Free Flawless by Sara Shepard Page A

of times, but that was it. She felt bad for being so oblivious. “I’m sorry.”
    A silence passed. Aria crossed and uncrossed her bare legs. The car had begun to smell like her skirt’s wet wool. “It was tough,” Sean said. “My dad went through all these girlfriends. I didn’t even like my stepmom at first. I got used to her, though.”
    Aria felt her eyes well up with tears. She didn’t want to get used to her family changing. She let out a loud sniff.
    Sean leaned forward. “You sure you can’t talk about it?”
    Aria shrugged. “It’s supposed to be a secret.”
    “Tell you what. How about if you tell me your secret, I’ll tell you mine?”
    “All right,” Aria quickly agreed. The truth was, she was dying to talk about this. She would’ve admitted it to her old friends, but they were so tight-lipped about their own A secrets, it made Aria feel even weirder about revealing hers. “But you can’t say anything.”
    “Absolutely.”
    And then Aria told him about Byron and Ella, Meredith, and what she and Mike had seen at the bar yesterday. It all just came spilling out. “I don’t know what to do,” she finished. “I feel like I’m the one who has to keep everyone together.”
    Sean was quiet, and Aria was afraid he’d stopped listening. But then he raised his head. “Your dad shouldn’t be putting you in that position.”
    “Yeah, well.” Aria glanced at Sean. If you got past his tucked-in shirt and khaki shorts, he was actually pretty cute. He had really pink lips and knobby, imperfect fingers. From the way his polo shirt fit snugly against his chest, she guessed he was in tip-top soccer boy shape. She suddenly felt incredibly self-conscious. “You’re easy to talk to,” Aria said shyly, staring at her naked knees. She’d missed a few hairs on her knees when shaving. It usually didn’t matter, but it sort of did now. “So, um, thanks.”
    “Sure.” When Sean smiled, his eyes got crinkly and warm.
    “This definitely isn’t how I imagined spending my afternoon,” Aria added. The rain was still pelting the windshield, but the car had gotten really warm while she’d been talking.
    “Me neither.” Sean looked out the window. The rain had started to subside. “But…I don’t know. It’s kind of cool, right?”
    Aria shrugged. Then she remembered. “Hey, you promised me a secret! It better be good.”
    “Well, I don’t know if it’s good .” Sean leaned toward Aria, and she scooted closer. For a crazy second, she thought they might kiss.
    “So, I’m in this thing called V Club,” Sean whispered. His breath smelled like Altoids. “Do you know what that is?”
    “I guess.” Aria tried to keep her lips from wriggling into a smirk. “It’s the no-sex-till-marriage thing, right?”
    “Right.” Sean leaned back. “So…I’m a virgin. Except…I don’t know if I want to be one anymore.”

9
    SOMEONE’S ALLOWANCE JUST GOT A WHOLE LOT SMALLER
    On Wednesday afternoon, Mr. McAdam, Spencer’s AP economics teacher, strolled up and down the aisles, peeling papers off a stack and putting them facedown on each student’s desk. He was a tall man with bulging eyes, a sloped nose, and a paunchy face. A few years ago, one of his top students had remarked that he looked like Squidward from SpongeBob SquarePants , and the name stuck. “A lot of these quizzes were very good,” he murmured.
    Spencer straightened up. She did what she always did when she wasn’t sure how she’d done on a test: She thought of the rock-bottom grade she could get, a grade that would still ensure she had an A for the class. Usually, the grade in her mind was so low—although low for Spencer was a B plus or, at the very worst, a B—that she ended up being pleasantly surprised. B plus, she told herself now, as Squidward put the test on her desk. That’s rock-bottom. Then she turned it over.
    B minus .
    Spencer dropped the paper to her desk as if it were on fire. She scanned the quiz for answers that