Free Cursed Love by Lanie Jordan Page B

wasn’t exactly the most clued-in person
when it came to the universe.
    If there’d been walls around me, I swear they
would have started to close in. My breaths were quicker and
quicker; my heart pounded in my chest harder and harder. Breathe, Amelia. I was not going to mess this up. I was
not—oh, God, I was so screwed! Deep down I really didn’t want to
help him, so what if I missed something important? What if it was
one of those good-intentions/selfless-acts types of things? My
intentions might’ve been good (mostly), but they were far from
selfless.
    I ran my hands through my hair and gave a
quick tug. I could do this. I was the bigger person than Jerk
Aaron. Wasn’t I?
    Slowly, I started for the door. I could do
this, I chanted in my head. I got closer and closer. I couldn’t
even hear my own breathing now through the buzzing in my ears. I
was two feet from the door and then I passed it entirely. My feet
carried me halfway down the block before I called myself out on
being a coward and turned around.
    When I reached the door this time, I
straightened my shoulders, prayed the sea of nausea in my stomach
would stay at bay, and went inside. The sounds hit me first. Clinks
and clanks of arcade games, thunderous roars of bowling balls
slamming into pins, laughs and whoops from the people. Over the
speakers, music blasted at a near-deafening volume. The scent of
nachos teased me. My fingers itched to pick up a ball, to send it
flying down the lane. I loved bowling. I just hadn’t done it in
weeks…because of him. Of Aaron. This was where we had our first
date.
    Where we were supposed to be having a date.
Right now.
    A sharp pang stabbed my heart and each thud
was like a hammer against my chest. How had things gotten so messed
up? Before we started dating—and even during—I used to think of him
as Heart Stopper; I’d see his smile and my heart would give one
solid thump and then poof, stop.
    Now that we weren’t together, my heart still
had a tendency to stop whenever I saw him, but then it quickly
broke. Heart Breaker would be more accurate now, I thought
bitterly.
    I barely made it another ten feet before his
gaze landed on me. The coils around my heart tightened until my
breath hitched. Our eyes met and I had to force myself not to look
away, though I wanted to do just that, or maybe run. Call this
whole Evol/anti-cupid thing off, say screw it to love, and go
home.
    Something like regret crossed his face but it
faded quickly. What did he regret? Cheating on me or getting
caught? Probably the latter, I guessed, and used the anger to push
down the hurt.
    When he turned to his friends and said
something, then turned towards me, my hands automatically curled
into tight fists until I could feel the blood draining from them.
What I wouldn’t have loved more than to knock his lights out
for—
    Movement from out of the corner of my eye
caught my attention and ripped a groan from my throat. The Evol was
on the move. I glanced at it, and then back to Aaron.
    The immediately problem was getting them away
from each other. Somehow, I didn’t think trying to persuade the
demon to follow me would work. That was assuming it could talk or
understand me, anyway. Those points weren’t that clear to me, and I
wasn’t sure I wanted to think about it all that much. So, that left
only one option: taking Aaron away from the Evol. Which would
probably involve talking to him.
    I let out a ragged sigh, took a step forward,
and then promptly balked. Maybe it would doom us both to life
without love, but I could not do this. When I turned to retreat, I
heard, “Amelia, wait,” and barely stopped myself from fleeing like
a thief in the night. Maybe the thought was a little cliché, but
they were clichés for a reason, weren’t they? I could be wrong
about whose voice it was, I tried convincing myself. Too bad I
knew in my gut that I wasn’t.
    I rolled my eyes skyward and silently
questioned (again) why I was being tortured.
    No