Read Online Falling by L C Smith - Free Book Online Page B

we ate.
    We drive in silence to his dad's store while I look through the huge pile of CDs in his case. “There's like a million in here.” I don't think I have ever seen so many outside of a store.
    Keller pulls into a loading bay out the front of the shop. “Come in,” he says when he sees me not moving.
    We run in and grab the boxes from the counter sitting in the middle of the room. “I'm Reid.” I wave with one hand to a man that looks like Keller and is wearing the same clothes, as we begin to walk out.
    “How nice to get your girlfriend to carry a box. I'm so glad I taught you to be such a gentlemen. Your chivalry is impressive.” His dad says.
    “Bye dad.”
    “What did he call me?” I ask when we get out of the store.
    “Not you, he was saying that I'm not manly. He has an English Lit degree. He comes out with weird things like that all the time.”
    “Right,” I say nodding my head, while he loads the back of his car and we head to Lilly's.
    “So did Hayden get off all right?” I know I shouldn’t ask, or talk about it, or even think about it, but I can't help it. I want to know if he broke up with her, or if I am just someone to hang out with. But almost as important does he know anything about her being at school this morning.
    “Duno. I wasn't there.” He doesn't look up. There wasn't anything in the way he said it. But clearly something happened.
    “So when does she get back?” I turn my face to look out the window so he can't see me cringe at my own prying.
    “End of semester. But I doubt she'll come back. She wants to go travelling in Europe, so she will probably head off then and go straight back to school from wherever she goes.” He stops talking, then smiles at me, “this is it,” he announces. I hadn't even noticed that we had pulled into up anywhere. “I'll just be real quick, then we can get something to eat.” He turns to look at me. “Or anything else you want to do. Do you get out often from school?”
    “A bit.” I don't want to say the truth. That I get out once a week when the teachers take people like me who don't have family to the mall. Sara isn't a senior so she can't leave campus without teacher supervision, and it's just a bit too lame to hang out with myself all the time.
    He takes two boxes at a time and literally runs them into the store. In a minute he's back out for the last one. I wait for five minutes while he talks to the lady in the store. I can see him through the open door.
    He sticks his head through the car window. “Let's eat.” I jump out, take one step and groan.
    “What's wrong? You don't like this place? We can go somewhere else.” He offers quickly.
    “No, it's Megan.”
    “Okay,” he says confused.
    He puts his arm around my back and walks me up to the pavement.
    “Reid. Oh wow. I didn't know you had a boyfriend. You never have a boyfriend.” She stops directly in front of me.
    “Hi, Megan,” I say trying to move past her, but she steps into my way.
    “I have known you since we started here and I have never seen you with a boyfriend. That's just great that you are able to get out and finally get over things. I am so happy that you can move on.” She beams her I-am-the-hottest-person-I-know smile at Keller and holds out her hand. “Megan Cunningham, I think I saw you at school on Monday night? So very nice to meet you.” She keeps hold of his hand for a second longer than necessary, staring into his face.
    “Yeah,” Keller answers with a slight grimace. He pushes me through the door without looking at her again. “Now I get the groaning. Who is she and what's her problem?”
    “She’s Megan and she is awful. And she thinks she's hot, and she thinks that you are hot, even her Mum thinks you're hot. And she's just weird.”
    “That's kind of gross.” His mouth turns up like that thought tastes bad. “Do I want to know how you know that? Because that's disturbing.”
    “She is. We aren’t friends.” I say to make it clear.