Read Online Something Like Fate by Susane Colasanti - Free Book Online

suffocating air practically crushes you the second you leave the house.
    “I still walk them,” Jason says. “The tracks.”
    “Yeah?”
    “Yeah. My grandpa used to say that any problem I had could be worked out by walking the tracks. He said I could find all the answers out there.”
    How perfect would that be? I could use that kind of magic right about now.
    “Do you think it’s true?” I ask.
    “It works for me. Whenever I can’t get something out of my head, I walk the tracks. Everything just sort of clears away.”
    “I used to have a journal. The same thing would happen with me. As soon as I wrote about my problems, it was like they weren’t so bad anymore.”
    “Exactly. Once you put it all out there, you’re free.”
    Jason gets me. He even gets stuff I didn’t know I was trying to say.
    He goes, “Maybe you can come with me sometime.”
    “Where?”
    “For a walk.”
    “Okay. I mean, maybe. Not that I don’t want to. It’s—that sounds cool. I’m just not sure if . . . whatever. Walks are good.”
    Walks are good? Could I be a bigger spaz? What’s the big deal about walking? Not that Jason and I will be walking anywhere now. Now that he knows what a complete and total freak I am.
    “Do you still have a journal?” Jason says.
    “No. I thought about starting a blog, but that’s not really my thing.”
    “So what’s your thing?”
    “What do you mean?”
    “How do you deal with your problems?”
    “Oh.” I take a mental inventory of the things I do to feel better. Use my favorite bath bubbles. Do some more fate research. Plant trees. Somehow, none of my usual techniques has been all that effective lately. “I guess I don’t, really. Deal with them, I mean.”
    It’s so weird about Jason and the train tracks. When I was little, I was always fascinated by them. Where they were going. What they had seen. I wondered if anyone else was noticing them the way I was. There’s something about the train tracks that made me feel like I was in the center of everything, like I could go anywhere. The world felt so full of possibility. So I think it’s wild that this whole time, there was someone else out there who felt the same way.
    And now he’s here.
    “Everyone has their coping tricks,” Jason says. “Let’s see. Do you . . . get mad at the world and punch holes in the wall?”
    “No.”
    “No? Do you . . . eat ice cream and watch chick flicks?”
    “No.”
    “Are you sure?”
    “Yes.”
    “Are you ticklish?”
    “No!” I yell. Because I am so ticklish it’s not even funny.
    “Let’s make sure.” Jason tickles my side.
    “Stop!” I laugh-scream. “Stop it!”
    The porch door slides open.
    “Hey,” Erin says.
    Jason stops tickling me.
    I stop laughing.
    “Oh, hey,” he says. “We were just . . . talking.”
    “About what?”
    I can’t really remember what we were talking about. Something about journals and train tracks and . . . How did that turn into all the tickling?
    Erin looks at me.
    I go, “Um. Just . . . you know . . . random stuff . . .”
    “How’s Twister?” Jason says.
    “Over.”
    Blake swoops up behind Erin. He lifts her up and carries her out to the porch.
    “Put me down!” she squeals.
    “Not until you admit that I am the reigning Twister champion of all time that was and all time left to come.”
    “Fine.”
    “That doesn’t sound convincing!” Blake lifts her higher.
    “Okay, okay! You rule!”
    “Thank you.” Blake puts Erin down.
    “But you so cheated on left-hand yellow!” Erin yells. Then she runs off the porch shrieking with Blake chasing her. He catches her and carries her back.
    “It’s getting late,” Erin tells Jason. “I should go.” She sneaks a quick look at me. The sparkle in her eye says, Fill me in on what he said later?
    I give her a little nod. I wish I had something good to tell her.
    “Yeah, okay.” Jason gets up.
    I stay on the swing. I’m surprised at how much I don’t want him to leave.
    “So . . .”