Free The Illusion of Annabella by Jessica Sorensen

couldn’t handle his new, complicated life.
     
    “What a bitch,” Alexis growled when Loki told us Camila would no longer be coming around.
     
    “I’m so sorry.” Zhara gave him a big hug.
     
    Even Nikoli offered a few words. “I didn’t like her that much, anyway.”
     
    Even though I witnessed his pain, I said nothing. I felt bad for him and the old Anna would have opened her heart and tried to console him. But this Anna, the one rotting away in her life with one good leg and a bunch of lies, couldn’t figure out how to do that without falling apart, too.
     

    When the neighbor’s crying fades, I go inside, forcing myself to forget what I heard and saw. 

Chapter Six
     
    Invisible Girl
     
    Ever since the accident, whenever I wake up, I can’t remember anything I dreamt. Sometimes I wonder where my mind goes when my eyelids lower, especially because Zhara insists that I scream almost every night. Sometimes I wonder if I relive the accident or maybe I dream of perfect first kisses and dancing on stage, stuff that can’t carry a spot in my life anymore.
     
    I spend the next two days and nights lounging in bed, stirring in my own filth and dreaming of nothing. I reek of dirty sweat, my hair is matted to my forehead, and my leg hurts more than it usually does.
     
    On Tuesday, Loki forces me to get out of bed and go to school. Not bothering to take a shower, I brush my hair into a messy bun, pull on a hoodie, and go out to the kitchen where I pop two pain pills before heading to truck where the rest of the Baker clan is waiting impatiently for me.
     
    “Headed to school?” Luca appears seemingly out of nowhere. He charms me with that lopsided grin as he strolls up to the fence.
     
    My heart betrays me, missing a beat, and I glimpse from left to right, praying he’s talking to someone else, but no one else is around.
     
    “Um, yeah.” I sling the strap of my backpack over my shoulder. “Aren’t you?”
     
    He glances down at the plaid pajama bottoms and faded grey t-shirt he’s wearing. “Since there’s only, like, a week left until Christmas break, my mom’s letting me start in January.”
     
    “Lucky you. I’d kill to be able to sit around in my pajamas all day.”
     
    “It has its downfalls.”
     
    “Like what?”
     
    A flirty smile rises on his lips and I immediately fear where the conversation is going. “Like it’s making me a slob. I mean, look at me. A few days of freedom from school, and I’ve already gotten so lazy that I’m standing here talking to a pretty girl in my pajamas.”
     
    I miss a beat and end up standing there, staring at him like an idiot. But no one, not even Miller, has called me pretty before. And how I look now, dressed in wrinkled clothes with smudged makeup on, and messy hair, there’s no way Luca could think I look pretty.
     
    He has to be lying. I’m not the kind of girl someone thinks is pretty.
     
    Unable to find my voice, I turn to bolt for the truck.
     
    “Hey, Anna,” he says before I can make my escape.
     
    I pause, my adrenaline racing. “Yeah?”
     
    “I was being serious yesterday.” Nervousness edges his voice. “It’d be cool if you could show me around town.”
     
    I glance back at him, my gaze sweeping up and down his body. I try to convince myself that I’m not checking him out, that I’m just reading his vibe. That’s all. But I’ve become such a liar that I even lie to myself now.
     
    “I can’t right now . . . I’m grounded.”
     
    His eyes sparkle with interest as he rests his arms on top of the fence. “What’d you do?”
     
    “Something terrible,” I say evasively. “Look, Luca, you seem nice. But you don’t want to be friends with me.” And I can’t be friends with you. Like Cece, you remind me too much of the past with your lopsided smiles that turn me into that dreamy girl.
     
    “You must be really unperceptive,” he teases. “Because that’s exactly what I want to do.”
     
    “You