Keep From Falling (Markson Grove Series Book 1) by Amy Vanessa Miller Read Free Book Online

we have to go? Mom, no offense, but you were a flaky cheerleader in high school, of course you liked that kind of shit. Sky and I don’t do dances.”
    “Bree Anna Porter you watch your mouth!” My mom exclaims. Dad lowers his paper just long enough to point his finger at me and shoot me a disapproving look.
    I let out an exasperated breath. “Sorry. But seriously, we don’t go to dances. We never have. Just because it’s a fancy one with all kinds of goofy dresses and shiny decorations doesn’t mean that it’s not a dance. It’s a dance.”
    “But it’s your last dance.”
    “We didn’t even go to a first one!”
    Mom sighs. “Dean, would you talk to them?”
    Dad looks over to Skylar and then me. “I don’t see why they would need to go, Alice.”
    “Oh, you’re no help at all!” she hisses at him before turning back to us. “Wouldn’t you two want to take a couple of nice boys to prom? Bring them here and take some photos before you head off?”
    Skylar begins to laugh and after a moment so do I.
    “What?” Mom asks. “Why is that so funny?”
    “Have I ever brought a guy home, Mom?” I ask pointedly.
    “Well no…”
    “And I don’t plan to start.”
    “Well, what is that supposed to mean?”
    “It means that prom is a waste of my time and money. I don’t want to go to a dance with a guy,” I say as I take a swig of orange juice.
    “Ok, well why don’t the two of you just go together then?”
    I spit my juice out all over the kitchen table, as Skylar turns around with her mouth hanging open. I cough the juice for what seems like an eternity before I can speak.
    “Why would you even suggest that?” I finally choke out.
    “Well, I don’t know. Don’t some girls do that? You know, the ones who don’t bring dates?”
    “Oh, you mean the real losers who can’t get dates, but need to go to a silly dance because it’s the most important thing in the world ever?”
    Mom sighs and looks to Skylar for help. “Skylar, you know what I’m talking about right? Girls can go to prom solo these days, right?”
    Skylar smiles at Mom politely. “Of course they can, Mom. But it’s just not for Bree or me. We don’t do dances. We never have.”
    “Oh, I give up! I can’t believe that neither of you is interested in what, essentially, is a girl’s most anticipated event of their lives aside from their wedding day.”
    I frown.
    I think again how I had always imagined my wedding day to be and now the possibility of that dream no longer existing. It disappeared the minute Skylar kissed me for the very first time because I’m devoted to her for always, and she’s devoted to me. We could never go to prom the way we would want to, on a date and in love, so why bother going at all?
    “Overrated,” I say finally.
    “Well, at least tell me that if a nice young man asks either of you to go you will at least consider it. Please.”
    Skylar smirks but nods her head.
    “Ok Mom,” I say dismissively. “We promise. Now let it go.”
    “Fine, fine,” she says. “Oh, here’s a good change of subject for you two, the school called yesterday and granted your request to room together on your senior class trip next month.”
    “Really?” I exclaim, shooting Skylar an excited look.
    “That’s awesome news,” Skylar says with a tiny smirk.
    My mother doesn’t notice the exchange at all.
     

     
    While Skylar and I are walking to school hand in hand, I think again about the possibility of a future together. It’s something I spend so much of my time thinking about lately because it haunts me. I desperately want something I can’t have, and every day we get closer to graduation, I become more and more aware of that fact.
    I want to be able to come out to my parents and tell them that Skylar and I are in a relationship. In movies, parents always come around in the end and everyone lives happily ever after. But I know that my life is not a movie. Mom would reject Skylar and life would change in an