Read Online Duality: Vol 1, Melancholia (A New Adult Paranormal Romance) by Elle Casey - Free Book Online Page B

threw it?” I finally asked.
    Kootch froze in the middle of pulling on his second boot.  He stared at the locker doors, saying nothing.
    I laughed a little.  “Hello?  You in there?”
    He went back to pulling on his boot.  “Yeah, I’m here.  I don’t know who threw it.”
    “But it came from your yard?”
    “Yeah.”  He sounded defensive.
    “And you were in your yard when it happened.”
    “Yeah!”  Kootch stood up and opened the locker door so hard it banged back against the others.  “So?”  He scowled at me for a second before going back into the locker.
    “So … you must know who threw the rock, right?”
    “Yeah, I know.”  Now he just seemed sad.  He pulled out his backpack and dropped it on the ground.  Then he buttoned and zipped his jeans, not looking at me.
    “Hey, if it’s a big secret, no big deal.  I was just curious.”  I quickly got undressed and grabbed my jeans.
    After a long pause, Kootch finally responded.  “It was my asshole dad, okay?  He threw the fucking rock.”
    My pants were only halfway up, but I stopped trying to get them on as I processed that bit of information.  I wasn’t sure I understood.  “Your dad?”  I pulled the jeans the rest of the way up, securing them as I stared at Kootch.
    “What can I say?  Guy’s a dick.”
    I grabbed my shirt and fumbled around with it, trying to find the opening for my head.  “He threw it on purpose?  At a girl?”
    “Nah, man.  Not at Jasmine.  At me .”  Kootch looked up, a flash of pain in his eyes.  It made me feel sick to my stomach for him.  His status as a Miserable suddenly became a lot easier to understand, assuming I was reading his expression right.
    “Your dad threw a rock at you, missed, and it flew over the fence and nailed Jasmine in the eye.”
    “Next to her eye.  But, yeah.  That’s pretty much what happened.”
    “Holy shit.   Talk about being in the wrong place at the wrong time.”
    Kootch smiled without humor.  “Yeah, tell me about it.  I felt like shit.  Still do, and it was like ten years ago or something.”
    I pulled my shirt on over my head, not looking at him anymore on purpose.  There was no need to get things heavier than they already were.  But I had to say something.  Kootch was obviously torturing himself over the whole thing.  “It wasn’t your fault.”
    “Yeah, well, it felt like it.  Maybe I shouldn’t have ducked or something.”
    “That’s stupid.  No one takes a rock to the face if they can help it.”
    Kootch stood, apparently done talking about it.  “Want me to wait for you?”
    “No.  Hatcher wants us sitting apart on the bleachers.  I’ll see you out there.”
    “Later.”  Kootch grabbed his backpack and left the locker room.
    I sat down on the bench and pulled on my socks and shoes, thinking about what had happened.  For some reason out on the basketball court, Kootch had dropped the angry Miserable act for a while and livened up.  He was actually laughing and teasing the girls, which was so not like him; usually he was too angry to do anything but make sarcastic or rude remarks to people.  But then when we were in the locker room again he was back to being unhappy.
    He must really like that Rae girl.  That was the only explanation.  Maybe being around her made him forget how unhappy he was when he was around me.  I guess it’s possible that love can be stronger than any power I might have over someone’s emotions, even though I don’t remember actually seeing that in action before.
    I decided then and there that I had to encourage that connection between them.  Kootch was one of the hardest guys to shake; he’d hung on to me no matter how much I blew him off or was rude to him.  And over the weeks he’d been around me, he’d slowly gotten more and more depressed, his moods darkening to the point that I was really starting to worry, hence my hiding out in the bathroom earlier today.  Maybe if I could help him