Free Broken (The Outsiders Series) by Jamie Loeak

later. “I can tell and don’t worry about it, Carter. I won’t tell anyone.”
    “But why not?” I ask her. “You could use it against me or something. Isn’t that what all of you girls do anyway? Conquer us guys.”
    Lane laughs but grows serious almost immediately. “Some do. But some of us are also real.”
    “Like you, I’m guessing.”
    She sits down and leans her head against my shoulder. “Me and you,” she says as she closes her eyes. “Will you stay with me?” she asks.
    “Yeah,” I answer as I lean my head back and settle in for a long night. But we just sit there and talk some more. She tells me about how her dad cheated on her mom with a girl that was only a couple years older than she was. That’s how it always happens, and I just can’t understand it.
    Mostly, I just listened. I didn’t tell her about my lies. I didn’t plan on opening up to her. No, she would forget most of this conversation in the morning, and she would go back to her normal, popular self. And I would be left with the knowledge of her imperfect past. The understanding of who she is and why.

 
     
    7
     
    Monday hits me like a brick wall, and I’m sitting in Creative Writing, trying to answer all of the questions for Vandelya. Making up answers seems to be worse than actually answering them, and Jeremy can tell that something is up with me, because he keeps looking over at what I’m doing. He doesn’t say anything, though, and I’m glad because he might get yelled at for no reason.
    When the bell rings, I head down to the library. Mr. Preston caught me in the hall after lunch. He asked me how far we had gotten, and since we were still behind, he wanted us to meet in the library again. I didn’t really think that was fair, but I dealt with it. It gives me the time to actually talk to her. Since I’ve got her alone, I’m going to try to do what Mrs. Marshall said. I’m going to find out the truth.
    “Is she here yet?” I ask Mrs. Marshall as I rush in.
    She looks up from her desk and presses her finger in front of her lips. She waits until I apologize and ask again to answer. She shakes her head. “Not yet. Why don’t you go back and wait for her. I’ll tell her that you’re here.”
    I sigh but head back there anyway. I sit at the same table we sat at and finish writing my answers. Then, I read up on what the next section is. Crap. We have to interview each other to find answers to questions we want to know about the other person. We have to choose something in common between us. We have to choose a song that defines both of us and then we have to play it for the class, along with a presentation that defines the other person. Crap. We can’t fake this stupid thing at all. But that’s what he wanted. He wanted us to discover who we are, by discovering someone new. And even though you might know someone for a long time, you find out that you really don’t know them at all.
    A second later, Vandelya puts her stuff down on the table. She doesn’t sit, though. And when I glance down at my watch, I notice that she’s thirty minutes late. “I was doing something important,” she says as she runs her fingers through her dark hair. She swallows then sits down quickly, like she’s forcing herself to.
    “You don’t have to be scared,” I say. “I won’t yell at you today.” I look up into her green eyes and notice that there are flecks of gold and brown there. And she’s got this small nose and pink lips. Her lashes are longer than most girls’ are, but she walks with her shoulders hunched over and her head down. There is something going on here.
    She nods once and it forces me to stop staring at her. She looks down then but doesn’t smile or talk to me. She doesn’t do anything.
    “I finished the questions,” I say to avoid the silence. “Do you just want to trade them?” I ask.
    She answers by handing me her answers. I glance over the paper. Her favorite color is blue. Her favorite TV show is True