Read Other Side of Beautiful (A Beautifully Disturbed #1) for Free Online Page A

has never been good for me. It muddles my head.
    Thoughts like these would consume me if I let them. They are old Elly’s thoughts, which have become harder to suppress over the past few months. My head might be placating old Elly, but my body has come through for new Elle, my hand finding the inside of my blue jean pocket before I ever have the chance to think about it. My thumbnail runs over the ridges of the medicine cap, feeling the nail catch on the ridges and chip from the rough contact.
    The phone buzzes in my coat pocket. Kelly’s in class. Everyone else is here, so I know who’s calling. I hate that woman. Why can’t she just leave me alone? The phone buzzes again, and I know she’ll keep calling. It’s like she wants it to happen again. Nibbling away at my strength little by little, phone call by phone call, so when it does happen, she can say, “I told you so.” I don’t want it to happen again. I don’t want to go back there, ever. Ever. Ever . Still, I reach inside my pocket and slip my phone out, staring at the screen just a beat longer before hitting accept.
    “Took you long enough,” she says. No ‘hello.’ No ‘how are you doing?’ No ‘how’s the first day’ encouragement. Just ‘took you long enough.’
    “Maybe I was in class.”
    “Those writing classes don’t start this early. Don’t lie to me.”
    “What do you need, Cricket?”
    “Don’t take that tone with me. Your sister is receiving an award at school. You need to send her a congratulatory gift.”
    “I received an award for my writing last semester and she never sent me anything.”
    “Nonsense. She’s getting a real award. Writing is what people like you do when you are too dumb to do anything else.” The trouble is, she believes it. She really thinks I’m too dumb to do anything else. That there isn’t a lick of skill involved. That I don’t work my butt off honing my craft. The phone begins trembling in my hand, a sure sign I’m about to lose myself. My ritual. One long breath in. One even longer breath out. Repeat. Repeat. Repeat.
    “Elly? Elly, are you still there? What are you doing? Heavy breathing in the phone like a pervert? What’s wrong with you?”
    “No…mother. Just collecting my thoughts. I’ll send her out a gift.”
    “Fine. Oh, and Dinah and I will be flying out to Cancun next Friday. Jane Hennessy is getting married. It’s one of those destination weddings. You aren’t invited. She asked if you might want to come, but I told her not to bother inviting you. You are too fat to fit in a bathing suit, so what would be the point of wasting a perfectly nice beach vacation if we all have to see you jiggling in the water? I told her, I don’t have a daughter, I have a manatee. A sea cow. She laughed.”
    That woman has impeccable timing. It’s like she could sense it from 3,000 miles away. Elly’s feeling low. I should call and make her feel lower. When I look up from slipping my phone back in my pocket, some cute coed has her size-two butt plastered against Benton’s lap. His dates usually aren’t so brazen to sit with him while he sits with us. Benton keeps us off limits, so to speak. At first glance, my friends seem okay with her being there. But then I see it—their steely eyes and tight smiles give them away. Even Benton looks less casual than normal.
    Self-esteem has kicked my ass today, and I have the feeling it’s just warming up. No way could I sit across from coed Kelsey, watching her kiss him and pet him and whisper little private jokes in his ear purposely to keep us out of their little lust bubble. Closing my eyes to regroup, I call on my ritual for the umpteenth time this morning because my superpower is out of control. On the third long breath out, I open them again, but Benton and his trophy have disappeared.
    Maybe instead of coffee I need to just go home and sleep the rest of the day. I turn and head outside before any of them see me looking on the verge of