Page 42 of Broken

Katrina didn’t care.

She didn’t care that she was getting stares that day, chalking it up to the smile on her face that simply wouldn’t fade.

Not even when Emily Torrence stood next to her locker, frowning, her arms crossed in front of her. “So, I heard you lost your V card by the stables, near the horse shit. Romantic.”

Only then did her smile fade. “No, I did not. And it’s beautiful by the stables. He just wanted to see me beneath the stars.”

“Oh, I bet he did.”

“And where did you hear this anyway?” Katrina grabbed the books she needed and shifted, the weight of Lorenzo’s leather jacket on her making it awkward.

“Around.”

“You heard wrong.”

“I hear a lot around that house.” Emily leaned in. “Trust me, there’s a lot to hear.”

***

Katrina’s heart beatwildly in her chest.

Lorenzo hadn’t told her a thing, and Emily was already claiming he’d lied.

Hell, she’d forgotten all about that exchange, down to when she’d asked Lorenzo about it and he’d laughed. She hadn’t read anything into it; she’d simply taken it to mean that Emily was full of shit.

Her hands were shaking slightly as she typed out her reply.

Let’s hear your side, then.

As if she’d heard Lorenzo’s already.

She didn’t wait for the reply before she shoved her phone back into her bag, perhaps a bit too forcefully.

Enough for Lorenzo to notice.

“You okay?” he asked her.

“Fine.” She shrugged and crossed her arms in front of her. “And I haven’t heard from Martin. I imagine he’s busy buying your phone.”

“Yeah.”

“Justin, are you going to stay?” she asked.

“Yeah.”

“Okay, then...then I’m going to get going.” She picked up her bag, unwilling to look back in Lorenzo’s direction.

“Trina,”

“I’ll be back tomorrow,” she called out to him, and hurried her way out of his room and down the hall.

She’d no sooner gotten to the parking lot when her phone began to ring.

“Emily,” she muttered, then she pulled her phone out of her bag. “Hello?”

“Is this Trina?”

It was not Emily; it was Martin, who was calling from an unknown number. “Yes, this is she.”

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