Between These Lines (A Young Adult Novel) Read online

  Nothing prepared me for the loud thwack his hand made across my cheek, or the sting the second the air touched it, or how appalled, how violated, I felt as his lips roughly grazed across my skin to make up for it. My back scraped the cabinet opposite the door as he pushed me to the floor. All I heard were incoherent murmurs—how I owed him and how he needed me, and how this would make up for it all.

  By the time Shane rose to his feet and buttoned his jeans, I was shaking, caught in the in-between when shock wears off and rage fills in the gaps. I couldn’t speak, but hastily dressed myself in the cramped space behind the center island.

  My eye caught the clock, its tick the only audible sound in the house, and my pulse thrummed in tune with it—reminding me how with each passing second Shane was in control, always in control.

  He reached for his keys on top of the counter and turned toward me. “I’d put ice on that if I were you,” he motioned pitilessly toward the side of my face as I pressed my hand to it. “Stay home tomorrow if it’s still there. I don’t want to have to explain.”

  I stared at him. Everything I could possibly say melted from my brain. He walked around the island and opened the back door, then paused, “And tell that freak of a study partner of yours I’ll see him at the party.”

  Chapter Eleven

  Chase

  It was almost time for the first bell and Evie still wasn’t at her locker. I stood across the hall and waited as Tara managed alone, ignoring me as usual while she hung her jacket and gathered her books. Without Evie, Tara had an invisible force field around her that was impenetrable.

  Not that I wanted to talk to her.

  After driving home from Evie’s last night, I was wired, unable to sleep, so I tried to focus on the paper, which ended up making me think of her anyway, so that was pretty pointless. I had gone ahead and made a new timeline using the outline I already had, even though she’d said she was going to do it for us.

  I couldn’t shake the feeling that Evie had gotten preoccupied last night with Shane, and I hoped he didn’t give her a hard time for going to the library with me. My blood boiled at the very thought of him. As if it weren’t enough seeing his name on that stupid paper, he had to show up just as I walked her to the door.

  I took a deep breath and let it out slowly. I had to remind myself this was just a project and to keep my feelings guarded.

  But I couldn’t.

  And to make things worse, Shane was Evie’s boyfriend. That was the reality of the situation.

  It was a project, nothing more. So she asked me to sit by her at lunch, so what? That didn’t mean anything. So I happened to blurt out what happened to my parents in the car, feeling there was something in that moment, in that instant, to make me say what I did; to trust her.

  So what? Did it make her more significant to me than she was two days ago?

  Probably not to her.

  I forced myself to see that as I stared over at her locker.

  The timeline I held felt like a ton in my grip. Who was I kidding? I wasn’t lingering around just to give her our homework. I was wasting time here so I could see her face—so I could look into her eyes and know that something happened between us last night.

  And I realized how idiotic that really was.

  I slipped the paper into my backpack, pushed myself away from the wall and headed for homeroom. Tara was already a few yards ahead of me, her plaid skirt swinging behind her as she slowed down in front of the girls’ lavatory. My heart stammered as Evie emerged from the bathroom, and then, she looked over, as if she knew I’d be right there, watching. Her hair hung in soft waves across of her face. She gave a little smile then turned to keep up with Tara’s quick steps down the hall.

  It didn’t matter that she didn’t wait for me. Everyone would have stopped and stared—and then Shane’s friends, Alex and Max, were in front of me, blocking me from continuing on to class.

  “Chase, Chase, Chase . . . just the guy we wanted to see this morning,” Max chimed. He made no attempt to move out of my way.

  “Really? I’m so honored.”

  Alex’s arm pushed down on my neck, using the added weight of my backpack to make it incredibly uncomfortable. “Shane wants to talk to you,” Max whispered in my ear.

  I looked past Alex’s arm to see Shane and Jake against the wall, as if nothing out of the ordinary was happening, other than Shane’s cold, blue eyes boring a hole into my face.

  “Productive trip to the library last night?” he asked.

  I didn’t answer him.

  “I bet it was,” he answered for me, and held the bathroom open. He motioned for me to step inside while Jake stayed behind to keep watch.

  I stepped into the empty white and gray tiled room as the door shut heavily behind us. Shane stepped over to the sink then turned around to lean his backside against it. He stared at me for a few moments, probably enjoying the fact that my mind was swiftly whirling inside to figure out what he wanted.

  “Was it good enough to mess up my girlfriend’s face?”

  I stared back at him. “What’s wrong with Evie’s face?”

  Frantically, my mind played back this morning: Evie not at her locker, coming out of the bathroom, the way her hair hung over her face.

  I flung my backpack off my shoulders and onto the floor. “What are you saying? That I hurt her? I would never do anything like that.”

  “Wouldn’t you?” he threw back at me and eyed my defensive attitude with a sense of enjoyment. His light eyes held a dark fury behind them at the discomfort he roused in me. “She met you at the library last night and then I found you together in a dark, unlit driveway.”

  “Her face was fine when I left.”

  His accusation didn’t quite seem to fit his body language. It hit me then—how relaxed Shane was, how calculated his words sounded.

  “Thank goodness you didn’t get as far as stepping into her house. Who knows what you would have done to her?”

  A sick feeling pelted the pit of my stomach as I took in what he was really saying, and curled my fists at my sides. The late bell rang overhead. It echoed loudly, leaving behind a residual hum. A shuffle came from outside the door. Jake, and perhaps Alex and Max, had moved on to their homerooms, leaving me alone with Shane and his false accusations.

  “What did you do to her?” I reeled toward him.

  “Watch it there, Chase. I heard she walked into a wall, and if you knew her like I do, you’d know she’s a klutzy girl sometimes. Besides, no one really knows you. You hide from everyone.

  You don’t talk. Face it, Mitman, you’re a nobody around here. If you weren’t the one to hit my girlfriend, who would believe you?” His lips turned up at one corner as if he considered thinking twice about the smirk lurking behind them. “There’s a little favor I need you to do for me.”

  “I’m not doing anything for you.” I reached down for my pack and turned. This unreasonable conversation was over.

  “I wouldn’t do that if I were you,” his voice demanded behind me. “You see, you could be in a lot of trouble here. You could be expelled for beating up on a girl.”

  “I didn’t . . .” but his hand shot up and stopped my words midstream.

  Shane hopped up to sit on the counter of the sink, making himself comfortable.

  “You see, I just found out you know something about me. Something that could go very, very wrong if I don’t take care of it.”

  I wracked my brain. His words sounded ludicrous and then, it hit me. Ty Dunhammer. The library. The paper. The drugs.

  My silence and creased forehead gave him a green light, and he chuckled. “I thought you’d see it my way. You see, it’s easy to erase a name on a paper and replace it with another. It’s easy to place that paper into the hands of someone who could do a whole lot more with it if they found that paper was paid for. Are you beginning to understand me, now?”

  “What do you want, Shane?”

  “What do I want?” He took his time and played
with the water from the faucet, let it run, then turned it off. “I want you to make the delivery for me.”

  “Call Pizza Hut.”

  He looked at me and frowned. “Funny. I’m counting on Ty doing a first rate job on that term paper. If he does, I can move on to the next project I have lined up for him.”

  “Next project? Are you cheating your way through the whole year, Shane?”

  “Why, yes, yes, I am,” this seemed to amuse him. “See my work needs to be consistent. There’s no margin for error, especially when it comes to more important things like Yale, Harvard, Cornell . . .”

  “Ty’s writing your college applications for you?”

  “There’s a lot expected of me, Chase, and I don’t like to disappoint. I can’t be in two places at once—hosting a party while making an exchange. But you can.”

  “You want me to make a deal for you while you’re at Jake’s party?”

  “Uh, uh, uh. My party, and you’re catching on finally.” he waved his finger at me. “Who do you think supplies these parties? And let’s rephrase your thought. You’re making a delivery. The deal’s already been made.”

  Shane really believed he could boss anyone around this school, including me, but he wasn’t going to get me to do his dirty work for him. I watched as he hopped off the counter and took two long strides until he stood right in front of me. He was just as tall, yet he always appeared to tower over everyone when you combined his height with his ego.

  “I’m all about loyalty. I want to see how far Evie will go.”

  I gritted my teeth. “You don’t deserve her.”

  “And you think you do?” Still in my face, I half expected him to explode with the lip I was giving him, but instead, he took it, and I wondered what I could say to mark I had gone too far.

  “If you back out, I’ll tell everyone how you hurt her. You get what I’m saying? And it won’t look very good when I tell my uncle you supplied Ty to do a few papers. Oh, and I’ll even go one step further,” he continued with pleasure. “I’ll tell Evie your secret.”

  “I don’t have any secrets,” I whipped back, recalling last night’s conversation in the car.

  Shane cocked his head to the side, sizing me up. “Don’t you?” He let a few seconds tick away.

  “I know why Evie likes you so much,” he walked around me. “You’re that quiet, rebellious type, the one who avoids everyone like they’re the plague. If they only knew what you hid,

  Chase. If they only knew how much you wanted to be right where I am a few years ago, how you insisted your parents race you to my house before anyone else showed up.” He stopped in front of me, nose to nose, and waited for my reaction. “That’s how the accident happened, isn’t it? You were in such a hurry. But let’s just admit what really happened. You caused the accident, didn’t you, Chase? Because you were so desperate to be me.”

  I glared back at him.

  “Oh, sure, Evie will pity you. She’ll take you under her wing and try to nurse you back to health, because that’s the type of girl she is.”

  “She already knows about the accident.”

  This made him pause for a moment, but he still went on. “But when she sees your other secret . . .” he grabbed my collar, “the one you hide every day, you won’t be so intriguing to her anymore. You’ll disgust her.”

  Abruptly, Shane stepped away from me as if I was a living disease. The smirk was gone from his face and replaced by absolute repugnance. He pulled on the handle of the door and opened it. “Everything comes with a price, Chase, don’t forget that.”

  Chapter Twelve

  Evie

  “You can’t hide in the bathroom all day,” I told myself after slipping away from Tara for the second time this morning. For once I wished I’d taken Shane seriously and stayed home, but when I awoke this morning to find the bright purple discoloration across my cheek, I couldn’t ignore the defiant swell surging inside me, and I decided to go to school anyway. I had been growing my hair out for about a month and was sure it was long enough to hide the left side of my face.

  I hoped.

  My father had always given me advice about how to say no, how not to become a doormat, how to end a relationship when a boy goes too far. I used to roll my eyes and listen as my mother inevitably chimed her two cents in, saying how we were avoiding all that by sending me to a school that could only allow good breeding past its doors.

  The thing was, I really don’t believe Shane meant to hurt me. But every time I questioned it, even the slightest bit, my dad’s voice echoed inside my head, nagging me with his most important warning—if a guy does it once, he’s certainly going do it again. And that was becoming something I couldn’t guarantee these days.

  So that was the real reason I decided to come to school today—to stand up for myself, to stand up against Shane, and it looked like it was going to work until I stepped off the bus and felt everyone trying to figure out why I wore my hair differently. That’s when I decided to skip going to my locker and hide in the bathroom instead.

  “Took you long enough,” huffed Tara. A day without talking to each other seemed to have gone by unnoticed. She was chewing gum and finishing up a homework paper, while trying to walk, when I rejoined her in the hallway. I was glad to see she didn’t notice anything different.

  “There’s Shane and the guys, want to stop?” Tara asked as her eyes peeked over the top of her paper.

  “Not really.”

  “Are you kidding me? That’s unlike you. What happened, you and Shane get into a fight last night, or what?”

  “I don’t want to talk about it.” I kept walking. The frown on Shane’s face followed me.

  After we sat down in class, it took all of five minutes for Tara to notice my face.

  “Whoa, Eves! What’s with the shiner?”

  “Geez, keep it down,” I urged with a harsh whisper, and busied myself with organizing my homework folders.

  Tara reached over and took my chin, turning my face one way and then the other.

  “Unbelievable . . .” she whispered.

  Heads lifted. People were starting to notice. “Just forget about it, okay?”

  “You knew I was only kidding when I asked if you and Shane got into a fight, but this must have been some match.”

  It was funny to see Tara shocked. Not funny, as in “ha ha”, but more like, “I didn’t know your face could look that concerned for me”, kind of funny.

  “What are you looking at?” Tara shot out to the boy a row over from us. He immediately faced forward, his cheeks burning red.

  I chewed my bottom lip and smoothed my hair back over my cheek, knowing she could see through my efforts, and the feeling of utter misery slowly forced its way beneath my skin.

  “Look at the bright side—it’s a pretty shade of purple.”

  I shot her a look.

  “Want to explain?”

  “Do I have to?”

  “Yes, you do. So out with it,” she urged me on.

  I let out a big sigh, along with a swift glance at the neighboring desks. If anyone was listening, they were doing a good job of pretending not too. Finally, I leaned over close enough to Tara’s face until I was positively sure no one else would be able to hear me.

  “Shane did it.”

  Tara’s reaction was one of slow shock. She looked at me without saying a word for several minutes until I had to actually question myself if she’d heard me.

  “You asked,” I said softly and smoothed the front pleats of my plaid skirt.

  Finally, her voice resurfaced and she was able to shake off the alarm of my words. “Why?” she asked, shaking her head.

  “I met Chase at the library last night. Shane showed up at my house, and then after Chase left…”

  She interrupted me before I could finish.

  “Chase was in your house?”

  “No, he didn’t make it past the driveway. He was walking me to the back porch. My parents weren’t home. It was dark.�
�

  “And Shane hit you?”

  “Pretty much,” I said with a bit of reluctance. I wasn’t ready to give Tara the entire story. It was one I wanted to forget ever happened. Besides, I wasn’t too happy that today was day two of learning secrets about me.

  “Is there more to it?” Tara leaned in my direction now, realizing the gravity of the topic, and that it was of absolute secrecy right now.

  I sighed and gave her a look, hoping she would catch on without my having to go and explain it all. Somehow, I knew she would get it.

  “Evie, this is serious.”

  I played with the pencil lying on top of my folder.

  “Really serious,” she pressed. “What are you going to do?”

  “What can I do?”

  “Uh, for one thing, you can break up with the jerk.” A new Tara was beginning to show herself, and I couldn’t help but smile a little as I rolled my pencil back and forth across my desk.

  “I wish I could.”

  She shook her head like I was speaking a foreign language. I set my pencil to rest and turned in my seat to face her, leaning over, elbows on my knees.

  “If I break up with him, he’ll go after Chase. He’ll think we’re together.”

  “Uh, you’re working on a paper together, that hardly qualifies as going out.”

  “I know that. But Shane . . .” I let out a deep sigh. “Staying with him is the only way I can make sure Chase doesn’t get hurt.”

  “And you’re willing to take a few smacks to protect the dork you’re writing a paper with? Is a grade from Mr. Floyd that important?” Tara raised her eyebrows, confused at my reasoning.

  “No, the grade’s not important.”

  “Then what is?”

  Mrs. Cognetti stood at the board and I sat up straighter so she could see me. I shrugged, hoping Tara would just drop it, but I sighed to myself anyway, murmuring just beneath my breath, “I think Chase is.”

  Chapter Thirteen