Free Touch by Jennifer Snyder Page A

his 4Runner with his palm.
    I cracked a grin, but it faded as guilt swelled within my chest. I shouldn’t be smiling, not when my life was about to be stamped with a horrible memory of something I was powerless to stop.
    “ Jet Mathews, we repeat, come out with your hands up!” Wade demanded.
    “ What’s up, guys?” I asked, leaning my elbows against the sill of my opened window.
    “ We’re here to rescue you!” Wade yelled.
    “ Rescue me from what?”
    “ Your horrible spring break!” Travis answered.

    Three hours later I sat with Trav and Wade around a campfire, roasting a hot dog on a stick. Celeste was still the only thing on my mind and it was killing me that I’d agreed to camping with the guys by the river—a place which had absolutely no cell service. All I wanted to do was send her a text asking if she was all right. On the ride to our campsite, I’d counted down till two o’clock on my cell. Forty minutes later, I felt like a little part of me had died.
    “ Drink up,” Wade said, tossing me an ice cold Bud Light from inside the cooler he’d been using as a stool.
    “ Where did you get those?” I asked, setting it to the side until I finished cooking my hot dog.
    “ Trav’s sister has the hots for me, haven’t you heard?” Wade grinned.
    “ Yeah right, in your dreams maybe,” Travis said, punching Wade in the arm. He hated it when we joked about how incredibly hot his older sister, Amber, was—especially Wade.
    “ I talked Amber into buying them for me this morning,” Trav said.
    I slid my hot dog into a bun and squirted it with ketchup and mustard before popping the top on my beer. Its frothy goodness slid down my throat with ease and was gone before I’d even finished eating my hot dog.

    By the time I’d downed my sixth beer and fumbled through the cooler for my seventh, darkness had fallen and more people from school had made their way to our campsite. The guys’ night out camping excuse we’d all given to our parents had turned into a full-on party by the river.

    Two hours later, I returned to my chair, eyes hooded with sleep and completely plastered.
    “ You all right, man?” Wade asked, flopping himself into the chair beside me.
    “ Yeah, just tired,” I slurred before closing my eyes, finally succumbing to my sleep-deprived body and the alcohol tainting my blood.
    I woke to the feeling of being carried and the grumbles of someone struggling under my weight.
    “ What the hell?” I heard Wade yell from somewhere to my left, just before hearing a loud splash.
    I struggled to break free of the vise-like grip squeezing me tightly, but failed.
    “ No sleeping allowed!” A husky voice grunted in my ear before I was flung into the river.
    Cool water soaked through my clothes as I plummeted into its rippling darkness. I gasped for air and started swimming back toward the edge of the river. Wade’s foul mouth filled my ears. He must have already pulled himself from the river and was confronting whoever had chucked us into it. I rushed up the bank to help, eager to take out my pent-up aggression on someone deserving.
    As I reached Wade, I saw him swing with all his might and miss, nearly falling forward. It was then I realized who he was attempting to fight—Jared and Benny, two guys who’d graduated last year. I’d never hung out with either of them personally, but rumor had it these two were into hardcore drugs and went looking for fights. Which they were obviously built for, because even in the dark I could see their bulging biceps.
    I stood, dripping with water, wondering who’d invited them when Wade got hit with a blow that could very well have knocked out his front teeth before he went spiraling to the ground.
    Before I could blink, Jared was on me, alternating pounds to the side of my face with his fist and a piece of drift wood he’d picked up. I managed to graze his jaw twice, but never came close to a solid hit. At some point during my beating, drunk bystanders