The Fallout by S.A. Bodeen Read Free Book Online

else.
    “That’s amazing!” I said.
    He looked down and sighed. “Yes, it could have been.”
    “What do you mean?”
    “I was doing this on my own. Unfortunately, only I knew all my research. When my lab was destroyed in the fire … I had to start over.” He smiled. “Which made YK such an absolute lifesaver. Mere weeks before the fire, I had applied for funding through YK. Starting over was bad enough, but starting over with all the funding we needed? Well, it lessened the sting a bit.” He looked around, then raised a hand in the air. “All of this is what arose from the ashes of that fire. My research will get back to where it was. In the meantime, we do all the good we can.”
    Just then a door opened, and I heard the sound of a child giggling. A small bald boy came in through the glass door, wearing red surf shorts. He held the hand of a slim girl who looked about my age. Her dark hair was in a pixie cut, and she wore jeans and a long-sleeved Mariners tee. And she had the most beautiful brown eyes I’d ever seen. My heart sped up.
    She saw Dr. Barkley, then smiled and waved.
    Dr. Barkley took my arm. “Come. You can meet one of our patients.”
    The girl was watching me.
    Trying to be as cool as possible, I stood up, took a large step, then immediately tripped on my untied shoelace and did a face-plant on the grass.

 
    CHAPTER SIX
    Dr. Barkley took one of my arms and helped me up.
    “I’m fine, I’m fine.” I brushed the grass off my knees, then got up on one knee and tied my shoe as my face burned. Great . Way to make an idiot of myself in front of the first teenage girl I’d met in … well, actually? The first teenage girl I’d ever met since I’d become a teenager myself.
    The girl and the little boy walked over to me. She looked at me with an amused smile on her face.
    I felt my face get even hotter.
    Dr. Barkley introduced me. “This is EJ. And, EJ, this is Jamie and his sister, Verity.”
    Verity may have been close to laughing at me, but even so, it made her brown eyes sparkle. “Hi.”
    “Hi,” I said.
    Jamie looked up at me and said, “I’m five.”
    I smiled. “I have a brother about your age.”
    His face lit up and he looked around. “Is he here?”
    Verity set a hand on his head. “Jamie, stop interrupting.”
    “It’s fine,” I said. But I didn’t want to have to answer, and say that, no, my brother wasn’t here, because he was perfectly healthy and didn’t have to face the fact he’d be dead by age thirteen. I mustered a smile. “You going swimming?”
    Jamie nodded and grabbed Dr. Barkley’s hand. He smiled, and said, “Okay, I’m coming.” They left Verity and I standing there.
    She looked over at me. “Want to watch him swim?”
    I nodded. “Of course.” I reached over and picked up my phone off the bench.
    As we walked, she asked, “So why are you here? Is your little brother a patient, too?”
    I shook my head. “No … um … I’m part of this internship thing.” I held up my journal. “This is sort of a research assignment.”
    “What kind of an internship?” She seemed interested, but I wished she would stop asking. My whole fake persona of exceptional-high-school-student was not all that solid.
    “I’m just asking a bunch of questions as he gives me a tour, basically. And then I have to write out a report to get a grade from my teacher at school.” Nice, Eli. That sounded totally plausible.
    “What school?” she asked.
    Seriously? Trying to put an end to the questions I couldn’t answer, I asked, “Is this the Inquisition or what?”
    She smiled. “Yes.”
    I wanted to stop answering her questions because I didn’t want to be dishonest with her. This was my first conversation with a teenage girl ever. Well, a teenage girl that wasn’t related to me. And I didn’t want to mess it up by any more lying. Which was all I’d done from the moment I’d opened my mouth.
    “Sorry,” she said. “I’m naturally curious.”
    I smiled.