Read Bad Impressions (Revive Me #1) for Free Online Page B

asked in an upbeat tone.
    Confusion flickered in her eyes. “You’re not mad?”
    “Nope. Give it your best shot. My brother is a good guy. He won’t treat you like the assholes you usually hook up with do. Just…spare me the gory details, okay?”
    She laughed. “You got it, babe.”
    I grabbed my empty beer bottle and stood up. “Well, I need another drink. You?”
    She blew out a breath. “Hell, yeah.”
     
    ***
     
    I made my way outside the club, enjoying the invigorating feel of the cool night air on my overheated skin. I’d needed a breather from a preppy dickhead who I’d made the mistake of dancing with. Tiff had befriended a group of women who were celebrating their bachelorette night and they were living it up on the dance floor. Preppy Boy had been far too grabby and really didn’t understand the concept of the word ‘ no’ very well. And I wasn’t in the mood to educate him. I was done dealing with guys who didn’t get the damn message, whether it be ‘ no’ or the opposite.
    Speaking of, I hadn’t seen Brad for close to two weeks and I was enjoying the peace and quiet that came with that. Sure, he was on my mind, but as soon as I started to think about him, I pushed it down. I didn’t want to think about him. He didn’t deserve any of my thoughts. Nothing. He was just another asshole.
    I pulled a cigarette pack out of my purse and quickly lit up. It’d been a couple of years since I’d quit, but being back in Marsden had shot all that to hell. Back then I’d started the nasty habit in high school. Boredom. I’d been bored out of my mind in that little town.
    And I was bored as hell again.
    Working for Kate at the bookstore was a bit of a reprieve, but that was about it. Every other minute of the day, I was losing my mind.
    But something was stopping me from making a move, from picking up the pieces and getting back to my life. I just couldn’t move.
    I was too gun-shy.
    The thing with Jake had shaken me up more that I’d let myself admit.
    I’d felt like I’d lost my power that night. My strength. My confidence.
    And it hadn’t just been that night.
    It’d been getting worse over the last year that he and I were together. He just…the way he was…so controlling in such a manipulative way, where you didn’t even realize you were actually being controlled. By the time I’d wised up, it’d been too late. It’d stripped me down. He’d sucked the life out of me.
    I wasn’t the girl that I had been. The carefree, no-nonsense thing that was excited about life and all the possibilities of the future that lay ahead of her. I’d lost that.
    And I didn’t know how to get it back.
    Maybe that was why I’d let myself get swept up in the whole Brad drama so easily again.
    He knew me. Really knew me. Better than anyone else. He always brought out the best in me. He made me feel…invincible. I always felt like my true self with him more than I ever had with anyone else.
    I shook my head and forced all thoughts of him out of my mind. That way only led to badness.
    Dragging on my smoke as I leaned against the wall, I finally felt some of the tension leave my body.
    And then my heart stopped beating as a familiar voice called my name.
    Oh my God. No, no, no. Please be imagining it. Please.
    I forced myself to turn in the direction of the voice.
    And no…I hadn’t been imagining it.
    There he was. Jake Sheffield. Standing there in his designer shirt and khakis. Asshole frat boy.
    He stared at me for a long while, running his hand through his black spiky gelled hair, as if he couldn’t quite believe I was real and not just some mirage.
    And then he started to walk towards me.
    I tensed with his every confident, self-assured step.
    When he finally reached me, his eyes swept over me, making no pretense of the fact that he was eye-fucking me on the spot. I felt sick just from having his eyes on me.
    “You finally came to your senses,” he said in that arrogant way of his. “I knew you’d