Torn - Part 1: The Torn Series Read Online Free PDF Page A

sinking fast, losing myself in the sensations, the heat. I was dizzy with it.
    I was tipping off of my stool.
    He grabbed me before I could topple completely and laughed as my feet scrambled for purchase. I straightened my skirt as he set me down and hoped no one behind me had gotten the full view of my ass.
    “I was right,” he said with a mischievous twinkle in his eyes.
    “About what?” I casually grabbed my beer as if I had intended on standing in the first place. Real smooth. I was blushing furiously and I tried to hide it behind my glass; I took a sip but it did nothing to cool me down.
    “You like me.” He lifted his glass at me. “You want me.”
    “I have to go home.” I shook my head. I was starting to feel overwhelmed.
    He quirked an eyebrow. “With me?”
    I definitely wasn’t ready for that. Okay, maybe my body responded to the suggestion, maybe I thought about it for just a moment, perhaps the thought made me shiver a little. But no, I wasn’t ready. “I couldn’t… I’m still with Tyler. Sort of. I think.”
    “You’re not.”
    “I will be. I can fix it.” I wished I sounded more sure than I did.
    “Do you really want to?”
    That made me pause. Sometimes I honestly didn’t know. I had flashes of certainty - we’d been together for so long already, made so many plans together. But I had long stretches of doubt. Tyler never would have stayed out this late, at a bar like this, and he certainly didn’t kiss me quite like that. Especially not in public where anyone could see.
    “I have to try,” I finally said. “We were together all through college. That’s like, four years.”
    He hitched a lazy shoulder and turned back to the bar. Now I’ve done it, I’ve bored him half to death. Was that disappointment on his face? He must have had hundreds of girls throwing themselves at him - what the heck was he bothering with me for anyway?
    Whatever it was, he was over it quickly. “Let’s send you home a little drunker, at least,” he said, waving down the bartender. “If we’re sticking with the ‘make him jealous’ plan, that’ll definitely do it.”
    I hopped back up on my stool. It was a better plan than any I’d come up with on my own so far. “Thanks for helping me,” I said.
    He looked me up and down again. “Guess I’m a sucker for a short skirt.”
    The plaid fabric was running up too high again. I tugged it down but by that point what did it matter.
    Son of a bitch.

CHAPTER 3
     
    Why? That was the only thought in my head when I woke. Why did I drink so much? Why did I stay out so late? Why do I deserve such a horrible hangover?
    I needed a shower. And a bagel. I wished I could have both at the same time.
    I opened my eyes and saw a pair of legs standing in from of me. Oh, no. I didn't... Peering up slowly, I found it was Tyler standing over me, mug of coffee in hand and scowl on his bearded face. "You were out late."
    I sat up and rubbed my eyes. "I was out early, depending on how you look at it." I was sleeping on the futon in the living room. Tyler got the bed in our break-up - it belonged to him to begin with and he paid a little more of the rent since he took the single bedroom in our tiny apartment.
    "Who were you with? You look like trash." I hadn't changed out of my punk outfit, though I'd kicked my boots off... somewhere.
    "I was playing a show, I told you. I thought you'd be there."
    He sighed heavily. "And I told you I couldn't make it."
    "But-"
    "But nothing. Clean yourself up, I've got people coming over."
    Girls, oh God. His words stabbed at me. It was a real jump to that conclusion - he was working towards his master's, it was probably a study group - but that knowledge did nothing to assuage the dread in my gut. He's found someone else. He loves someone else.
    If he could read any of the jealousy on my face he gave no sign of it. He sighed once more like a disapproving parent and disappeared back into the kitchen.
    Memories of the previous night returned