A Bird on a Windowsill Read Online Free PDF Page A

room.
    She’ll head to the gym, just like she does every day at three o’clock now. She plays volleyball on the school’s varsity team. She’s tall and strong, which makes for a pretty good athlete. Me? I’m not that tall, and I’m not that strong, and I’m definitely not much of an athlete, yet. My dad says he grew five inches in high school. I kept that in the back of my mind when I signed up for basketball this year. I want to be a basketball star, just like my dad. He holds the third-best scoring record here at this very high school.
    But just in case I never hit that growth spurt, I have a backup plan. I play the drums in the school’s band. I like to think that I’m a cool drum player because I have the beginnings of a garage band. Well, it’s really just me; Dillon, who can sort of play the guitar; and Josh, who can only play one scale on the bass—so I’m not really sure that counts—but we call it a band, nonetheless.
    But anyway, just like every day, Vannah looks back right before she escapes into the hallway, and she gives me her smile that I’ve come to expect.
    I smile back, and then just like every day, I follow after her. But I don’t get three steps into the hall when I look up and see her. And instantly, I realize that today isn’t going to be just like every day.
    She’s stopped at the gym doors, and she’s talking to a guy.
    Is that Rylan Tennessee?
    I watch them. She tilts her head back—almost as if she’s laughing at something he said. Then she tucks her hair behind her ear. Vannah doesn’t do that. I keep watching her. She touches his arm.
    What is she doing? And what in the hell is Rylan Tennessee doing?
    He’s so close to her face.
    Is he whispering something in her ear?
    I stop right there in the middle of the hallway. And right there, my blood starts to boil. I never knew what that expression meant. I never could make hide nor hair out of it...until now.
    People walk by me. Some brush up against me. Others just stop and stare at me. But I don’t care because I’m watching someone else get way too close to Savannah Catesby.
    My Savannah Catesby.
    My Vannah.

 
     
     
     
    Chapter Six
    Salem 
    (Fifteen Years Old)
     

     
     
    Day 3,650
     
    I let every bit of air escape my lungs, and I beg my heart to slow down for a damn minute. And once it does that, I beg my legs to move again. And way too fast, I’m standing right in front of Savannah and Rylan Tennessee, as they stare blankly back at me.
    “Vannah, can I talk to you?” I don’t even acknowledge Rylan.
    She looks at me with a question written on her face.
    “Okay.”
    I watch as she turns her attention back to Rylan. “I’ll call you after practice,” she says to him. And then she smiles. She smiles. At him.
    “Okay, babe, talk to you later,” he says.
    Babe? Babe? Who says that? He’s either forty or he thinks he’s Freddie Prinze Jr.
    He glances at me before he turns to leave. We’re eye to eye for only a split-second, but I know exactly what he said—because I said the same thing.
    I watch him walk away from us. He’s got this cool-guy swagger that I wish I had sometimes. And he’s a giant—tall, with the beginnings of some muscles. And if that’s not enough, he’s a sophomore, and he’s also a two-sport athlete. But up until just now—this very moment—I never thought about Rylan Tennessee. In fact, I don’t think I had any opinion of the guy....or even one thought about him...ever. But now... Now, of course, that’s all changed. Now, I despise him and his stupid cool-guy swagger.
    “What did you want to talk about?”
    I hear her voice, and it easily tears my stare away from model boy.
    “What? That? Was what?” I stutter.
    I don’t think about the words before they spill out. They literally just spew out of my mouth, in no particular order.
    She laughs, and her laugh seems to bring me back down to earth somehow. “What are you trying to say?”
    “I just...,” I start again. “Are