Fallen

Fallen by Laury Falter Page A

Book: Fallen by Laury Falter Read Free Book Online
Authors: Laury Falter
Tags: Romance, Fantasy, Young Adult
, but … where were you last?”
    All of a sudden he a ppeared uncomfortable and fidget ed with his sandwich. Finally, he answered, though it was in a low voice that I had to strain to hear. “ Las Vegas .”
    “ Me too,” I said, interested .
    He kept his eyes downcast, slowly, methodically eating his chips. The only sign that he was listening to me was his nod and an uncomfortable “Uh huh…”
    “My aunt is a traveling photographer who left me here while she spends the year in Paris on a shoot. So , I’m staying with a friend of hers. What were you doing in Las Vegas ?”
    “Oh … research … , ”
    “Really? O n what?”
    He drew in a breath and held it . H e looked like he didn’t want to answer. I was about to tell him to forget it – knowing how much I didn’t like it when others pried – but then he spoke.
    “On the person I was trying to find.”
    “The one who is here?”
    He nodded, still looking down and away.
    “Huh, guess you did a good job with your research,” I commented, smiling.
    He stifled a laugh . “It was more blind luck than anything.” Then , he was looking at me, suddenly having overcome his shyness. “What about you? Tell me where you’ve been. I know you have better stories to tell than I do.”
    “Oh, I don’t know about that,” I replied . I would have persisted in trying to dissuade him , but I saw his honest curiosity. U ltimately , I conceded.
    After we changed the subject , away from questions about him and I began to tell him about my past , Gershom then became noticeably more relaxed. Eventually, we moved on to talk about school and who we’d each met so far . Then he filled me in on school gossip.
    As it turned out, Ashley and Bridgette were great gossipers , because they filled Gershom in on nearly everyone at school during his orientation tour which he promptly relayed to me. But there was only one person who truly interested me , Achan. Unlike the girls who now swarmed him and fawned over him, I wanted to do my best to avoid him. I had never truly been afraid of anyone before crossing paths with him . I deciphered that blindly hating him was a natural re sponse to the fear that consumed me when he was close by . Gershom didn’t know much about him other than to say, “Looks like another one to avoid.”
    I agreed , completely.
    Unfortunately, after lunch, when I walked into European History , it became clear that avoiding him would be a problem .
    Knowing he was in t he room without having to look was easy. The moment I walked through the door, the electrical sensation jolted back to life, but only affected the back of my neck . I did look, though, unable to control myself , I found him sitting in the last row of the class . Even though his eyes weren’t the only ones focused on me , while Mr. Morow hastily introduced me, his were the only ones narrowed with unashamed animosity. A quick scan told me there was only one desk open , and it happened to be two seats in front of Achan.
    I sighed, thinking about how I would spend the entire class wondering if Achan ’s glare was focused on the back of my head.
    Mr. Morow shooed me down the aisle before returning to the white board and launching into an overview of the syllabus . B efore I turned to take my seat, my eyes connected with Achan’s . A cting on instinct, I narrowed my own to slits and tried hard to direct every bit of anger I could muster into the glare I returned.
    What happened next surprised me. It was so brief I nearly missed it .
    Achan flinched.
    His glare loosened and his eyes widened before returning to th eir former position. W hen he clenched his jaw , clear ly en rage d by my blatant , unspoken reprisal, the hair on the back of my neck went wild again. My body responded with a shudder , which I easily hid by settling into my seat .
    For the next hour, I shuddered uncontrollably every few minutes . I believed this was also every time Achan directed his fury at me and I tr ied to ignore the

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