Read Under My Skin (Shady Falls Series Book 2) for Free Online Page B

Instead I felt cold inside.
                  The hall was cluttered with students loitering at their lockers and talking to friends. Jake stood at his open locker with his brother Cade. The two seemed to be involved in a serious conversation judging by Jake’s rigid posture and Cade’s narrowed eyes and annoyed frown. They were huge, a good head taller than most of the other guys in school. Their height along with a muscular frames, and handsome features made them the object of many girls’ attention.
                  Every part of me wanted to go to Jake and wrap my arms around him. I wanted every girl to know he was mine and mine alone. But I couldn’t.
                  The moment I approached my locker, I was assaulted by squealing and gossiping from several girls on the cheer squad. Sometimes I hated being associated with these girls. Their condescending and spiteful attitudes were difficult to deal with.  They weren’t above creating rumors just to destroy reputations and get what they wanted. Hell they often did it just for fun. They managed to make life hell for anyone who crossed them.
                  There were only three girls in the entire school these catty girls avoided at all cost. These three girls couldn’t care less about what anyone said about them, and their confidence intimidated even the venomous cheer squad. One of those girls was my best friend, Toni Rizzo, the best mechanic in our school and best friend to Jake and Cade Hanson. Another was Arian Jackson, a six-foot tall female basketball player who could out dunk and out play half the boys’ team. And the last was Nina George, a powerful girl who’d found her niche as a badass when she beat the hell out of one of the biggest guys on the wrestling team after he tried to grope her at a bonfire.
                  I probably would’ve been a prime target if I weren’t on the team. My darker skin and big curly hair was different than anyone else in our predominantly white school. Until I joined the squad, I’d faced my share of bullying. They only stopped because they needed me. My gymnastics skills and the fact that I was small enough to be a flier made me an asset for the competitive team.
    “Did you see them this morning? My gawd, they are so hawt. It’s like a gift to girls that there are two of ‘em,” Ginger, one of the captains, said. I hated her horrible back country accent. Most of us had some kind of southern dialect, but hers was straight out of the mountains.
    I felt sick standing there and listening to them talk about Jake and Cade as though they were livestock. My heart sank. If these girls were interested in them, there was no way I’d ever be able to keep Jake as my own. Why would he ever want me if he could have one of these gorgeous, tall, and sexy girls? How could I possibly compete with them? He’d said he loved me, but really, it was right after we had sex. Did he mean it or was he just trying to make me feel good? I had more questions than answers. My imagination ran wild. Did he love me? Maybe he loved me, but maybe I was just the girl who was there and willing to experiment with him.
    I wanted to talk to him so badly yesterday, but life in my house was in complete disarray. My parents came home in the middle of the night fighting, their couple’s retreat weekend to fix their marriage came to an abrupt end. During a counseling session, my father admitted he didn’t love my mother anymore and told her he was having an affair. In a matter of hours my world was turned upside-down. My father packed his things and left. While my mother, devastated by the news, had locked herself in the spare room. It seemed the last few years of their marriage was nothing but a lie. My father turned out to be the biggest liar I’d ever met.
    How could I leave my mom, knowing how devastated she must have felt? How could I be happy and in love when my parents’ love had fallen apart?