Catch Me When I Fall Read Online Free PDF Page B

know.”
    “Well, what about your group therapy? Is that helping?”
    Kayla shrugged and stood from the bed to stare out the window at the garden below.
    “Have you been playing your violin lately?”
    “No.”
    “Are they not letting you? I thought I made it very clear that music helps you.”
    “I don’t want to play.”
    A look of horror split her mother’s face. “You don’t want to play?” She spoke every word as if it was its own sentence.
    Kayla’s body snapped around so fast I would’ve had whiplash had I been in her shoes. “No,
Mom
. I don’t want to play. In fact, you can take it with you.” She stomped across the room, pulled out a case from under her bed and threw the violin in her mother’s lap.
    Kayla’s mother’s eyes reddened. “But you love your violin.”
    “No, I
loved
my violin. Past tense. As in I don’t want anything to do with the life I had before you and your boyfriend ruined it.”
    Pain and anger radiated off Kayla like heat from a furnace on a cold day. And I wasn’t the only one who felt her fury. Tabbi shot me a sidelong glance, and Kayla’s mother stood up from the bed, her cheeks flushed. She left the violin where she once sat, patting the box.
    “Its home is here with you.” She crossed the room to where her doctor’s coat laid and threw it on. Then she grabbed her purse and walked to the door. With her hand on the door’s handle, she turned back around to her daughter. “I love you, Kayla-Bear. When you’re ready to come home, just let me know.” She left the room without waiting for a word from her daughter.
    Ten seconds later, Kayla collapsed to the floor in heaving sobs. My heart lurched in my chest. I took a step forward, my body aching to hold her in my arms. Then, realizing what I was again about to do, I snatched my hand away.
    What the hell was that?
I had never felt like this before, not even when I was still human myself. Tabbi stared at me with a raised eyebrow, and I fought the urge to clear my throat. “You know, I think we’ve seen enough. What do you say to getting in a nap before nightfall?”
    “Yes, please!”
    When she slipped her hand into mine, I evaporated us back to the apartment building.

fter Kayla’s emotional breakdown—and my near slip-up—I’d tried to force myself to sit down in front of the television and pay attention to
Sportscenter
. But my attention had only stayed on the show for about twenty minutes before returning to her. Annoyed, I’d found a late afternoon course on OSU’s campus and hid, invisible, at the back of the room, listening to the professor lecture about imagery in eighteenth century literature.
    Now, I stood next to Tabbi in Kayla’s room, watching as she put finishing touches on the portrait she’d drawn of the old man sitting in the courtyard. The in-progress version had already impressed me, but her finished product was incredible. She used only pastels, yet the picture looked life-like and had captured so much beauty of the garden below.
    The door to Kayla’s room opened. A heavy-set nurse walked in with Kayla’s usual nighttime cocktail. “Lights out, Kayla.”
    Kayla closed her crayon box before taking the cup of water and swallowing her medicine.
    “Push the button if you need us,” the nurse said, leaving the room.
    Kayla climbed into bed when the nurse flicked off her light. Her soft snores were our cue. I pulled two daggers out of my belt while Tabbi went to work.
    Above the bed, the dream Tabbi weaved came to life. This time, Kayla stood on a stage in a long, black gown. She brought her violin up to her left shoulder and placed her chin in its rest. In her right hand was the bow, and after taking a deep breath, Kayla moved the bow across the violin’s strings.
    Music filled the room, each note on perfect pitch. It was a beautiful, melancholy tune that she played with so much emotion the song took on a life of its own. The melody sped up and slowed down in just the right places, grew