Shattered Rose Read Free

violated without even a touch, but I did. “You should definitely come...um?” Then he raised his eyebrows as a way to ask my name.
    I hugged myself, wishing I had something to cover my tank top. “Avery. I’ll think about it,” I said, hoping they would leave soon. I wasn’t going anywhere near that apartment.
    He winked at me one more time before I saw Danny push him along while he rolled his eyes. “See you around, Avery,” Danny called as he waved.
    I shut the door with a sigh, and then scolded myself again. I couldn’t be a recluse forever. New apartment…new me!
    I took the box to my room and collapsed in the desk chair. What a mess. I had been in such a rush to move out of the dorm that my clothes were crammed into two suitcases. I had boxes full of junk that I had no idea what to do with, and my schoolbooks were somewhere underneath it all.
    I sat there for a moment trying to conger up any excuse to procrastinate unpacking until I heard the front door unlock and laughter fill the apartment. The laugh was contagious, one that made a person want to laugh even when he or she had no idea what was funny. I peeked out of my room and saw the source. She was talking on the phone and laying on the hideous lip love seat with her head hanging over the edge. Her hair was long and dark with alternating streaks of blue and purple at the ends. She had it pulled to the side with a sparkly black hair comb and wore tight red pants with black converses and a black and white striped shirt. There are only a handful of people in the world who could pull off that look, but she was one of them and stunning in the process.
    The girl was a classic beauty…the kind artists of old would use as their muse to create stunning portraits. Her skin was like porcelain ivory, not pale, just delicate. Her eyes were set in such a way that her stare remained intense, a complete contrast to the animated style in which she moved and spoke.
    I don’t know why, but I immediately liked her, maybe because she was the total opposite of me.  I waited until she got off the phone and then knocked on the door a little so I wouldn’t startle her.
    “Hi, I’m Avery, your new roommate. Are you Kaitlyn?”  She looked at me with a mix of horror and interest as she stood up from the lips. I couldn’t help but notice her body, a habit I’d been trying to break for years. It was perfect. She was petite, but still looked very much like a woman, having curves only where it mattered.
    “I am certainly not Kaitlyn…that is a name my mother gave me. I go by Issy, which is short for Isadora, my middle name. It’s a much better description of me as I was named after my grandma who was totally cool. We were wondering when you’d get here.”
    “We?  I thought Naomi was in Portugal.”
    “Oh, she is. I’m talking about my cousin, Jake. He crashes here a lot, especially since I’ve been alone these last few weeks. He’s a little protective of me to put it mildly, but he’s fun, so I let him believe he’s got the upper hand. He has a key to the apartment, so don’t be freaked out if he just walks in.” She said all this flippantly, as if it were the most normal thing that a guy I didn’t know had a key to my apartment.
    “So,” she asked, crossing her arms. “What’s your story? Are you wild and crazy, totally annoying, or a kleptomaniac?”
    I laughed and joined her in the living room. “No, I’m afraid I’m boring, somewhat clean, very private, and not at all annoying.”
    “Fantastic! Tha n you and I will get along fine. I was worried when the University said they were giving away the room. The three of us have known each other since high school, and well, you’ve seen some of the crazies around here.”
    I had to hold in a laugh, thinking of how most people who met Issy for the first time would probably use that same descriptor.
    “Having hot roommates is kind of an essential part of the guy magnet thing,” she explained looking me up