Entanglement (YA Dystopian Romance) Read Free Page A

eyes met across the ring. He had a hunch Clive
would back down, and he prayed he was right because he wasn’t about to
humiliate himself and disgrace his school. He whipped off his shirt and flung
it to the sand.
    The
crowd cheered. Point for Pueblo.
    Slowly,
the corner of Clive’s pale, chapped lips tightened into a smirk. He tugged his
hoodie over his head and laid it carefully on the driftwood, then he started on
the buttons of his collared shirt, and the crowd went berserk.
    Aaron
stared at him. So they were actually going to do this.
    ***
    Clive
cheated, bolting for the water a full second before Dominic shouted, “ GO! ”
    Aaron
kicked off the sand and tore after him. He felt a deep rumble followed by a
spray of mist, and from out of the darkness, a film of foamy surf slashed
across his ankles.
    There
was no sign of a buoy, not even a line marking the horizon, just blackness.
Thankfully Clive had kept his undershirt on because all Aaron could do was
follow his bobbing white silhouette as they hurled themselves into the pounding
surf.
    Aaron
dived under a wave and icy brine flooded his nostrils. He broke out into the
open water, neck and neck with Clive. After a few minutes, he lost track of
time. Gradually every square inch of his skin went numb with cold.
    Then
Clive’s splashes stopped.
    But
there was nothing up ahead. Aaron panicked. Had he followed a rogue wave? Was
he in fact miles past the buoy, lost?
    He
tried to find the shore, but the water stung his eyes and blurred everything.
He couldn’t even see the bonfire.
    Something
moved in the darkness ahead of him, and all at once, the pungent smell of salt
and rotting fish rushed over him, filled his lungs, choked him. Right before a
wave sucked him under, he saw huge masses shifting and blotting out the stars.
He surfaced, terrified, to the sound of barking—violent, piercing barks that
echoed off the water. Aaron clutched his ears.
    There
were splashes all around him, and he was aware that something else was swimming
in the water with him—something big. He felt a thrust of cold water against his
knees as a huge creature swam past him.
    From
somewhere behind him, he heard Clive shout, “Sea lions!”
    More
barking, more splashes, and more things swimming past him. Aaron twisted to get
away from them, but the turbulence from their flippers pulled him back.
    A
moment later a white shape loomed in front of him, and he reached his arms out
just in time to stop his face from colliding with hard metal. The buoy.
    With
Clive’s help, he tipped it over so they could rest the upper halves of their
bodies. Underwater, Clive’s pocket emitted an eerie red glow, tinting the water
around them purple.
    “I
won’t drown you for talking to Amber,” said Clive, after they caught their
breath, “but do me a favor, okay? Don’t go near her again.”
    “How
about you quit treating her like dirt,” said Aaron.
    Clive
snickered. “Number eleven, you know better than to tell a man how to treat his
own half.”
    “Too
bad she’s not your half,” said Aaron. “She’s only seventeen.”
    “Yeah,
but we were both born on March thirtieth.”
    Aaron
spat into the water, cleansing the salty taste from his mouth. “Then it sounds
like we got a problem, Clive, because I also was born on March
thirtieth.”
    Clive
faced him abruptly, sinking his face into shadow so only the glint of his pale,
unblinking eyes shone in the darkness. As a passing swell tugged at Aaron’s
feet and weakened his grip on the buoy, he wondered if he could defend himself if
Clive tried to kill him right now.
    “I’m
only going to tell you this one more time,” said Clive finally. “ Don’t go near her again.”
    “Or
else what?” said Aaron.
    “Tell
me you have a smarter question.”
    “Yeah,
one. What’s in your pocket?”
    To
Aaron’s surprise, Clive actually reached into the water and pulled it out.
Aaron thought the bright object was, in fact, a glow stick, until he