Read Broken for Free Online Page A

for the rest of the morning.
    At lunch, I take my place at my usual table with Adrianna and her friend Chelsey.
    “So what happened?” Adrianna asks as soon as I set my tray down.
    For a moment, I think she’s talking about the weekend, and my heart starts to beat fast. “What do you mean?”
    “I mean this morning. With Cam. Everyone’s talking about it.” She takes a packet of ketchup and squirts it onto her veggie burger.
    “They are?” I open my strawberry yogurt and stir it. It looks disgusting. I’m not hungry at all, but I force myself to take a spoonful.
    Chelsey nods. “They’re saying he pretty much kicked Lancaster’s ass.”
    “Wait.” I shake my head. “You mean Brody, right?”
    “Brody kicked Lancaster’s ass?” Chelsey asks, confused. Then she shakes her head and leans forward over the table. She’s wearing bright red lipstick, and a tiny bit is on her front teeth. “No, Cam kicked Lancaster’s ass. You didn’t hear that they got into a fight?”
    “No.”
    “Cam didn’t tell you?” Adrianna asks. She’s looking at me carefully, probably able to tell from my face and my tone that something’s not right with me and Cam.
    But I don’t want to get into it in front of Chelsey, and maybe not at all, so I just say, “I lost my cell so we haven’t been able to text all morning.” I sigh, like not being able to text him is driving me crazy, in a normal teen angst kind of way.
    Adrianna nods, like this satisfies her. “Well, I guess it was kind of a big deal.
    Something with Aidan and Cam and Lancaster, although nobody really knows what since they all got sent home.” She takes a sip of her diet Sprite. “Do you think I should text him?”
    “Lancaster?” Chelsey says. She has her phone out, her fingers flying over the keyboard as she texts someone. “No way, not after what he did to you at the dance.”
    “Not Lancaster. Aidan.” Adrianna’s cheeks flush.
    “If you want.” Chelsey shrugs, obviously not understanding that Adrianna might be getting a little crush on Aidan. It’s a weird pairing, but whatever. I’m not going to judge.
    “I think you totally should,” I say, and give her a smile. “I’m sure he’d be glad to hear from you.”
    Adrianna’s cheeks flush darker as she smiles back at me. We spend the rest of lunch talking about random things – if college is better than high school, how some cheerleader got caught with marijuana in her locker, if it’s worth it to spend eighty dollars on a pair of skinny jeans -- and I force myself to engage in the conversation.
    But all I really want to do is leave, and I think about calling my mom and telling her I don’t feel good and to come and get me. But if I do that, I know she’s going to flip out and insist I go see a doctor. So I force myself through the rest of the day, walking like a zombie through the halls and to my classes. After another dose of Advil my headache fades to a minor annoyance, and by the time my mom picks me up after school, it’s completely gone.
    “Hey,” she says as I climb into the car. “How was your day?” She’s trying to sound casual, but I can see the way she’s looking at me, the way her eyes slide up my body, taking in every inch of me like she’s afraid there’s going to be something else wrong.
    “It was fine,” I say and shrug. “Just a normal day at school.”
    She nods, then pulls out onto the traffic circle and then onto the main road. “So I was thinking we could go and get you a new cell,” she says. “You can’t keep mine all the time, and you definitely should have a phone.”
    I shrug. She’s right -- I probably should have a phone. But right now I’m having trouble mustering up any kind of excitement for anything. She drives to the shopping plaza down the street from the school and pulls into the AT&T store.
    The bell tinkles over the door as we walk in, and I immediately head over to the display of iPhones while my mom goes to look for a salesperson.