Free A Demon's Kiss (Young Adult Romance) by Melanie Marks

it Dillon McPherson?”
    Dillon McPherson is dork. Of course Summer would think it was him. Who else would like me, right?
    I shook my head, trying not to be offended. Summer was Summer. “It’s not Dillon. And the guy’s not shy. He’s cute and popular and—”
    “Good at pool,” Izzie added.
    “Anyway,” I said miserably, “I don’t want to go.”
    Summer didn’t seem too concerned. She’s one of the “beautiful” people—like Chloe and Addison. She has no clue what it’s like to be self-conscious.
    “Maybe you’ll surprise yourself and have a good time,” Summer said, primping in the mirror. “And maybe you’ll find there’s more guys in the world than just Gage Michaels.”
    Izzie bit her lip, saying nothing, but I got the feeling she was thinking the same thing. It made me feel picked on and sort of grumpy. But so did the whole blackmail thing. Why was this happening to me?

 
     
     
    CHAPTER 9
     
     
    Today in third period Mrs. Woodland was doing something weird. “Experimental.” She does junk like that all of the time. Today she was going around the room, asking each of us these embarrassingly personal questions she pulled from a box, questions we had to answer. Aloud.
    “I want you to answer them honestly,” she said. “So take your time. Really think about your answers.”
    Mrs. Woodland pulled out the first question, assigning it to Sara, since Sara sat at the front of the class. It made me glad I was sort of toward the back.
    Mrs. Woodland read, “If you were the president of the United States, what policy, big or small, would you change?”
    I slunk down in my seat only half-listening, thinking maybe I should ask to go to the nurse’s office or something. This kind of stuff made me sort of sick, and just thinking about answering personal questions in front of the whole class made me want to barf. Only, in order to go to the nurse’s office I’d need to raise my hand. And I don’t do that. Couldn’t do that.
    When it was my turn to answer a question, I slumped down, trying to be invisible. “Michaela,” Mrs. Woodland said, “If you could be anyone in the world, who would you be?”
    I answered with the first person that came to my mind: “Sinister Gates.” I felt dumb now though, because everyone was looking at me like, “Who?” So, turning red, I babbled that he’s this awesome guitar player, and that I was working on a song of his, and that it was giving me a lot of trouble. I rambled on and on and through my whole, big, involved explanation I kept wishing I’d just said Megan Fox.
    When it was Gage’s turn, he was reading a magazine. I don’t think he had a clue what was going on. Mrs. Woodland asked him, “Gage, who is the most important person in your life?”
    Gage looked up at me, straight into my eyes. He answered, “Michaela Tolley.” Then he went back to reading his magazine.
    I sat ridged in my seat, shocked. Everyone else seemed shocked too. They made shocked noises, like ooooh and awww. You know, shocked noises.
    Izzie gave me her right-on-girl smile and I rolled my eyes. But inside, my heart was thumping out of control. Why was he doing this to me?
    “Michaela?” Mrs. Woodland sounded pleasantly surprised. “Well …”
    Just then the bell rang. Mrs. Woodland didn’t get to go on with her sentence, thank goodness. It saved me from further torment. But as it was, my heart stopped beating. Just stopped, frozen. Then it got a jump-start, and took off, thumping spastic and wild. I hurried out of class, ignoring everyone’s continuing oohs and awws.
    At lunch Addison stormed over to my locker. “Hope you didn’t take Gage seriously this morning,” she said.
    I eyed her, like I didn’t take her seriously. It was sort of funny that she was here all outraged. Obviously she took it seriously.
    Geez, word traveled fast at our school. Addison wasn’t even in our third period class. Gage’s answer obviously made the rounds in record speed.
    “He just