Read Online What They Always Tell Us by Martin Wilson - Free Book Online Page B

if the two of them are finally a couple now, after months of flirting and claiming to be “just friends.” The thought of them as a couple makes him feel a little queasy. Tyler and Kirk have never had serious girlfriends, and neither has Alex, and this seemed to bond them together. But after the summer, both of them started acting like they were girl magnets. They talked about the things they had done with girls—more than kissing and groping—but Alex had no stories of his own to tell. And it made him feel panicked and uneasy, because he knew this was loosening his ties to them.
    As he stands there, Alex tries to keep his eyes away from Kirk and Beth, but the more he avoids looking at them the more he can feel their presence. In a flicker, he sees Kirk staring straight at him, mouthing something to Beth, who is holding in a laugh. He wants to shout,
What’s so funny?
    He waits and waits, maybe ten minutes, which feels like eternity, and there is still no Nathen in sight. He has his appointment with Dr. Richardson in fifteen minutes, and if he doesn’t leave soon, he will be late. He starts to have an odd feeling about the whole situation, like the delay means bad news. And wouldn’t it suck to get the bad news right here, in this lot, under the eyes of Kirk and Beth? His heart starts to race, so he gets in his car and drives off, both disappointed and relieved.
     
    Later, in his room at home, Alex sits on his bed and starts reading
Uncle Tom’s Cabin
for English class. Mrs. Winters says it’s one of the great American novels. He’ll have to take her word for it, because so far it just seems like homework. But at least this homework—reading—is more enjoyable than translating some Spanish sentences or, worse, the set of trig problems due tomorrow. The sine function, the cosine function, the tangent function. And even more functions. All of it pointless. His parents took math all through high school and college and they both admit to not remembering any of it. So why should he even bother with it? Because he has to. It’s what you do. He sighs, letting out frustrated air.
    When the doorbell rings, he stays on his bed and waits for James to answer the door. He hears the door open and then voices—James’s and someone else’s. Then the voices get clearer and he realizes it is Nathen, now inside his house, come to see
him,
not James.
    Alex’s heart pounds and he lurches off the bed. He leaves his room and moves to the head of the stairs. Nathen, in the foyer with James, glances up and nods. “Hey, buddy,” he says, not even pausing for a response. “Good news: Coach Runyon gave us the go-ahead. He says he wants to see you run tomorrow. After school.”
    “Really?” Alex starts moving down the stairs. “You’re not kidding or anything?”
    “Nope. So get your running shoes on. I figure you might need one last training session, me and you.”
    James just stands there silently, blank-faced.
    “Okay,” Alex says. “I’ll be right down.”
    As he changes, Alex can hear them talking downstairs, but he can’t really make out any of the words. He puts on his gray sweatpants and a navy blue sweatshirt, laces up his worn-down jogging shoes, and finds Nathen where he left him.
    “Let’s go,” Nathen says.
    “Have a good run,” James says. “See you at school tomorrow.”
    The two knock fists and then Nathen and Alex head out.
    “Let’s run to the river and back again,” Nathen shouts as they take off. Alex nods. Talking while running is bad for his lungs, so they run in silence for a while, at a fast clip. Alex wonders if he can keep it up, but it’s easier with Nathen next to him. When they get to the river in the new subdivision, Nathen jogs in place on the freshly laid asphalt, while Alex catches his breath.
    “We gotta keep going, buddy. Only a brief rest!”
    Despite being beat, Alex smiles at Nathen’s bossy tone.
    “You’re doing great. Just keep it up,” he says, before darting off