Read Breakable for Free Online Page B

make sense otherwise. What point is there to knowing your future if
your future self won’t tell you–”
    “I’M
HERE TO HELP YOU DO IT BETTER!” she screamed.
    I
gaped. She’d shocked me out of my rant. I’d never seen her yell before.
    We
were both silent. She stood at the mirror’s surface, breathing so fast her
shoulders heaved.
    “You
don’t get it, Stacy. You just don’t. And you won’t until you’re on this side of
this stupid glass.” She flicked her finger at the mirror and her image rippled
again. I swallowed hard.
    “I
don’t think–”
    “Would
you just listen, for once? Please!” She closed her eyes. When she spoke again,
her voice was softer. “Somehow…somehow I’m here. God, or whoever, put me here
with you. You’re not crazy. And neither am I. And even if you don’t feel like
it, I am helping. It’s my job to help you avoid the mistakes I made. Everything
I tell you, or don’t tell you, is intended to help you make better decisions
than I did when I was your age.” She stopped, biting her lip. “When you’re in
my shoes, you can make different choices if you want. But I’m here, and I’m
doing the best I can.”
    I
hated those reminders that she’d once been in my shoes, on this side of the
mirror. I only knew it from a couple slips she’d made over the years. If she
was reluctant to talk about my future, she flatly refused to talk about her own
past. Honestly, it wasn’t something I wanted to hear much about. I’d hate being
her – knowing what was coming and having to talk to someone about it. But I
knew if I was ever on that side of the mirror, I’d tell my younger self
everything. Warn them about everything .
    Her
eyes lifted to meet mine. But before either of us could say anything else, she
hissed a curse and whirled. When she turned back, her face had paled.
    “I
shouldn’t have yelled,” she whispered, her hands closing to fists. “He heard
me.” Her voice caught.
    “Tom?”
Her husband.
    She
nodded. “I’m sorry, Stacy. We’re going to have to finish this later.”
    “But
we haven’t even talked about Mark and…”
    But
there was no point saying anymore. I’d be speaking to thin air.
    I
blinked once, twice. Then bit my lip. She was gone.
    Mark
was gone too, in a way. Everything was changing.
    In
fact, right then it felt like the only constant in my life was Finn and his
sycophants, always waiting, ready to pounce.
    Inside
I was glass in a vice, the edges cracking under the pressure.
    Mark,
hunched on his bed, hands in his hair.
    He
needs me.
     Mark,
rising out of the car, curling his arms around Karyn.
    The
space behind my ribs that should have felt full of my heart, thumping as it
was, threatened to splinter and fall away.
    My
hands shook again. It got harder to breathe.
    Panic.
    I
couldn’t be in that room a second longer.
    I
flipped the lock back and rolled the door open. I needed air. I needed space. I
needed to be away from this place.
    I
saw it in my head then, what it would be like now Mark was with her. How he’d
spend more and more time with her – even at school. How he’d lean down so she
could whisper in his ear, and they’d laugh. How I’d never know for sure if they
were laughing at me.
    How
she’d fill his eyes and his hands, so he’d never question her. Never have time
to think about anything but her perfect, silver beauty.
    Oh,
gawd, I had to get out of there.
    I
stumbled down the hallway, heedless of my heels on the linoleum, uncaring if
anyone came to investigate the strange hitching sounds coming from my aching
chest.
    I
shoved through the fire doors too hard and they swung back, almost to the
walls. If they’d thumped, I’d have been done. But I caught them before they
could thunk together in the middle of the hall, eased them back into place, and
took a breath.
    This
hallway emptied into the back of the foyer, facing an emergency exit. But this
end of the foyer was dark. If I could just make it across to the exit