All We Know Is Falling: Fall With Me: Volume One Read Online Free PDF Page B

got to be the strangest interrogation ever. “I like chocolate milk.” I finished the first one quickly and started on my second.
    “I can see that. Back to the first question.”
    The determined look in his eyes made it clear that he wouldn’t stop ‘til I told him. “It’s all I can draw. Just dragons and Powerpuff Girls. My dad got me books on how to draw when I was a kid. And it was all I could manage to learn.”
    He offered a sad smile. “Sounds like a good dad.”
    I dipped my head and chewed on the inside of my mouth. “He was. He was a very good dad.” And now he was in Heaven and I would never see him again. I was supposed to just try and figure out how to live with that pain. I hadn’t quite learned how yet.
    “He died?” Hale asked in a quiet and sure voice.
    “He did.” I looked back up at him and I could see the curiosity in his eyes. So I satisfied it for him. “He was old. He just slipped away. About a year ago.”
    “I’m sorry, Rory. It’s a shame when a good man dies.”
    It is.
    I started eating my lunch and it was quiet again. I wondered if he was finally seeing that this was a pointless endeavor for him. I wasn’t in the position to have friends. I was cold and sad. And I didn’t need to drag anyone down with me.
    “Shall I go next?” he asked and it made me look up at him. “If we’re sharing, you went, and now I should.”
    “If you want to.”
    “Ask a question. What would you like to know?”
    I wanna know about your scars. “Where are you from?”
    He looked at me like he was disappointed. “Really? That cannot be your question.”
    I shrugged.
    “Alright. I’m from New Orleans,” he said. That got an eyebrow rise from me. “I was born there. When I was a baby we moved to Bristol. My mother was born there and wanted to be back home. Then we moved back to New Orleans when I was eleven. Just after she…” His face said it for him.
    “I’m sorry.”
    “It’s alright,” he said numbly.
    “No, it’s not. And I know that it’s not.” God, did I know.
    He blinked. “You’re right. It’s not alright.”
    I finished my second milk and put it on my tray. Hale placed his unopened one next to my hand. I looked at him and he gestured to it. “Have it.”
    “Why?”
    “Because I want you to have it.”
    I couldn’t help but smile at him. Though I tried to rein it in as much as I could.
    “That’s one,” he said.
    “One what?” I took the milk and opened it.
    He stared at me in a way that made me want to look away. “That’s for me to know, Lamb. And maybe, one day, I’ll tell you.”
     
    
     
    I got to art class and Hale was on my tail the whole time. I hadn’t been able to shake him at lunch. He went to his canvas and I went to mine. The paintings were all set up in the same placed that they were the day before. Mrs. Lore must have placed them again.
    Hale walked around me and removed the blank canvas and switched it with his, so that he was working right next to me.
    “Whatcha doin’?” I asked as non-crossly as I could.
    “Moving places,” he said matter of factly.
    “Why?”
    He straightened out his canvas. “Because we’re friends now and I thought we should work together.”
    We were SO not friends. Not even a little. “And when exactly did that happen?”
    He looked up like he was thinking. “Honestly, I think it happened when you decided to push your textbook so that we could share it. That, or when you signed your picture for me. Doesn’t matter. We’re friends now. That’s the important thing.”
    Damn it. I really didn’t want to be mean to him, but he needed to understand that this wasn’t going to happen.
    “Look,” I turned to him. His face made me pause. He looked so sweet. And I was about to do something cruel. “I don’t have friends, and there’s a reason for that. I don’t do well with people and they don’t do well with me. So I think it would be better if we weren’t friends.”
    “You don’t want to be