Read Online Even If the Sky Falls by Mia Garcia - Free Book Online

shrugs. “It’s kind of like breathing here. And even if you don’t believe, you don’t go around traipsing in cemeteries and kicking over gravestones. There’s a level of . . .”
    â€œRespect,” Danny offers.
    â€œFear,” Taj adds.
    â€œTradition,” Danny again, making it into a test.
    â€œAll of the above,” Miles says. “It’s just . . . you know?”
    â€œNot really.” I shake my head.
    I can feel Miles’s breath on my neck. “Don’t worry, Sunshine, by the end of tonight you will.”
    His reaches over, fingers wrapping around my wrists, his touch speaking of the night ahead—a night to live and forget.
    God, just let me forget. A silent prayer I recite to myself. Already the thoughts of Adam and my life back home threaten to sneak in like water through a crevice. I know that if I turn my phone on I’ll have triple the texts I had before. My head starts to pound when I think of all the unanswered messages piling up, pouring out of my phone, and wrapping themselves around me. They repeat like a broken record, Where are you? , until I push them back down.
    â€œPromise?”
    Miles holds out his hand, flipping it over to loop his pinkie with mine. “Promise.” He holds me there, his eyes on mine—I think—until I believe him. Idly I notice that I’m tracing the line of the bracelet he wears on his wrist. Fine and delicate, it’s refreshingly cooler than my skin feels right now.
    â€œYo, is that Amy and the girls?” Taj points with his chin off into the crowd.
    Miles’s hand drops, and his head snaps back to Taj, then scans the crowd, his eyes narrowing. “Yeah.” His brow furrows for a moment before he wipes the worry from his face—it’s a conscious change, a kind of mask because I can still read the tension in his body. Something I’ve become rather adept at the last couple of months. Hunchedshoulders, bowed heads . . . just because you are not speaking does not mean you are silent.
    I don’t tell Miles this, that I can read him and know the bright smile he flashes back to me isn’t quite as honest as he’d like it to be. A flush of disappointment creeps in, tugging my shoulders down as I curl inward. Somewhere behind me a tuba blares, kicking me out of my spiral and blasting away the feeling of disenchantment. I don’t care how much truth there is to this night. I’m not looking for truth, I’m looking to escape, so I take his smile and move past it.
    â€œWho’s Amy?”
    â€œFriend of a friend.”
    Danny and Taj exchange glances. I’m smart enough to realize that either Amy is his girlfriend or friends with his girlfriend or someone he hooked up with. If I was being optimistic I’d guess his sister, maybe? Either way Amy is not someone Miles wants me to meet.
    â€œIs she coming on the ghost tour?” I keep my tone light and innocent.
    Miles shrugs, moving us under a balcony where it is considerably darker. I follow his gaze to a group of girls dressed up like birds. It’s unclear if they were part of the parade or are just heading out to join the parties—their effervescent energy seems natural as they make their way through the square. Miles shifts farther back into the shadows, while Taj and Danny stand in front of us.
    â€œWho are you hiding from?” I whisper in Miles’s ear.
    â€œWhat?” He turns to me, his face so close to mine. His eyes dart to my lips, realizing how close they are to his.
    I roll my eyes. “You’re hiding from someone, I can tell.”
    â€œNot at all.”
    â€œYou are far from subtle.”
    Miles is about to deny it when there are shouts from the girls. They’ve spotted Taj and Danny, who have made no effort to hide. Miles’s shoulders visibly slump, and I want to laugh at his misery when my own face falls because out there, in the crowd behind the girls, is