A Good Enough Reason Read Online Free PDF Page A

importantly, Dale couldn’t call him, so if something had happened, Ellis wouldn’t find out until Monday.
    Ellis sighed. His homework was done—he’d put the hour he’d already spent in the library to good use. The only thing he could and should work on was Mr. Shea’s project, and he couldn’t do that without Dale. Well, that wasn’t exactly true.
    Ellis could start researching and give the results to Dale when and if he showed up. Ellis had no intention of getting a bad grade because of his partner, not even if it meant he’d have to do most of the work himself. He should have expected it. Dale might not be a classic jock, but he was still part of the sport group. Soccer was probably more important to him than the assignment, and it made Ellis wonder why Dale had ended up in advanced placement English.
    Ellis gave the door one last glance and reached for his pen. He didn’t remember the exact wording of the topic Dale had chosen, but he couldn’t have forgotten what it was about even if he’d wanted to. He still couldn’t believe Dale wanted to do that one when he could have chosen any other.
    Ellis started to work on a list of what they needed to do. The list was still fairly short when the door opened, and Ellis looked up to see Dale walk in.
    Anger swelled in Ellis’s mind when he finally realized why Dale was late. It was obvious. Dale’s hair was mussed, his lips were swollen, and he had a hickey the size of Texas just above the collar of his T-shirt.
    Ellis narrowed his eyes at him and put his pen down.
    “Hey, sorry I’m late.”
    “Yeah, I noticed.” Ellis made a show of looking at his watch. “You’re nearly an hour late.”
    Dale grimaced. “I’m sorry.” He sat next to Ellis and leaned toward him to read the list, but Ellis slammed his notebook shut.
    “You’re one hour late to work on a project that’s worth 20 percent of our final grade because you’d rather spend the time we need to work on it sucking face with your girlfriend, and I shouldn’t be angry? You think I should just—just forget about it?” Ellis realized his voice was rising and clamped his lips together.
    “I get what you’re saying, and I apologized. What more do you want from me?”
    Ellis took a deep breath. It wouldn’t do any good for him to start yelling in the middle of the library. “You can shove your apologies where the sun don’t shine,” he hissed.
    Dale’s eyes widened. “What?”
    “You heard me. If you’re not going to be serious about this, I’ll ask Mr. Shea to work on the assignment alone. You might not care about getting a good grade or even need it, but I do, and I won’t let you pull me down with you.”
    Dale held his hands up in surrender. “Okay, okay. It won’t happen again, I swear.”
    Ellis gave Dale a nod. “Good.” He opened his notebook and flipped to the right page.
    Dale chuckled. “I’d never have thought you could be so fierce. You’re always so quiet and calm.”
    “I care about my grades.”
    “I noticed.”
    “Are you ready to get to work?”
    Dale rolled his eyes, and Ellis almost smiled. Almost.
    While Dale was busy opening his bag and gathering whatever he needed from it, Ellis looked around the room to check if they’d bothered anyone. Luckily for him, the dragon lady wasn’t anywhere in sight and the few other students were busy with their work. It looked like no one had been disturbed.
    “So, what do you have?”
    Ellis looked at Dale. “What I have for now is a partial list of things we need to do, like deciding on a regular schedule to meet and following it.”
    “Is that sarcasm I hear in your voice?”
    “You think?”
    “Aww, don’t be that way. I swore I wouldn’t do it again.”
    “I might forgive you if you stick to the schedule from now on. Maybe.”
    “I’ll do my best, but what if something happens?”
    “Like what? What if your girlfriend suddenly needs a good make-out session?”
    Dale laughed. “You’re feisty. I like