Exclusive Excerpt from Christine O’Neil’s Chaos [& Giveaway]

Entangled Publishing is launching a new imprint Ember. The digital-first YA line is launching with two great books: Chaos by Christine O’Neil and Darker Days by Jus Accardo. In celebration, we have an exclusive excerpt of Chaos and your chance to win goodies from both authors.

FROM CHRISTINE O’NEIL’S CHAOS:

I was next in the snack bar line, looking forward to an icy, high calorie, fizzy beverage, something chocolatey, and a hundred and thirty minutes of blissful, mindless entertainment, when a voice had me flinching in shock.

“Hey there, Magpie. Fancy running into you.”

Only one person in all of New Hampshire said the word “fancy.”FML.

I raised my brows and shot for super casual as I turned around. “Hi, Mac.”

Now that he had something on me—hell, more than one thing—I couldn’t outright ignore him. Until our dreaded talk, I had to play nice. And then it hit me again…

Want.

My hands itched to touch him, and I dug my fingernails into my palms. He was wearing his standard tan jacket that clearly wasn’t meant for this weather, his hair perfect as usual, and I had to fight the urge to lean in and smell him. Weirdo alert. Ugh. Why did I want to sniff and grope the enemy? Was I some kind of masochist?

“I don’t believe we’ve met,” Bink said, moving closer and standing a little straighter, puffing up his chest. Even fully puffed, he was no match for Mac.

“Oh.” I jabbed a thumb over my shoulder, mumbling, “Uh, Bink, Mac, Mac, Bink.”

“Hey, Mmmac.” He said it like it was the dumbest name he’d ever heard, but Mac’s grin only grew wider as he tipped his head.

“Dink, is it?”

Bink had the good grace to flush a little. “Uh, Bink, actually. With a B. Real name’s Aaron. Bink’s just a nickname.”

He’d gotten it when he was four because his mom still hadn’t managed to pry the pacifier out of his mouth. Once he’d tried to sneak it into kindergarten, though, the teacher called shenanigans on that and did something his mom had never had the heart to do. I remembered it like it was yesterday. She just plucked it from his mouth and tossed it into the garbage can.

Oddly enough, Bink was totally fine with it. He stared at her hard for a long second, shrugged, and went on his merry way. He’d moved on to eating paste, and when they stopped him from doing that, he’d taken to sticking Tic Tacs up his nose, so I guess Bink was better than some of the nicknames he could’ve gotten tagged with. Still, at the moment, I felt a little bad for him because he’d only been bagging on Mac out of loyalty to me, and he was clearly out of his league.

“Well, it was nice seeing you. I’ve got to get myself a”—I drew a blank and turned toward the glass displays—”a d-dill pickle before they run out.”

A dill pickle? Like they’d ever run out of those. Oh hey, look at all these delicious chocolate treats. I think I’ll skip ’em and go straight for a giant graying pickle, said no one ever. They tasted like lukewarm pee and the three flaccid samples left in the display case were probably the same ones that had been there since the place opened six years before.

I flushed and Mac treated me to the same shit-eating grin he’d given my bestie. Apparently Bink wasn’t the only one out of his league. I couldn’t be around Mac for more than three seconds without him infuriating, confusing, or flustering me, and I was about sick of it. Still, when it was my turn at the counter, I ordered the goddamned pickle to save face, kissing three dollars good-bye and ignoring Bink’s massive eye roll. I scurried out of line before he even got his change from the ginormous carton of popcorn he’d ordered, just to get away from Mac’s penetrating stare.

Bink caught up before we got to our theater but kept his mouth shut until we settled into our seats, just as the previews ended. “So are you going to tell me what’s going on between you and Fake Gyllenhaal or not?”

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