Amplified (24 page)

“Yeah, I do.”

I wrapped my arms around my knees. “What you said—about me not letting myself feel anything…”

“I’m sorry about that.”

“You were right, though—to a point. But that night with you—I felt every second of it.”

“I did too,” he said.

“I’m tired of being this girl. I want something real.”

He touched my cheek. “You deserve something real.”

I faced him, swallowing the lump in my throat. “But you can’t give that to me right now. You know that.”

His thumb traced my cheekbone. “I want to.”

“You need time.”

He dropped his hand. “I wish I didn’t.”

A large wave smashed against the rocks, sending spray across my cheeks. I closed my eyes. “It’ll happen—if it’s meant to.”

“I hope so.”

I batted my eyelashes at him. “Just be ready to treat me like a princess.”

His lips curled up. “No problem. It’s not like that would be a far stretch of the imagination.”

I shoved him, shaking my head. “Jerk.”

His eyes lingered on mine for a few seconds before he spoke again. “In the meantime, you owe me.”

“Owe you?”

He popped the latches of my guitar case and handed me my acoustic. “A song.”

I set the guitar on my lap, brushing my fingers across the strings. “I can, but I’m warning you that I’m not—”

“Jasmine?” He smirked. “Don’t make me shut you up.”

“Just remember, you asked for it.” I smiled and began to play a song about a girl who risked everything to find her way home, off-key vocals and all.

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Copyright © 2011 by Tara Kelly

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Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data
Kelly, Tara.
Amplified / Tara Kelly.—1st ed.
p. cm.

Summary: When privileged seventeen-year-old Jasmine Kiss gets kicked out of her house by her father, she takes what is left of her meager savings and flees to Santa Cruz, California, to pursue her dream of becoming a rock musician.

ISBN: 978-1-4668-0595-8

[1. Rock music—Fiction. 2. Rock groups—Fiction. 3. Interpersonal relations—Fiction.
4. Santa Cruz (Calif.)—Fiction.] I. Title.
PZ7.K2984Am 2011 [Fic]—dc22 2011005790