What They Always Tell Us Read Online Free PDF

better at tennis anyway. He knows he is good-looking—not because he’s full of himself or anything, but because girls and other people tell him so. He makes really good grades. People laugh at what he says. They think he’s cool.
    And so here they are, at the hotel. Maybe it’s not even a hotel. Maybe it’s a motel. What’s the difference? It’s called La Quinta Inn, but James has never taken Spanish and he doesn’t know what
la quinta
means. The building is all off-white stucco with a red-slate roof. A little touch of the Southwest right here in Alabama.
    James is spent, irritated, and just as he’d predicted, Alice starts touching him. And of all the things in the world he wants right now, her touching him is
not
one of them.
    He shuffles away from her on the bed, toward the phone. He picks up the receiver.
    “Who you calling?” she asks, sounding annoyed but not angry.
    James shakes his head. He is calling Greer, one of his best friends. But the phone rings and rings, and he figures Greer is out with Julie, the college girl he met at a frat party a few weeks back. Everyone thinks Greer is this big stud for scoring a college girl, but she’s not that hot—James has met her. What kind of girl would date a high school senior anyway? James wonders.
    It’s a different story for college guys. Lots of girls in his class have college-age boyfriends. For instance, his ex Clare—she’s now one of these girls, dating some guy from Cullman who is a sophomore Phi Delt at Alabama. She probably thinks she’s hot shit now. Sure, she acts as nice as she always did, but James can sense the smugness underneath.
    “I knew I should have brought some of my mom’s booze,” Alice says.
    “I wish you had, too.” He scoots back onto the bed and flips the channel, hoping against hope that something new is on.
    “We could go get your stash at your house,” she says. James guesses she is bored, too, desperate for the energy in the room—or lack of energy—to change.
    “I’m not going there.”
    “Because of your brother?” she asks.
    James doesn’t reply. He stops the remote on a sports channel. Football is on, two schools he doesn’t give a shit about. Still, it’s better than a stupid movie or an infomercial. And at least it’s noisy.
    “Seriously,” Alice says, nuzzling closer to him, her clammy hands on him again, her long fingernails scratching his shoulder. “What’s the deal with you and your brother?”
    James doesn’t want to answer. He doesn’t know
how
to answer. So he grabs Alice closer to him and starts kissing her. He can feel her relax now, and even if he’s not in the mood, at least this will keep her quiet.
     
    The night of the incident with Alex at the party—James can’t call it an accident, though that is how his parents sometimes refer to it—James had been hanging out with Nathen Rao and Preston Atkins. They are his other best buds. Greer had had a date that night or something. Greer always has dates, always has a girlfriend—he’s one of those guys.
    They were all seniors, newly minted, and refused to stoop to showing up at Marty Miller’s party. Marty was a junior, and most of the kids at his party would be, too. Or younger. James knew that Alex was going with his own friends, and that was just one more reason for him to skip it. To be honest, Alex put him on edge. At home he was quiet and closed off, like he was hoarding misery. Not that he had ever been loud or rambunctious, but he used to be good-natured and outgoing, fun to be around. People had liked him. But in the spring, soon after he turned sixteen, something in Alex seemed to shift. He became morose, even lazy—his usually tidy room was littered with dirty clothes and stray sheets of paper, magazines, and dog-eared books. He seemed awkward, too, like he was unable to function in social situations. After school ended James dragged Alex with him to Greer’s house for a small gathering, and he didn’t say a word the