without looking up and hit a solid chest. I looked up into blue eyes, and my heart skipped a beat. I rubbed my hands down the front of my pants to help smooth them and wipe away the sweat that was building on my palms. 
    Tyler smiled and crooked a brow. “Hey, Mia.” I tried to smile, but it came out lopsided. I’d known Tyler since I was a little kid. We’d grown up together, but we were never friends. I had always had a crush on him and wrote about him in my diary. And yes, I always put his last name with my first name to make sure it sounded good. And it always did. But Tyler never gave me the time of day. He was too busy with his friends or flirting with the pretty girls. The only time he talked to me was to tell me to make sure I didn’t hover over my tests so he could cheat off of them or to ask me to write him a paper. And of course I helped him. He was beautiful. You couldn’t be beautiful and smart. At least he couldn’t. I couldn’t fault him for that. He was just slightly taller than me, and he had luscious platinum-blond hair and perfect ocean-blue eyes. The kind of eyes you wanted to get lost in. He was on the skinnier side, but it worked perfectly for his frame. 
    “Hey,” I said. I could feel the burn slowly creep up my neck, and my ears started buzzing. He was so good-looking that I lost my train of thought and all senses. I could feel my fingers slide against my jaw as I tucked a loose piece of hair behind my ear.
    “What are you up to?” Tyler deposited his hands in both of his front pockets and leaned up against the lockers.
    “Um, nothing,” I said. I had this natural way of coming off awkwardly. I didn’t talk to boys often, so I blamed it on that.
    “Doesn’t look like nothing.” His blue eyes danced with mischief.
    Nervousness staggered up my spine. Had he been watching