Read Naked for Free Online Page B

getting into Cambridge on a full scholarship.
    To throw that all away would be madness.
    And Caelyn could never tell her mother why she was running away, either.
    There was a long silence on the phone as Caelyn’s mind spun through the myriad possibilities, the ramifications of her actions finally starting to hit home.
    “Are you still there?” her mother demanded.
    “Yeah, I’m here.”
    “What’s wrong? You sound… different.”
    “I told you, I’m just really overwhelmed with school work right now.”
    Her mother sighed. “Okay, I see. Maybe I should try you another time—or better yet, you try me back when you feel more like talking.”
    “Okay, I’ll do that,” she said softly.
    “I’m still planning on seeing you when I come in for my conference. Plan for either Thursday or Friday night—dinner. On me. Okay?”
    Now it was Caelyn’s turn to sigh into the phone. “I’ll call you later,” was all she said.
    “Okay. Love you,” her mother replied.
    And then the line went dead. Caelyn put her cell phone back in her purse. When she looked over at Elijah again, he was still smirking.
    “What?” she asked, glaring at him. “What’s so funny?”
    “Nothing.”
    “You’ve got a smug look on your face.”
    “Me?” he asked, feigning innocence.
    “Yes, you.”
    “I just couldn’t help but notice that little miss perfect was lying to her mommy.”
    “I’m not little miss perfect.”
    He snorted. “Come on. You go to Cambridge? That means you’re one of those rich kids with perfect grades. Probably lived in Newton or Weston or one of those snobby towns. I know girls like you.”
    “What’s that supposed to mean? Girls like me?”
    “I thought maybe you were running away from something serious,” he told her.
    “I thought maybe you were like me…” his voice trailed off but he didn’t finish.
    “How do you know it’s not serious? Just because I go to a good college?”
    “You probably think you have it rough. School’s harder than you thought it would be, you’re not the smartest kid in class anymore, and you freaked out. Maybe you and some other spoiled girl got into one of those fights where you pull each other’s hair.”
    Caelyn felt suddenly calm as she watched him talking. She knew she was angry, but in a way, his fantasy of who she was and what she was running from had brought her back to earth. There was a reason for what she was doing—a real reason.
    “You’re so wrong,” she told him. “But I have nothing to prove to you.”
    “Why don’t you tell your mother where you really are?” he said. “What are you so scared of?”
    “It’s none of your business.”
    He laughed. “Sure. Because you know that I’m right.”
    “Believe it if it makes you feel better about yourself.”
    “I believe it because I’ve seen enough kids like you.”
    “You know nothing about me, Elijah. Nothing.”
    He glanced at her. “I know more than you think. I grew up seeing kids like you around Boston—being jealous as hell because I didn’t have shit. I wished that I had parents who weren’t always drunk, throwing shit, hitting each other and hitting me and my brother. I would have loved to live in a nice house with a nice yard, get a decent car for my sixteenth birthday—or even just have enough food in the house so I wasn’t going to bed hungry most nights.”
    She swallowed. Maybe he’d gotten some things wrong—they weren’t that rich, for one thing. But he’d gotten a few things right. Her family did live in Avon, Connecticut, which was a very nice town and with a great school system and most of her friends had been quite wealthy. She’d never had to worry about having nice clothes, or spending money, or having enough food in the house.
    “I’m sorry you didn’t have those things,” she told him, and meant it. “But you don’t know anything about me or my life.”
    “I know enough. I know that you left an ivy-league school that most people would kill to