The Rules of Regret Read Online Free PDF Page B

it
curled around his ears and hung on his neck, but judging from the rest of his
overly-casual look, I guessed this was the way he liked it. I actually kind of
liked it, too. “ We
get dozens of letters every year from campers and parents that say Quarry
Summit saved them. Feels like we ’ re
using Randy ’ s
death for good, you know? ”
    “ Yeah, ” I said, my breathing still unsteady.
Maybe it was the altitude. Or the withdrawals. “ I ’ m so sorry, Torin. I honestly had no
idea. ”
    He
winked, which caught me completely off-guard. Not necessarily the winking part,
but the part where it made my stomach flip-flop. I hadn ’ t been ready for that type of
visceral reaction. “ You
should have done your research, fancy pants Ivy Leaguer. It ’ s in our mission statement. ”
    “ The term Ivy League refers to an
athletic conference, not academics. Stanford ’ s a Pac-12 school. ”
    “ Gotcha. I thought it meant something
else, ” he said, thumbing his chin in the slight little divot that made it a little
like a butt chin, but much cuter than the ones I ’ d seen before. “ I do not think it means what you think
it means, ” Torin recited in a strange, foreign accent. I gave him a puzzled look and he
lifted his hands in the air as he shook his head dubiously. “ Princess Bride? ” He tilted toward me, awaiting my
reply. I offered him a blank stare as my only response because that was all I
had. “ Inigo
Montoya? You killed my father? Prepare to die? ” I shook my head, totally clueless,
and you would have thought I ’ d
just admitted to not knowing the Pledge of Allegiance. Apparently this Inigo
fella ranked pretty high in the necessary repertoire of common knowledge.
    Torin
smirked wryly. “ So
I ’ m the one that grew up on a secluded
mountaintop, but you ’ re
the one that sounds like you were completely robbed of your childhood. ”
    “ In more ways than you know. ” Wow. That was totally cryptic, so I
added, “ I
was only robbed because we had eight childhoods going on at once. Mine just got
thrown into the mix. Kinda like trying to watch eight TV shows on eight
different TVs at once — each
story blends with the other and it all just becomes a cacophony of chaos. ”
    Torin
held back to wait for me to walk the few feet to catch up with him and then he
resumed his pace at my side, facing forward this time. I wasn ’ t sure where we were going, but I
followed. “ You ’ re one of eight? That ’ s crazy. ” His eyes were wide. “ And you seem a little crazy, too, you
know that? Attending such a prestigious school, but not knowing the entire
script of Princess Bride? Total crazy status. ”
    We
rounded a turn and headed down the incline past the cabins that dotted the
hillside. A thick line of trees skirted the structures, and I could see wires
that hooked between each of them like tightropes in the sky. “ It ’ s only seven now. ” I kept my eyes held to the ground. “ Only seven kids in my family, I mean. ”
    He
halted for a moment, then continued once he realized I was still moving
forward. “ That
something you want to talk about? ” The sensitivity in his tone was alarmingly comforting, and though he ’ d just admitted to losing a sibling,
I didn ’ t
want to talk, so I just said, “ Nope, ” and then he said, “ Okay, ” without even missing a beat, like he
could completely read my social cues. “ But
it does sound like fun, ” he added, “ having
all those siblings around. ”
    I
shrugged my shoulders. “ Trust
me, it ’ s
more fun in theory than in reality. ”
    “ Okay, ” Torin said, nodding. His endearingly
disheveled hair bounced along his ears. “ I
can do that. ”
    “ Do what? ” I followed at his side, and when the
trees opened up into a small clearing, I lifted my gaze to meet his.
    “ Trust you. ” He pointed a finger above us toward
the rope ladders, zip lines, and netting strung in the canopy of trees. “ Because that ’ s the theme of our