Read Online Just Remember to Breathe by Charles Sheehan-Miles - Free Book Online Page A

loose around my shoulders. Because he liked it down. His arm was around my shoulder.
    A whole series of the youth hostel in Ein Gedi near the Dead Sea… where we’d kissed for the first time.
    Someone took a picture of us together standing on the Golan Heights, the Sea of Galilee to our backs. He was standing behind me, arms around my waist, my head thrown back in a giant laugh.  
    A series of greying photos taken in the photo booth at the bus station in San Francisco. He’d taken a Greyhound all the way from Atlanta to see me, the summer after his senior year. In the photos he was wearing a leather jacket and fedora, and we were kissing.
    Dried roses. They’d come on my nineteenth birthday, last fall, not long after he left for Afghanistan. It was the last thing I’d ever expected, to have flowers delivered from halfway around the world on my birthday.
    When Kelly walked in the room, I was curled up on my bed crying, surrounded by all the evidence of my stupid inability to let go.  
    She got one look and said, “Oh, no. Alex, hun. You’ve got it bad.”
    “Oh, shit, I’m sorry Kelly.”
    “It’s okay, babe. Slide over.”  
    I did, and she climbed into bed beside me and hugged me while I cried my eyes out.



CHAPTER FIVE

    Just remember to breathe (Alex)

    The alarm started ringing at an ungodly hour. As in before six in the morning. I hadn’t seen that early in the morning since high school, and I’d been perfectly happy that way.
    Kelly, across the room from me, muttered, “Oh my God, what the hell is that?” then started snoring again.
    At first, I rolled over and hit the snooze button. I closed my eyes, thinking I should just go back to sleep. My mind drifted, half unconscious, to a semi-dream.  
    I was holding hands with Dylan, and it was the summer before my senior year of high school. I could feel the calluses on the tips of his fingers from guitar playing. We’d walked a quarter of the way out on the Golden Gate Bridge, staying close the entire time, and were looking down at the bay. His eyes were wide, dreamy, and we talked about our dreams of the future.
    We were struggling, because our dreams were… different. He was going to travel, and write. I was going to college, probably in New York. He was finished with high school, and planned on leaving the country within months. I had another year in San Francisco. We’d turned to each other, there on the bridge, and as the wind blew through our hair he gently kissed me.
    Dylan.
    Dylan.
    My eyes popped open. It was 5:56, and I was going to be late.
    I jerked out of bed, stumbled, and fell flat, catching myself at the last second. Heart beating rapidly, I threw open my top drawer and started throwing clothes, trying to find something to wear.
    “What are you doing?”  
    Kelly asked, her voice slurred with sleep.
    “I’m late. To go running with Dylan.”
    “Oh. I must be dreaming. It sounded like you said you’re going running. I’ll talk to you later.”
    Her words faded into a mumble, and I finally found some shorts, a sports bra and a halter top. Where the hell were my sneakers? I searched for them, and finally stumbled over them and nearly hit my head. Oh, God. I was being such a spaz.  
    At 6:05 I sent Dylan a quick text message:
    Running Late. There vry soon.
    Then I ran out the door. I hoped he’d get the text. I hoped he’d wait for me. I hoped he wouldn’t hate me. Oh, God, why was I putting myself through this?  
    It was ten after six when I finally ran across 114 th Street, past the Butler Library and onto the field. At this time of the morning, the campus was virtually deserted, though there were a few early risers out there running in the darkness.
    I came up short when I saw him, my breath caught in my throat.
    Dylan wore grey cotton shorts and a t-shirt with the word ARMY emblazoned on it in large black letters, and he was in the middle of doing pushups when I saw him. His broad shoulders and thick biceps were clearly used