Promise Me Anthology Read Online Free PDF Page B

damned if he was going to attend any stupid
orientation. He’d always been a loner, and he was happiest in the
woods. That day had been a beautiful one, far too beautiful to
waste inside with strangers. Not when the mountains he’d come here
to see were finally his to explore.
    He’d planned to hike Maroon Lake, and maybe
work on a sketch of the famous mountains. The Maroon Bells were
some of the most famous mountains in Colorado, and the most
photographed, with Maroon Peak being the highest mountain Colorado
boasted. If anything was going to inspire him, this would.
    The view didn’t disappoint. The reddish
mountains loomed over the glacier-sculpted lake, perfect and
timeless. The hills were awash in fall’s vibrant colors, the leaves
surreally vivid, as if they had to be a painting, not living
breathing nature. But far more interesting was the girl Theo saw
before him on the trail, her attention so focused on the view that
she didn’t hear him approach.
    Theo walked up discreetly, sure at any moment
the girl would turn, or give some sign she had seen him. Yet he
managed to get within a foot of her unnoticed.
    “Boo,” he said softly in her ear.
    “I heard you,” she said easily, as if they
were old friends. “Don’t think you scared me, because you
didn’t.”
    “You’ve got nerves of steel,” Theo replied,
cracking a smile.
    She turned and looked at him, her friendly
smile enough to make his breath catch in his throat. Her short
blond hair was up in a tight ponytail, her blue eyes teasing.
“Don’t I know you?”
    No, he didn’t know her. But God, how he
wanted to. “I’m Theo. I’m taking courses at the Colorado Mountain
College.”
    She took his proffered hand and shook it.
“Hi. I’m Casey. I’m going there, too. Are you taking EMT
classes?”
    Theo shifted, suddenly uncomfortable. That
was what he’d told his father he was taking. “No, Visual Art.”
    Casey nodded approvingly. “So you’re an
artist.”
    “I’d like to be a sculptor,” Theo elaborated,
encouraged. “I plan to get an Associate’s Degree here, then
transfer to a School of Visual Art.”
    “That’s so cool,” Casey replied. “You must be
really good. I love to draw, but my parents refused to foot the
bill for art classes. We settled for EMT, with a longer goal of an
Associate’s Degree in chemistry.” She held up a pad and graphite
pencil, an artist’s eraser looped around the black painted wood.
“Not that I’ve given up all hope.”
    “They don’t know,” Theo blurted out, turning
away to look at Maroon Bells. “I lied, told them I was signing up
for EMT classes. But I registered for art. They’re probably going
to make me leave when they find out. But I don’t care.”
    Casey looked at Theo a moment, then at the
Maroon Bells in the distance. “You know why they call them the
Deadly Bells?”
    Theo shook his head. “I’ve never heard that
name for them.”
    “They’re made of mud stone,” Casey said. “Not
granite or limestone, like other mountains here. That gives them
their color. Mudstone is weak and fractures easily. A lot of people
have died here in climbing accidents over the years, when the rock
they trusted with their life crumbled away.”
    Theo was silent, unsure if his teasing
comment that Casey seemed a little too into tragic events would be
welcomed.
    “I call them Heart’s Bells,” Casey continued
softly. “Not just because of their pretty color, but because of
their nature. Hearts are like that—easily broken.” She touched his
hand gently. “You should do what you want, Theo. If you think that
art is what you were meant to do, don’t let anything stop you.”
    Theo swallowed hard, not trusting himself to
respond. Instead, he just clasped her hand in his, looking out over
Heart’s Bells.
    * * * *
    It hadn’t taken long for Theo to fall for
Casey. They’d become fast friends, spending most of their time
together, even as Casey introduced him to her circle. Theo had