The Sky Is Falling by Caroline Adderson Read Free Book Online

welcome to,” he said. “Any time.”
    â€œI don’t want to! And I don’t want you going into mine!”
    â€œAnything I have is yours.”
    He wasn’t mocking me. He mocked Dieter mercilessly all the time and that was not the tone he was using now. I hurled the pen but, other than dodging it, he didn’t react, just stood there, a beautiful statue that had briefly come to life. “Hold it,” he called after me.
    I slammed my door. Pete opened it—without knocking!—and set down two yellow milk crates. “I don’t want those,” I said.
    He returned with two more, blue and red, then the boards. Kicking my books over a second time, out of the way, he began assembling the shelf. Two crates, a board, two more crates, another board. I sank down on my futon, face in my hands, and sobbed.
    â€œThere. You want me to put the books back or do you want to do that yourself?”
    I looked up, streaming. “What do you want ?”
    He was still on his knees but, to my horror, he changed position, got comfortable interlacing his fingers behind his head and falling onto his back—all to ponder his reply. It didn’t take long. “I want a fairer world,” he said. “What do you want, Zed?”
    â€œI want you to ask permission before you come into my room.”
    â€œI don’t ask permission.”
    â€œYou should!”
    â€œWhy?”
    â€œBecause it’s polite! It’s respectful!”
    â€œPolite is bullshit. It’s bourgeois. I don’t recognize private property and I don’t respect it.”
    â€œI’m not talking about respecting property! As if I care about a stupid pen!”
    â€œOh,” he said. “But I respect you, Zed. You’re intelligent. You don’t play games. You’re funny.”
    â€œFunny?”
    â€œDry. Anyway, I didn’t want to go all the way downstairs to get a pen. I was curious about what kind of books you read.”
    He spoke so reasonably to my hysteria. At least that was how it seemed now. I scrambled for a tissue. “You might say sorry.”
    â€œThat’s another thing I don’t do.”
    â€œFine.” I blew my nose with an embarrassing quack. “Can you get out now?”
    â€œI can.” But he stayed exactly as he was, on his back, naked foot tapping the air. When I threw up my hands, he laughed. “You asked me if I could .”
    I felt dizzy after he left. I couldn’t believe he thought those things about me. I looked over at my scree of books and, though it actually pained me to see them in disarray, I resisted putting them away. Then a voice quavered through the grate. “Is everything all right up there?” I went over and peered down. “Toast?” Sonia asked.
    A few minutes later she came up with a tray. “Thank you,” I said.
    â€œThere wasn’t any supper left.”
    â€œNo doubt.”
    She sat on the floor and hugged her knees, watching me eat. “I heard you and Pete,” she said with a glance at the grate. “Don’t mind him. He acts like that because he’s smarter than everybody else.”
    I huffed.
    Sonia: “It’s true. He doesn’t even go to class. He studies on his own in the library. Engineering’s unbelievably hard. I admire him so much. He has discipline. He lives by his code.”
    â€œHis anarcho-feminist-pacifist code?”
    Sonia nodded. She didn’t seem to get sarcasm. “His family’s rich. He won’t have anything to do with them. He has a trust fund, but he gives most of it away. He gives Hector money all the time.” And though Pete paid the kitty, she told me that he wouldn’t take any money out because he didn’t believe in it. In money. He shopped on the five-finger discount, which explained the bizarre miscellany of groceries he always unloaded from his pack. Tomato sauce, popcorn, frozen peas. I’d seen