Attempting Elizabeth Jessica Grey

[ Pobierz całość w formacie PDF ]
.Attempting ElizabethbyJessica GreyCopyright & DisclaimersAttempting ElizabethCopyright © 2013 by Jessica GreyISBN—13: 978-0-9850396-5-3ISBN—10: 0-9850396-5-5Tall House BooksThis is a work of fiction.All the characters and events portrayed in this book are either products of the author's imagination or are used fictitiously.All rights reserved.No part of this book may be used or reproduced without the author’s permission.Cover design by Figmentoria.The sections of dialogue from Jane Austen’s Pride and Prejudice have been modified to reflect modern spelling and grammar.DedicationFor Jane,thank you for writing stories that I want to jump into.And for all of my fellow Indie Janeites,thank you for encouraging me to tell this story.~ Chapter One ~“At such an assembly as this.”“You need to go with me to the party.I’m not taking no for an answer.”I didn’t bother looking up from my novel to where my roommate, Tori, lounged against my doorjamb.“No.”“Yeah, see, I already told you I wasn’t taking no for an answer, so you need to get your butt off the bed and get dressed.Showered too.” She sounded bored; she was probably examining her cuticles.I flipped a page.“No.”Tori abandoned her fake bored stance and plopped down on my bed.“Come on.”“Go away.”“Are you really going to let Jerkface ruin your entire social life?”“I’m not discussing this.” I flipped another page with a decisive motion.“There’s no way you just read that entire page.Give it up.You’re just pretending so I’ll leave you alone.”I sighed dramatically.“And yet, you don’t seem to be getting the point.”She snatched the book out of my hands and waved it in front of my face.“Really babe, Pride and Prejudice again? This thing is going to warp your brain.”“It’s not going to warp my brain.”“Hmm.” She flipped through the book for a moment then looked up with a disturbingly evil glint in her blue eyes.“Let’s go find you a real-life Mr.Darcy.”“I somehow highly doubt that Scott’s party is going to have any real life Mr.Darcys at it.”“You never know.Besides, you don’t need a forever Mr.Darcy, just a for the night Mr.Darcy.” Tori waggled her eyebrows at me suggestively.“Ew.”“Oh come on.Tall, dark, handsome; somebody to get your mind of Jerkface.”“Jordan was tall, dark, and handsome, and he turned out to be more of a Wickham than a Darcy,” I pointed out.Just talking about Jordan made me feel slightly homicidal.He was hot as heck, but what the man knew about fidelity could apparently be written on the back of a postage stamp.“Um, Jerkface was a skeeze.And you can sit and wallow here, in which case he wins, or you can come out with me and have a few drinks and dance with a few boys and have a good time, and then you win.And I win, ‘cause Charlie can’t go and that leaves me dateless.I need you, Kelsey.Are you going to let me down in my hour of need?”I pulled a pillow over my head and groaned.“Tor, really.Go away.I want to wallow.I don’t want to go Mr.Darcy hunting.I only end up with Wickhams.”She pulled the pillow off my face and whacked me with it.“I’ve got it! Let’s go Wickham hunting then—find you a cute, shallow playboy, and then you can treat him like dirt before he gets the chance to jerkface out on you!”I considered that for a minute.“So, I, like, preemptively jerkface him?”“Yes, it’s brilliant.Like really.Sometimes I even impress myself.Do not even think about saying it,” she warned as she popped off the bed and flung open my closet.“I wasn’t going to say anything,” I lied through my teeth.As if I was so predictable that I couldn’t let her Han Solo quote slide without answering with Leia’s retort.“Don’t even pretend.You are such a nerd.I can see you thinking it.” Tori flicked through the clothes-laden hangers and finally pulled out a short black dress and tossed it at me.“Wear that.Shave your legs.”“Argh!” I glared at the dress.“I don’t want to.”“Wear the black boots.Seriously.Don’t argue with me.If I don’t hear the shower running in three minutes I’m coming back in here and forcibly throwing you in myself.I’m gonna go do my makeup.” She turned, her long black hair flying out behind her, and sailed back out of my room.“You suck!” I grumbled at her departing back.“You love me,” she shot back over her shoulder.“Doubtful,” I replied.She slammed the door and I gave in to the urge to shout after her.“‘That doesn’t sound too hard!’”The door cracked back open and she stuck her head in, glaring at me.“Shut up.Shower.” And then the door slammed again.~The party was loud and packed with people, just like I knew it would be.Scott Erickson, a friend of Tori’s boyfriend Charlie, had rented out the entire top floor of a club in Long Beach.The drinks were flowing pretty freely, and the DJ was playing what passed for music, but I considered it more of a prosecution-worthy assault on the ears of the general public.I raised an eyebrow at Tori who was half-dancing along with the music as we pushed our way through the crowd near the door and toward the bar.She caught my look and grinned.“Loosen up, babe!” she shouted over the driving beat.“Let’s get a drink and find some cute boys to dance with!”“I’ll be sure to let Charlie know you were out trolling for cute boys,” I shouted back.Her only response was an exaggerated eye roll as she sashayed ahead of me.I tugged on my skirt in a vain attempt to make it a little bit longer and tried to follow.Tori was several inches shorter than me [ Pobierz całość w formacie PDF ]

Pokrewne