Pieces of Me Read Free Page A

again. I'm not sure my ego could handle it.”
              He mocks a heartbroken expression, but all I can do is stare blankly at him.
              Olivia takes it upon herself to speak up just then. “Her name is Aria.”
              “Thank you,” he says earnestly like he has been waiting his whole life to know my name—which is dumb since he called out my name during roll call just over an hour ago. He's obviously completely aware of my name and is just playing some sort of game. I'm not in the mood for stupid games so I roll my eyes.  He turns back to me. “So Aria, where are you from?”
              I briefly consider attempting the “face” a la Jenna Marbles but at the last minute decide against it—I want to blend in, not stand out like a freak. So I opt to just stare indifferently at him instead.
              Unfortunately he appears immune to my rudeness because he patiently meets my stare waiting for me to crack and give into his so-called charms.
              Finally I give up. “A small town in the middle of Kansas.” I'm being vague on purpose. I don't know this guy, I don't need to be giving him any personal information about myself.
              “A Midwest girl. Don't tell me you are a farmer's daughter.”
              “Guilty as charged. Let me guess, you were born and raised on the East Coast?” I guess, purposely trying to infuse my tone with disdain. Apparently ignoring and glaring at him weren't going to get him to leave me alone—maybe I need to go all out bitch-mode on this guy.
              “No, well, you're half right. I was actually born in the Midwest myself.”
              “No way.” I'm surprised at first but I guess it's not an uncommon goal for Midwest kids to want to escape the country life. Just about everyone I went to school with at some point said they wanted to move somewhere else, to see and experience new things. I'm just not sure how many of them actually did it. I haven't talked to anyone from high school in a while now. Even though I lived at home for the past year, I didn't exactly leave my house. Ever. I realize how pathetic that makes me—hence the moving away and trying to start fresh. 
              “True story. Kansas City.”
              My stomach clenches and I swallow back the bile slowly rising into my throat. He's looking at me again, like I'm the only one in the room. It's unsettling.
              “What brought you out here?” Olivia asks Holden, a flirting lilt to her voice. She even bats her eyelashes. Why do girls do that? Is it supposed to be attractive? Because it usually just looks like they have something in their eyes.
              “My mom grew up here,” he says with a shrug but doesn't offer up any other information, his eyes never leaving my face.
              A different guy approaches our table. He's not as tall as Holden, with short dark hair and equally dark eyes. “Hey Holden, do you have a—” The new guy stops as he spots Olivia. “Who are your friends?”
              “This is, uh, Olivia right?” Holden finally tears his eyes away from me, but only briefly. “And this is Aria.”              “Freshman?”
              “Obviously,” Olivia answers.
              “I'm Beckett, but everyone calls me Beck.”
              Olivia smiles coyly. “Nice to meet you, Beck.”
              He smiles back triumphantly like he just won some sort of prize before turning back to Holden. “Hey, do you have any extra copies of the afternoon agenda?”
              “Yeah, hold on a sec and I'll grab you one,” Holden says.
              “See you ladies later.” Beck grins