The Rules of Regret Read Online Free PDF

”
    His
green eyes grew into silver dollars like I just admitted to committing some
egregious crime. “ But
they ’ re
magically delicious! ” He laughed again and tugged on the drawstrings to his worn sweatshirt, pulling
it back and forth through the hood. His jeans had holes at the knees and he
wore shoes identical to his mom ’ s,
which would be endearing if he were four, but he wasn ’ t four, so it just seemed a little
silly. “ Do
you have any questions about anything my dad covered? ” Torin lifted his chin toward the
stage as if to recall the past hours ’ worth of instructions in one swift motion.
    “ I have a lot of questions. The first
one being: what on earth am I doing here? ”
    “ Well, ” Torin said, looking down at his
nails rather than at me. He had the aloof, indifferent act down pat. “ My first guess is you needed the
money. Judging from your email, I bet you have plans to spend that money on the
flight to visit your boyfriend. ” He ran the pad of his thumb over his nail bed. “ The second guess is that you
subconsciously want a challenge. And you ’ ll
definitely find that here. ”
    “ One out of two isn ’ t so bad, ” I said, shrugging. “ Unless you count it percentage-wise,
and then in that case you get 50%. Which is an F. Which is honestly as bad as
it gets. So it ’ s
actually pretty bad. ” The rest of the paired-up counselors started to filter out the door, but Torin
didn ’ t
look like he had plans to go anywhere the way he was slouched down into his
seat. He looked quite at home.
    “ I ’ ve never been too good in school, ” he laughed, suddenly bolting upright
with his palms pressed to his thighs. “ So.
Want a tour? ”
    “ You know this place pretty well, I
gather? ” I shadowed Torin as he stood and walked out through the Rec Hall doors, his
gloved hand catching the handle to hold it open for me. The sun beat down overhead,
but there was still an unexpected chill in the mountain air, which seemed odd
for June.
    “ You could say that, considering I was
born here. ” He kicked a rock across the parking lot and it hopped like it was skimming the
surface of a pond before it wedged against the base of a truck ’ s tire tread. Boys like Torin didn ’ t exist back at home and I didn ’ t quite know what to make of him, or
how to even act around him. I tried to envision him decked out in the Ralph
Lauren styled threads of the guys I usually hung around with, and the thought
made me giggle silently to myself.
    “ You were born here? ” I said, hoping my words would mask
the fact that I was laughing at him. “ As
in, this is your home? ”
    Torin
swiveled to face me, but continued walking, just backwards with long,
intentional strides. I figured he really knew this place like the back of his
hand if he was able to blindly guide his way around. “ Yessiree. Mom and Dad started this
camp back before I was born. Used to just be an adventure camp, but we changed
the focus seven years ago after my older brother committed suicide. ”
    I
blanched. Any other comments that were waiting to fall out of my mouth hung
back in my throat. I swallowed them down quickly, tasting the bitterness of
each syllable. That was a lot of disclosure from someone I ’ d only known five minutes. All he
knew about me was that I might like Lucky Charms, which I actually didn ’ t, so he really didn ’ t know anything at all. But I
suddenly knew he had a dead brother. I thought about opening up to him a bit,
but decided against it, still too stunned to really speak.
    Torin
picked up on my hesitation and smiled cautiously.
    “ Don ’ t feel bad, ” he said, continuing his backward
movement. “ Reinventing
the camp was a huge part in their healing process. I can ’ t even begin to tell you how many
lives it ’ s
probably helped. ” He ran his gloved fingers through the length of his blond hair. It was that
awkward stage where it looked like he was due for a haircut by the way