All the Sky Read Online Free PDF Page A

happened often in certain kinds of jobs, the boss came onto her or worse—she spoke out, and not always civilly. When she spoke out, she was either fired on the spot, or the situation elevated, and she walked. Customer service jobs. Retail, restaurant, bar—it didn’t matter. In her experience, workers in that industry were treated like subhumans.
    In the other kind of job, the boring office jobs she could get, she’d hold on for awhile until the sameness nearly literally killed her and she’d sink into blackness and not be able to get out of bed. Those jobs usually paid better, but Cory was just simply not wired to work a desk job. She could not do the same thing over and over every day. She wasn’t a naturally depressed person, but that was a guaranteed descent into misery.
    So she job-hopped. And she tried to make something work with her music. She had steady gigs, and she had a little channel online that got enough hits to generate a little bit of money.
    That had all been working okay—until the day jobs had dried up. She hadn’t punched a time card in over a year. She was afraid that her, um, extensive resume, and her increasing age, was in her way.
    But she wasn’t afraid of success. She simply defined it much, much differently from the way Lindsay did. She didn’t need a terrifying crystal chandelier in a fwah-YAY . She needed to be able to earn a living—just a living, food and shelter—doing something she enjoyed with people who weren’t assholes.
    “When do we have to be out?”
     
    ~oOo~
     
    Before she went to her sleeper sofa, she checked in on Nolan, quietly pushing open the guest room door. The hallway light cast a soft beam over the bed. He was lying with his back to the door, the sheet pushed down around his waist. His sketchpad was open at the foot of the bed. She was curious to see what he’d been sketching tonight, but she never pried. He’d show her on his own, anyway. Stepping back, she started to pull the door quietly to.
    “I’m awake, Mom.” He rolled over, his dark curls drooping over his eyes. Even in his ratty Ninja Turtles t-shirt, he was a beautiful kid.
    “Hey, kiddo. Rough night?” When he sat up and turned on the lamp on the nightstand, Cory stepped in and closed the door. “Wanna talk?”
    He shrugged. He looked sad, not angry. “I just—I know I’m not supposed to say this, because he’s, like, family or whatever. But I hate Uncle Alex. He’s such a dick. Don’t get mad that I said that, okay?”
    She moved his pad without looking at it and sat down at the foot of the bed. “I’m not mad, Nolan. I’m sorry that I haven’t been able to make things better. But Aunt Lindsay and Uncle Alex are helping us out—a lot—and we have to remember that we’re guests in their home.”
    “How could we forget it? They remind us all the time! You should hear the things they say about you, Mom. Especially him. It pisses me off so much. He calls you flaky and irresponsible. Tonight he called you a worthless leech.”
    Trying to keep herself neutral, she asked, “He said that to you?”
    “No. They go into his office for their talks. But his office is right next door. I hear pretty much all of it.”
    “Did you hear all of it tonight?”
    “Yeah.” He looked at her through his messy curls, his blue eyes bleak. “Do I have to see a shrink?”
    She put her hand on his knee and gave it a squeeze. “No, kiddo. No. Not unless you want to. Do you?”
    After a sharp, emphatic shake of his head, he looked down at his own hands, the nails bitten past the quick and the cuticles frayed. “Do we have to go, then?”
    “Yeah. End of the month.”
    “I’m sorry, Mom. Really sorry.”
    “Nolan, it’s okay. I’m the one who’s sorry.” Holding his knee wasn’t enough, so Cory moved up closer and pulled her son into her arms. He came willingly and wrapped his arms around her right away, holding tight. Neither of them cried. They were past tears for this shit. “I’ll