A Million Miles Away by Lara Avery Read Free Book Online Page B

remember wanting to tell my dad about how the men sit around in barbershops and yell at the TV when they watch the Pakistani cricket team, just like he does. I think he would like that. I’ll have to remember that one.”
    The mention of his father brought her back to reality. He would learn of Michelle’s death, somehow, wouldn’t he? “Do you Skype with your family?”
    “Sure, all the time.”
    “Do they—” Kelsey paused. “Do they know about me?”
    “They know I have a girlfriend but they don’t dig too deep into it. Said I shouldn’t be distracted.” He laughed to himself.
    He was quiet then, looking at her. Kelsey was quiet, too. They were both lost.
    Finally, he spoke. “I mostly write to you, though. I think about the different things I would tell my dad, what I would tell my mom, my sister. But I tell you everything. A lot of these guys are really…” He looked around the tent again, getting quieter. “A lot of these guys are really closemouthed, you know? I don’t have to talk all the time, but I’ve got to say something.”
    Then Peter’s eyebrows knit together. “People are dying. No one I know, but we are going to have to…” Kelsey could see Peter’s jaw working, trying to hold back. It hung in the air, sinking into both of them. Kelsey speculated the end of his sentence. Kill people.
    “Ugh.” He let out a sound, shaking his head. “I’m not allowed to talk about it, but, anyway,” he said.
    She didn’t know what to say.
    “Tell me what have you been up to. Distract me.”
    Kelsey felt like the wind had been knocked out of her. “It doesn’t really seem important—”
    “It’s very important,” Peter interrupted. Kelsey could tell he was determined to put all he had toward her, to forget. “How did finals go?”
    Kelsey’s instinct was to answer terribl e, as usual. But that was her, and Peter wasn’t talking to her. He was talking to Michelle. I’ll just let him have this. Just a little while longer until the right time comes.
    “Great, I think! The, uh, Art History essay questions were fascinating.”
    “I’m sure you nailed it.” Peter lit up. “Did you listen to that song I told you about? The Cicadas?”
    Kelsey would say, Uh, no. Kelsey only listened to songs you could choreograph dances to. Including musicals, which Michelle made fun of mercilessly. The Cicadas sounded like an indie band. Michelle would probably say, “Yeah! I loved the… guitar.”
    “And? It’s better than Weast, right? But it still has that sixties sound.”
    She kept going. “No way. I’ll never give up on the sixties.”
    Peter laughed. “It’s so nice not to talk about supply trucks that I’m not going to argue with you this time.”
    It was that easy. All of this had come out of Michelle’s mouth so many times, it was impossible to forget. Kelsey had a strange, brief feeling of relief. As if Michelle were next to her, telling her what to say.
    “Can I say something else?” Peter asked.
    “Sure,” Kelsey said. Slowly, the guilt crept back. She shouldn’t have said that. She should have stopped him.
    “You look so beautiful. I know you hate it when I say that, but you do.”
    Kelsey closed her eyes to him. She couldn’t look at his face. She didn’t want to picture it on the screen, how it would fall when he knew the truth.
    “Look at you,” she heard him say softly. “I don’t know what I would do without you.”
    Maybe Kelsey could just keep her eyes closed when she told him. Peter, she would say to the darkness, I lied to you. But he seemed sensitive already, showing his fears and doubts to her. She didn’t know what to do.
    When Kelsey opened her eyes, a figure darted into the tent behind Peter, yelling at him to move. Crackling sounds, like fireworks, rang out from somewhere in the distance.
    “Okay,” he said, turning back to her. “I have to go.”
    “What’s going on?” Kelsey asked. But she knew. He was under fire.
    “I have to go. Write me