The Last Academy by Anne Applegate Read Free Book Online

Elliott. I figured Jessie might like hearing a story where I was embarrassed over a guy.
    The twilight had deepened by then, and as I walked through the near dark, I spotted Jessie and Nora sitting on their porch, bathed in the light from their room. They were deep in conversation.
    As I got closer, Jessie said in a gravelly voice, “… bigger than life. He was always t-t-tormenting me, you know? The way big brothers do. I stuttered bad around him. He made me nervous.” She paused. “We were going to a movie. I said, ‘Put on your seat belt.’ Except, I got stuck. I said, ‘S-s-s-s-s-s,’ and I couldn’t get the word out. And he laughed like I’m the funniest stutterer ever and started driving. ‘Put on my what?’ He kept laughing, every time I tried to say it. Finally I shouted, ‘I hate you!’ — that came out fine. He kept mocking me, saying stuff like, ‘If only I knew what you were trying to say, s-s-s-s-sis,’ while I put on my own seat belt.” She shuddered. “He switched lanes on a curve, and the car slid off the road.”
    Jessie made a terrible sound. Like she was throwing up and screaming, but with her volume turned almost all the way down so you could barely hear it. Like she wasswallowing it back up before it could get out. If you’ve ever been around someone who’s puking, you know how it can make you gag, too. That’s how it felt to hear Jessie — my heart lurched like it was going to dry heave its guts out.
    “The seat belt saved my life,” she said. “Maybe if we hadn’t been fighting, he would’ve put his on, too. The last thing I s-s-said to him was, ‘I hate you.’”
    Nora leaned forward and rubbed Jessie’s arm. Then I saw Nora do a double take when she spotted me standing there in the shadows. I felt like a grave robber.
    Jessie was oblivious to my presence. She went on. “I dream about it. First the car goes over. The windows shatter glass everywhere, and everything goes black. Then I’m hanging upside down from my seat belt. You know, trapped. But my brother, he’s broken. He’s smashed on the steering wheel. Sometimes I hear him choking, and I see bubbles in the blood that’s coming out. Then my seat belt breaks and I d-d-die, too.”
    Nora grabbed a box of tissues for Jessie. I could feel her making sure not to look over and give me away.
    Jessie laughed and blew her nose. “In the d-d-dream, the dying part is a relief. The bad p-part is being alive.”
    “You’re OK.” Nora hugged her. Jessie bawled for realwhen Nora did that. I got the feeling Nora kind of said it to me, too. Maybe she knew I didn’t mean to be there.
    I backed away, as silent as the shadows I stood in, and when I was far enough away, I ran.
     
    Back in the bright light of my room, I took out my homework and halfheartedly dug in, still thinking about Jessie. Poor kid, her brother dying like that. I wanted to do something nice for her. Maybe Nora and I could find out who her unknown crush, Mr. Skinny Butt, was and see if he liked Jessie back. Feeling all righteous with that decided, I focused on my assigments.
    But soon I nibbled at the end of my highlighter, my Spanish reading assignment forgotten. Something didn’t quite sit right as I thought about how Jessie’d wiggled her eyebrows at orientation. At the time, I’d thought she’d gone twitchy from a crush overdose. But looking back now, Jessie had seemed frantic, like it was crucial I saw who she meant. What if she wasn’t mesmerized by the mysterious Mr. Skinny Butt? What if she’d been frightened?
    I sat up straight, stunned. What if she’d meant Barnaby Charon?
    Pure paranoia, I decided after a moment. I even laughed at myself for good measure. Except Barnaby Charon had been on campus. At least he’d been there for the formal dinner. But otherwise it was ridiculous. How would she know him, and why would she be afraid of him, even if she did know who he was? Still, it was so easy to imagine him there at the back of the chapel,