Deadly Little Lessons Read Online Free PDF Page B

Ben.
    “Tell me what’s going on,” Adam says.
    “I just found out that my parents aren’t really my parents. My biological parents, I should say.”
    “Wait, what ?”
    I gaze out the window at the Tree Huggers’ sanctuary, almost wishing there could be some other way to make him know the truth without my actually having to say the words.
    But there isn’t. And so I tell him everything.
    “Whoa,” he says, combing his fingers through his shaggy dark hair. “I’m not even sure what to say to that.”
    “Well, maybe we don’t need to say anything.” I turn to him, hungry for his affection—for him to take me in his arms and tell me that it’ll all work out fine.
    But unfortunately, he doesn’t hold me at all. Instead, his face brightens. “I think I know something that’ll make you feel better,” he says.
    He puts the Bronco in drive and moves out onto the main road, eventually crossing over into the town of Hayden. Is he taking me to his apartment to talk? Is there something he wants to show me at the college he attends?
    There’s a Ferris wheel in the distance. I’m assuming we’re going to drive past it, but Adam pulls into the parking lot of the carnival.
    A proud smile sits on his lips, as if bringing me here is the best idea he’s had in a while. “No way anyone can stay upset at a carnival, right?”
    I want to tell him that I’m not up for it, but I’m too emotionally drained to argue. Plus, he seems so excited by the idea that I don’t have the heart to tell him that bringing me to a carnival isn’t remotely close to what I need right now. And so I suck it up and pretend to enjoy the ride.

A DAM PULLS UP in front of my house to drop me off. We stayed at the carnival for about an hour, during which I tried to have fun. I went on a couple of rides, ate some cotton candy, and fed a few of the petting-zoo goats. But, as hard as I tried, I was way too distracted to enjoy myself.
    Adam turns from the wheel to look at me. “I’m sorry if that was a lame idea. I just thought…how can anyone stay sad while hanging upside down on the Twirl-’n’-Spin, right?”
    “Except I don’t do upside down,” I remind him, hating myself for sounding so deflated.
    “And now I know,” he says, still trying to keep things light. “From now on, it’ll be nothing but right-side up between us.”
    “You’re very sweet, you know that?” I smile, the first smile on my face all day, and it actually feels pretty good. I lean in to kiss him good-bye, grateful for his attempt to cheer me up. “I’ll call you later?”
    “I hope so.”
    I kiss him again, feeling guilty for my lackluster mood, but I can’t fake what I’m feeling.
    Inside the house, to my surprise, I find Kimmie sitting perched on the living room sofa awaiting my arrival. In a sleeveless dress with a gargoyle-esque creature adorning the front, she looks more than slightly agitated, as evidenced by the way her arms are folded, the scowl on her face, and the bloodstained tongue of the aforementioned gargoyle. “Your. Bedroom. Now ,” she demands, before I even utter a hello.
    I lead her into my room, relieved to finally be able to tell her stuff.
    She closes the door behind us. “So, um, what’s going on?” Her arms still folded, she taps the toe of her stiletto against the floor. “Because you were acting totally freakish on the phone earlier, and I’m not the only one who thought so.”
    “Have you been talking to Wes?”
    “He said you sounded like a mental patient, and from what he told me, I couldn’t have agreed more.”
    “Maybe ‘mental patient’ isn’t one of the most appropriate analogies to make with me these days,” I say, considering the fact that it was only months ago that doctors wanted to lock me up in a mental ward for hearing voices and talking about my premonitions.
    “Since when am I appropriate about anything?” she asks, motioning to the front of her dress; there’s a plastic fork stuck in the