Page 6 of Dare To Break

I can’t lose focus on my goals. I need straight-A grades, then I can apply for a fashion internship. If I can get my designs seen, I might have a chance to become a famous designer. I’m not foolish enough to think it’s all going to fall into my lap, but I cling to my dreams as tightly as I can. Arabella Gray will make a name for herself. I’m not going to turn out like my mother. No way in hell.

Amanda scrunches up her nose. “I wish I was as focused as you. I still don’t know what I want to do with my life.”

“I’ve been designing clothes since I was six.” I tuck a loose tendril of hair behind my ear and scan the rest of my half-packed-up life around me. “The second you know what you want to do as a career, it will click.”

I move back to the bookcase, while she grabs another handful of design books.

“What about your new stepbrother?”

Placing my sketchbooks into one of the boxes, I lay my pencils and pens on top. “What about him?”

“Are you going to try and be friends?”

I grimace, recalling the look in Eli’s eyes when we were introduced in the kitchen. “I’m pretty sure he hated me on sight.”

Her brown eyes fill with sympathy. “He’s probably just as shocked as you are that your parents got married.”

“Elena wants me to play happy families. As long as it means she leaves me alone, I’m willing to give it a try when we’re all together.”

“You’re going to the same school.”

“Which is big enough for us to keep out of each other’s way.” I wrap my arms around my waist, and hug myself tight, trying to ward off a sense of foreboding. “Let’s be realistic. How long is the marriage going to last before Elliot realizes he’s made an epic mistake? I give it six months at the most.”

She rounds the bed and tugs me into her arms. “You know there’s always room at my place if you want to run away.”

“Thanks, Amanda.”

“I mean it. I love you.” She squeezes me tighter.

I wiggle my arms free to hug her back. “I promise if I bolt, you’ll be the first person to hear about it. Mrs. Goldmann will be second. She said she’s so upset we’re leaving that she wants to adopt me.”

The old woman who lives next door has been there for me my entire life. She was the one who put Band-Aids on my scrapes and cuts when I was growing up. She’s been more of a mother to me than Elena ever has.

She taught me how to ride a bike and feed myself while my mother was off with a boyfriend. Mrs. Goldmann is the best goddamn babysitter in the world. And I wish she was my mom instead of the one fate stuck me with.

“She only wants you for your baking skills,” Amanda jokes.

My laugh comes out as an unhappy sob. “I’ll pay my way in cookies.”

The future looms in front of me, unknown and scary. How bad can Churchill Bradley Academy be? If I stay under the radar and away from drama, once I graduate I will be able to make my own decisions.

Chapter 4

Eli

I lounge on my bed, knees bent, and my sketchbook propped against my legs, putting the finishing touches on the image I’ve created. My pencil moves rapidly across the paper, adding shading here, a harder line there as I soften the jaw and thicken the eyelashes.

Once I’m happy with it, I put the pencil between my lips and stare at the finished piece. Maybe it needs a little more blood. I tap the pencil against my teeth, pick up another red-colored one, and add a few red dots smearing the wooden cross the female demon is nailed to.

Better, but still not quite right.

A few more strokes and her face changes, becoming my new stepsister. I smirk. The platinum princess has no idea what she’s walking into.

My cell chimes, and I toss the sketchbook onto the floor and reach for it.

Kellan: I’m back at CBA tomorrow. When are you coming?

Kellan is the only person I count as a friend. We started at Churchill Bradley Academy together and were assigned the same dorm room. He’s my polar opposite. Funny, extroverted, loud. On paper we shouldn’t be friends, but over the years, we’ve developed a weird friendship that consists mostly of us mocking everyone else in our classes and scaring the popular kids.

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