This Is Falling by Ginger Scott Read Free Book Online

that
makes a serious dent. At this rate, she’ll be done and ready to go
in about ten minutes.
    “Hey, you know that gallery building we
walked by at the end of campus?”
    She shrugs, covering her mouth with her
napkin while she chews, because her bite’s too big. She tries to
get the word “yeah” out, but her speech is muffled by the fullness
in her cheeks. She might be awesome.
    “Right,” I laugh lightly, smiling at her and
taking a giant bite of my burger so I can talk with a full mouth
too. “They hab a arrrr show neck weeeeek. Wah a go?”
    She completely stops chewing, shirks her
shoulders up, and bunches her brow at me, staring. “Wha?”
    I finish chewing and laugh more—when I do,
she blushes a little, finally getting that I’m teasing her. She’s
turning so red I start to feel bad, but then she surprises me,
grabbing a handful of fries and taking a giant drink of her soda,
chewing with her mouth open and looking me squarely in the
eyes.
    “Yah, arrr showwwww. I’ll gooooo,” she can’t
quite finish her sentence without giggling uncontrollably and
covering her mouth again with her napkin to keep her food from
flying out. But I heard enough—just the right words. She’ll go.
That means I’ve got her attention for at least another week.

Chapter
6
     
    Rowe
     
    I managed to finish lunch without having
another freak out. And the more we walked and talked, the more
comfortable I became with Nate. He felt familiar, like we had known
each other since we were kids or something and were just catching
up.
    Maybe that’s because I kept the spotlight on
him. I asked about his baseball playing, and I found out he started
with tee-ball at three. His brother used to play, too. In a few of
the stories he told, he mentioned his brother running and playing
with him, and I know something must have happened to put him in the
wheelchair, but I didn’t feel comfortable enough to ask about
that.
    He talked about his childhood home, and he
asked about mine. Louisiana and Phoenix don’t sound so different,
only his summers sound more humid. My past stayed on my childhood,
talking about my embarrassing first-day meltdown in kindergarten
where I protested the coloring exercise and made the teacher call
my dad to take me home…and my first slow dance with a boy, where he
blew a bubble with his gum and it got stuck in my hair, leading to
my first short haircut.
    He seemed to soak up everything I said, and I
found myself wanting to keep talking, telling him more. And a few
times, I thought of stories I could share. But they were
stories about Betsy and Josh. Nate doesn’t need to hear those, and
I’m not ready to give them away.
    His brother was waiting for him at the
elevator, so I came upstairs alone. All it took was a few seconds
in my own head for me to second guess everything—promising myself
I’d distance from him after today, making sure he didn’t have the
wrong idea or think I could give him more than I can. I need to
remember that Nate isn’t any different from Cass—a new friend. No
matter how he makes my insides feel.
    Cass and I have been swapping music for the
last two hours while Paige gets ready in the bathroom. The freshman
mixer is tonight, and I saw them setting up for it in the gym when
I left with Nate earlier. Cass is making me go, and I think if I
refused she would throw me over her shoulder and carry me.
    I really like her. I think we have a lot in
common, at least, the few things about me that are left. Our music
libraries are almost identical, and she wants to go to Austin for
South-by-Southwest this year. I’ve always wanted to go to a music
festival, too, but that’s just not in my cards. I’ve spent the last
forty-eight hours talking myself out of dropping out of college. I
don’t think a road trip will be possible until I can master a
semester or two.
    “So, how was your… lunch, ” Cass asks,
making air quotes around the word lunch, which I don’t really
understand.
    “It