Falling for Autumn Read Online Free PDF Page B

safe to assume his arrival was her attempt at setting us up. I had thought it was something I wanted, but Blake was confusing my feelings. I couldn’t understand him. He was making it a point to get to know me, but would come off as cold at times, keeping me at arm’s length.
    Lexi made a show of looking at her watch. “You know what? I told Finn we would meet up and head to the gym. I’ll have to catch you both later.”
    Before a protest could escape my lips, Lexi grabbed her purse and shot out of the room. I took note of the boots she was wearing—not exactly something she’d have on for working out. I planned to pay her back later for the impromptu setup. I didn’t like the feeling of being bulldozed into dating Josh.
    Josh sat down on my desk chair while I remained on my bed. He smiled in my direction and I relaxed. Josh was safe; I’d been alone with him before without my panic rearing its ugly head. However, I was pleased to note Lexi left the door ajar before bailing on me.
    “How are your classes going?” Josh asked.
    “I can’t complain. It may be a different story once we get closer to midterms,” I said.
    “Are you going home anytime soon?”
    “Not until spring break. My parents insist on picking me up. They won’t let me take the train. I hate to make them do the drive unless I’m going to be home for more than a weekend.”
    My parents had closed ranks after my junior year in high school. They put me on a short leash and in all honesty I didn’t mind it. I no longer had any friends back home, so it wasn’t like I had anywhere to go. In my parents’ minds, they’d given me too much freedom. They reasoned if I’d been better supervised, my downfall would’ve never happened. A two-hour train ride was something they decided was too dangerous for me to do on my own.
    “I’m going to wait until spring break too. You know , since we’ll both be around on the weekends, we should plan to get together some time.” Josh was trying hard to sound casual, but the sheen on his brow clued me in on his anxiousness. He was sweet and cute, but I never thought of him as anything more than a friend. I never felt butterflies long after seeing him. Going out with Josh wouldn’t be fair to him. Josh deserved a girl whose toes curled each time she thought about kissing him.
    “We should do that, but just so you know, I’m not looking to date. I like you, but…”
    He interrupted. “We don’t have to label it. We could go out to dinner and just take it from there.”
    “Dinner sounds date-like.”
    “Why? We’ve gotten food together before. Besides , you eat with Blake all the time and you’re not dating.” He persisted, “I saw him dropping off Kaylee—remember her, the blond cheerleader we took biology with last semester?—at her dorm yesterday morning. She was wearing a short red dress so I’m assuming it wasn’t for a breakfast date.”
    Josh was testing my reaction. He had no idea how wel l I could hide inside of myself, showing a calm exterior when a storm was raging. It had been key to my survival when the floor dropped out from under me and I was left alone. I was harassed mercilessly with no one to stand by me. Showing a reaction would’ve only made things worse.
    Concentrating on leaving my face expressionless, I shrugged. I wasn’t surprised about Blake having a one-night stand; I wasn’t immune to hearing the rumors about his reputation. Since we met, my ears perked up whenever his name was mentioned in conversation. I never asked him about the rumors and we instead spoke of what I considered our safety net: art history, football, and college. Blake had a tendency to work the conversation around to high school time and time again, but he was picking up on my discomfort about the topic. It disappointed me to think he was the type to peak in high school and always looking back on his so-called glory days.
    “I didn’t want to tell you at first, but I figured you were too smart to