Free Elly & Kent - The Complete Story: Includes Books 1-3 by Marie Cole Page B

throw up?" I reached out and turned the heat all the way up.
    There was a pause as she rubbed her each fingernail on her left hand. "No."
    "Is this because of Jen?"
    Another pause as she did the same to her right hand. "No."
    I didn't believe her but I didn't have time to argue with her right now. Jen was waiting on me. I pulled away from the curb and headed for her house. "So I think Jen and I are an item. Or maybe we're just going on one date tomorrow. I'm not sure but either way I wanted you to hear it from me first."
    "Oh. That's great."  
    She didn't make it sound like it was great, her voice was flat and severely lacking enthusiasm. Soon we were parked in front of her house. I grabbed onto her arm when she tried to leave and didn't start talking until she was looking at me.
    "What's wrong, Elly?"
    She tried to yank her arm away but I held tight. Something was eating at her and I wanted to know what it was. I had to know.
    "Nothing."
    The deadly girl answer. It was something. Something big. But I had no idea what it could be other than Jen.
    "I'm sorry she busted in on our party."
    "Are you? I don't think you are. It doesn't matter. I have to go and you have to get back to her. Your girlfriend or whatever."
    There was bitterness but I didn't understand why. "Are you mad because you don't like her?"
    She stared at me, her eyes welling with tears. Shit. Not my intention. What the hell was going on?  
    "Elly, don't cry."  
    My mistake was in letting go of her arm because as soon as I did she ran away. I moved to get out of my car but when her mom came to stand in the doorway and waved at me I simply waved back. I could talk to her about it tomorrow. We wouldn't get anywhere tonight anyway. And I had a guest at home.

Chapter Ten

    KENT
    It had been three weeks since I'd asked Jen to be my girlfriend. I wasn't even quite sure why she even acted as she did towards me. She was gorgeous, I was the kid getting paper balls thrown at his head in class. And something had happened after she'd started hanging around me. The paper balls stopped coming, the snide comments only happened when she wasn't near me. Aside from that, she was funny, and smart, and lots of fun to be around.
    "So daddy said we could take the Jag out this weekend. Where do you want to go?" Jen always smelled so good and today was no exception as she held onto my arm as we walked down the hallway together, people actually moving out of the way for us to get through. The scary part was that I was starting to get used to it.
    I blinked as I processed the words she'd said. I guess I was in my own la-la land. "Uh, I'm not sure. Where do you want to go?"
    "Well...," she waved as a group of her fellow cheerleaders passed us and then resumed, "I was thinking we could sneak some of daddy's finest whiskey and find a little place to enjoy some. Alone." She emphasized the last word and I realized she meant that she didn't want Elly coming along. She never did.
    I frowned. Why didn't Jen like Elly that much? I just couldn't grasp that. For that matter I hadn't hung out with Elly alone in a while now. "Well..." As if she knew I was on the verge of declining she upped the ante.
    "Fine. I wanted it to be a surprise but you know just how to get things out of me. I got us two tickets to ComicCon this weekend." She looked up at me with a huge, beaming grin.
    All I could do was blink. "You what?" Again my brain was chugging along like an overweight train up a hill. "You got us two tickets to ComicCon. As in the large gathering of nerds who tend to dress up as their favorite heroes and nerd out all weekend?"
    She nodded emphatically, still beaming. "Yes! Aren't you excited?!"
    I stopped there in the hall with her. I always felt self-conscious around her. She was so pretty and I was well... not. Before I could control myself I leaned forward and kissed her.
    Kissing her wasn't strange or new, we'd been making out in my bedroom and hers for a few weeks, but in public it was unheard