Being True Read Online Free PDF Page B

my flesh. “You still look a little shaky.”
    That was no lie. My breathing had increased, and my blood pounded in my ears. If I tried to stand now, I’d likely resemble a newly born fawn unable to find his footing. But it wasn’t the fall that had caused these reactions. It was Javi.
    For a few moments, I said nothing, and neither did he. He sat cross-legged in the grass, gazing around the neighborhood. Every now and then, a car passed by. Sometimes, the driver honked and shouted a greeting at Javi, who raised his hand and waved in reply. Javi’s popularity apparently followed him beyond the hallowed halls of Burbank High, which wasn’t all that surprising.
    But while Javi studied his surroundings, I simply watched him. His long onyx hair fluttered about his forehead whenever the humid September breeze stirred the early-evening air. Every time he heard a bird chirp, he’d scan the trees and whistle back. Sometimes he’d receive a response and carry on a conversation with his new feathery friend. And the whole time, a big, cheesy grin lit up his face. As if speaking bird was the coolest thing he’d done all day.
    “Are you a bird whisperer or something?”
    Javi laughed before tearing his gaze from the cardinal he’d been chatting with in a neighboring pecan tree. “I don’t know. Maybe. I’ve just always been able to mimic birdcalls. Just one of my stupid childhood talents I’ve never outgrown.”
    “I don’t think it’s stupid,” I said as I sat up. “It’s neat.”
    “My friends don’t think so. They used to give me a hard time about it. So I really don’t do it as much as I used to when I was a kid.”
    “That sucks.”
    He shrugged. “Yeah, but what can you do? High school’s tough enough without being known as the weird bird boy.”
    I couldn’t help but stare at Javi as if a third eye had suddenly opened in the middle of his forehead.
    “What’s that look for?” he asked.
    “I find it hard to believe that high school, much less anything, would be tough for you.”
    Javi’s eyes caught mine. “Yeah, well, you’d be surprised.” The confident, carefree boy I’d met earlier today vanished almost entirely even though his half grin still blazed a trail across his lips. The guy who sat next to me now seemed lost and alone. The smile couldn’t hide that. But as suddenly as some unseen barrier had fallen, it immediately rebuilt itself. The lighthearted sparkle returned to his gaze before he glanced away and surveyed the trees again.
    “You never answered my question.”
    “What question is that?” he asked before sending a bird whistle out to the neighborhood and receiving another enthusiastic reply.
    “What are you doing here?”
    “Well, that’s a silly question. I live around here.”
    “I’d already guessed that,” I said. “What are you doing here with me?”
    Javi danced his bushy eyebrows across his lightly tanned forehead. He wrapped his sculpted arms around his knees and pulled them to his chest. Although he still wore his baseball shirt from class that morning, he’d abandoned his jeans for gym shorts. “Now you’ve gone from silly to strange. I’m here because you almost killed yourself. First with the train, and then when you learned you couldn’t fly over the rock you hit on the other side.”
    “I don’t understand why you care,” I admitted. No one outside my family had ever showed this much interest in my well-being. Why was Javi taking the time to be nice to a loser like me?
    “Jeez, kid,” he said. When he raised his hand, I flinched. I’d grown accustomed to quick hand gestures ending in a punch to the face or gut. I certainly hadn’t been prepared for Javi to rub my shoulder. “You must be having a really tough time, huh?”
    Tears welled in my eyes again. This time, it wasn’t because I was in pain or being bullied. They were falling because someone had finally noticed me.
     
     
    A FTER I’ D dried my tears, Javi invited me back to his house.