Shattered: A Salvation Society Novel Bella Emy (best ebook reader for laptop .TXT) 📖

should have texted him when Lexi gave me his number. But would that have made any difference? The Sarahs and Cynthias of this school would have crowded around him like zombies in The Walking Dead, waiting to feast on their next meal.

“Girl, are you even focused? You have missed that same step for the past five times we’ve been going over this routine,” Erin states. We’re in her basement, practicing our routine for this Friday’s pep rally. I need to learn these moves or I’m going to look like a damn fool out on the gym floor. That’s the last thing I need to do in front of everyone.

I turn around on my heels and pace back and forth. Finally taking a seat at the table, I say, “I’m sorry, Er. My mind’s not all there. I see the moves in my head now as I’m thinking about it, so I know what I’m supposed to do, but my mind keeps wandering when it’s actually time to do them.”

She shakes her head. “Woman, you’ve got it bad for this guy.”

“No… no, I don’t. And hey, who said anything about it being over a guy?” I take a swig from my water bottle and quench my thirst.

She gives me a smug grin. “Right, well, um, I’ll just ignore your question, but hell yes, you do have it bad. It’s like every time we’re talking about something or doing something important; your mind is on him.”

“How do you even know who I’m thinking about?” I push. She may have figured out this is all over a guy, but who’s to say it’s Kalen?

Erin throws her arms up in exasperation. “Girl, I’m not your best friend for no reason. I know it’s Kalen you’re crushing on. Hard. What’s so wrong with that?” She pulls out a chair opposite from me and takes a sip of her own bottle.

“Erin! Are you down here?” her pops says, racing down the stairs like a herd of cattle.

“Yeah, Dad. I’m down here with Lex,” she answers. “What’s going on?”

Mr. Cole’s expression is blank and he only barely smiles at me when he sees me for a second. Something else is on his mind.

“Have you seen Kennedy at all today? It’s about to be seven o’clock, and she was supposed to get here around four… she’s not answering her phone,” he says.

Erin and I exchange a look. Then she responds, “No, Dad. I haven’t seen her much. Only a few seconds in the halls during school, but that’s about it.”

“Hmmm,” he says, leaning against the banister as he reaches the bottom of the stairs. “All right, well see if you can get through to her. Maybe she’ll answer your calls. She’s ignoring your mother and me again, and I’m worried about her.”

“Already it on it, Dad,” Erin says, pulling out her phone.

He smiles softly at her. “Thanks, sweetheart. I’ll be upstairs helping Mom wrap up dinner. You will be staying for it, won’t you, Alexa?”

I nod. “Yes, Mr. Cole. I’ll stay.”

He smiles at me, his kind, gentle eyes shining through. “Great. I’ll call you girls up when it’s ready. Give or take ten minutes or so.”

“Okay, Dad,” Erin answers as her father makes his way back up the stairs.

I pull out my phone and check Facebook and Instagram quickly to see when the last time Kennedy posted was. But she hasn’t posted anything all day.

“Dammit, she’s at it again,” Erin says, typing frantically on her phone.

I place mine on the table. “She replied to you?”

She shakes her head and then puts her phone on top of the table as well. “Fuck, no. I’d probably be one of the last people she’d talk to right now. She’s convinced I’d rat her out.”

“You would,” I chuckle.

Now she laughs, too. “Probably, but only because she’s messing with the wrong crowd.”

“She’s with Tisha again?” I ask.

Erin nods. “Yup, you guessed it.”

“How’d you find out?”

“I have some people following her. She’s on her way back right now, but she went to Tisha’s after school with Piper and Heather.”

Piper Lawrence and Heather Meyes? Both of those girls were bad news and Tisha’s best friends. Why in the world Kennedy was set on spending her time with them really got me.

“What the hell is she doing with them?” I ask.

Erin shrugs. “Who the hell knows? Smoking? Drinking? Messing with much older guys… the list goes on.”

She’s right. That’s what those girls are known for. I honestly don’t know what’s gotten into Kennedy this year. I get it’s her freshman year, and she’s trying to find her way in with the popular kids, but I don’t think this is the way to do it.

And just then, the back door opens and in stumbles Kennedy.

“Well, look who just showed up,” Erin says, looking away from Kennedy and taking a sip of her drink.

“Shut up… did Mom or Dad ask you where I was?” she throws her backpack on one of the couches and takes a seat in between us.

Erin scoffs. “Duh… didn’t you get anyone’s calls or texts?”

Kennedy shrugs. “I purposely put my phone on airplane mode so I wouldn’t be disturbed.”

Erin’s eyes widen. “Airplane mode? So you wouldn’t be disturbed? Kennedy, what the hell are you thinking? Or I’m sorry, I’m sorry… maybe you weren’t thinking. Dammit, Ken… why are you acting this way, hanging out with a bunch of girls who are only looking for trouble?”

Kennedy glares at her older sister and then rises from her seat. She slams her hands on the table. “Hey! You’re not my mother, okay? Stop trying to act like you can tell me what to do, and how the fuck do you even know who I was with? It’s none of your business who—”

“That’s enough, young lady,” Mr. Cole roars from the steps. In all her rage and fit to talk down to her sister, she failed to realize her father was rushing down the stairs. Mrs. Cole walks softly behind him.

The shocked expression on Kennedy’s face shows she