Whose Bride Is She Anyway Read Free

door finally gave way with a deafening creak as Tara fell into it and collapsed on the floor, sobbing. Soothing hands helped her up and guided her to the gym teacher’s office, covering her naked body with towels.
    Tara couldn’t remember much after that but her swollen hands and the clucking concern of her mother as she drove her home and tucked her into her bed. She only remembered staring at her ceiling and praying for death. Her mother assured her only angst riddled teens did that and this too would pass…
    She never told a soul who pushed her out of that locker door, because telling would make her not only a bigger geek, but a snitch too. Nor did she give it up when the video tape of her degradation was played at graduation rehearsal. If she thought she’d suffered before the locker room incident, she could never ha ve fully prepared for that video tape to be shown to the whole senior class of Evanston High. She’d forgotten about the video camera in the hall used to monitor any hanky panky between locker rooms. The remainder of her senior days were spent with her head hung low, zipping in and out of classes as fast as she could, repeating the words over and over in her head as she was taunted endlessly.
It doesn’t matter, I’ll never have to see them again in six months … four months … three…
    Thankfully, no mention was made in the yearbook via strict instructions from Principal Clark, but the few who dared labeled it covertly as the “moo incident ” in their class memories under their photos.
    There were no dates, no size-four jeans, only Tara, her books and her wish to see Kelsey Little vanish from the face of her planet.
    Or at the very least be really uncomfortable.
    But she vowed that one day she’d exact some skinny revenge on Kelsey Little. Someday she’d show her what Tara Douglas was all about. She’d be successful and more importantly, thin. She’d walk right up to Kelsey and say, “How do you like me now?”
    She’d show Kelsey…
    Senior class bitch, cheerleader from hell and homecoming queen of Evanston High.

Chapter One
    Do I look fat in this?
    “W hose Bride Is She Anyway? ”
    Hell’s bells, Tara couldn’t believe she’d made it this far in the auditions for, of all things, the reality television show her old high school nemesis was the star of. Here she was in California, sitting in a crowded reception area after twelve rounds of interviews, smiling until her lips stuck to her teeth to get on the most popular reality show this side of planet earth. This was
it.
The last interview—the big showdown for the top spot as jury foreman on “Whose Bride Is She Anyway? ”
    She took a deep breath and watched as people came and went from the ominous mahogany door labeled “Producer”. As in the man who would call all the shots and held the key to Tara successfully pulling off the payback of the century.
    A woman to her left whispered something about the “contestants”, making Tara turn to see if they too were stuffed in that office, but she hadn’t seen too many hunks come out.
    Water, she needed water. Her throat was dry and scratchy and she’d been at this interview crap all damn day.
    Tara clung to the number in her hand. It labeled her as potential jury member number two-twenty-three and it held her place in line. They were only on interview two-hundred or so … it was going to be a long wait with each interview at fifteen minutes apiece, so she could afford the time to go find some water. She clung to her number as she went in search of a water fountain.
    Slipping out the door, she headed down the hall and saw a man bent over at the waist drinking from a fountain in long gulps.
    Tight buns in faded blue jeans—damn, they got hotter and tighter as she closed the gap between herself and the fountain. Lord, that was the last thing she should be thinking of at a moment like this. Every bun from here to Beverly Hills was tight. So what?
    Tara cleared her throat and a head