Read Sweet Agony (Sweet Series Book 1) for Free Online Page B

lost in her own little world, the truth had crashed over me like a sledgehammer to the head. You weren’t supposed to feel this way about your sister. You weren’t supposed to even feel this way about a girl who was just a friend. Hell, I had never even felt that way about one of my girlfriends.
    Holy shit! It was the way Dad felt about Mom.
    That was when I had realized I had a major complication.
    I was sixteen, and she was thirteen. If I touched her, that would have been grounds for statutory rape. There had been a senior last year who had gotten himself tangled up with a freshman. When things went too far and her parents found out, he’d landed himself in a mess of trouble. Not to mention, absolutely no one around us would approve. Sure, her friends might have thought it would be cool for her to date an older guy, but my friends and all the kids at my school would laugh their asses off. What was more, no adult would be cool with that kind of age gap.
    I might want Ginny with everything inside me, but I wasn’t stupid. I had plans, dreams. I was already talking to the Army recruiters. As soon as I graduated, I was leaving suburbia New York.
    Making a decision that probably wasn’t the smartest, I had followed my gut. Instead of ignoring her, I had quickly come up with a reason to ditch my friends.
    “Look, man,” I had said to Johnny. “Olivia’ll give me hell if I don’t make sure Ginny gets home before dark.” I’d shrugged, trying to play it cool. “She’s got some shit on me for missing curfew last weekend.” I had started to jog toward Ginny, calling out over my shoulder, “I’ll catch up later.”
    All this had been an effort to have a fleeting moment with a girl I should have stayed away from. If only I had known it wouldn’t be the last time I didn’t have it in me to resist the pull toward her …
    Ginny
    Thirteen Years Old
    She was missing something.
    As I stared at the mermaid on the page, my mind raced. What was missing? I’d drawn and colored her in gorgeous shades of blue and teal; given her the typical human face and upper torso with a fishtail yet added scales around her eyes; webbed her fingers; and given her wispy, delicate fin-tipped ears. I’d even put a gorgeous shell in her hair.
    Sure, the piece overall looked a bit monochromatic since the mermaid sort of blended in with the ocean around her, but in my head, that made sense. Something as mythical and rare as a mermaid wouldn’t be a bright shade of color or have a peachy, human skin tone. No, they would need to hide from the land dwellers who rode on boats across the ocean, so they should be camouflaged to their environment.
    Still, as my fingers lightly traced over the petite lines of the mermaid’s face, I knew something was totally missing. She needed to standout somehow. Her shell was already shades of white and peach, so what else could I do to make her stand out?
    Her hair! That’s what needed more color!
    I grabbed my red and purple artist markers, excited about the new vision in my head. The mermaid would still have blue, green, and teal in her hair, but she needed some warmth and an exotic look. Sort of like the fish that had a spot or flashy scale to attract their prey, her hair would flow behind her like beautifully colored ribbons, both enchanting and deadly.
    Before my eyes, my creation was coming to life finally. A sense of excitement energized me. My hand was steady as I used a boysenberry purple to shade random strands of the mermaid’s hair. Sitting here in the warmth of the sun with the sounds of birds singing around me and my imagination roaring to life, I felt like this moment was perfect.
    Maybe being lost in my moment was the reason I never heard anyone walk up or sit down next to me. But sure enough, when I went to drop my boysenberry purple and pick up another color, I almost jumped out of my own skin when my rose red marker appeared in front of my face.
    Screaming like a banshee, I tried to jump back,