Try Not to Breathe by Jennifer R. Hubbard Page B

wanted to see me.
    “Well, you have to come by. Will you have time?”
    “We can manage it.” Yeah, we could probably find time for the whole purpose of our trip. “We should be there around eleven.”
    “You can have lunch here. That’s great; I can’t wait to see you.”
    Can’t wait. Was she just being nice? Thinking it would be fun to see an old friend? Or was there another thread in her voice?
    Maybe I should just be glad that she wanted to see me. Maybe I should get the hell off the phone before I said too much.
    “See you tomorrow,” I said. My stomach rolled over, and it felt like a hummingbird was stuck in my throat. Tomorrow. After all this time, after four long months, I would be with Val tomorrow.
    • • • • •

    “A girl was here to see you this morning, while you were out running,” Mom said to me at dinner that night. “I’ve seen her in the neighborhood before—I can’t remember her name—”
    “Girl?” I said. It took me a minute to realize who she meant. “Oh, Nicki Thornton. She lives down on Route 7.” I picked a sliver of onion out of my green beans. “That reminds me, we’re doing a hike tomorrow, bringing a lunch and everything.” That would explain my being out of the house all day.
    “Make sure you bring your phone so I can reach you. Is she your girlfriend?”
    “No.”
    “She would be a very pretty girl if she’d had braces,” my mother said. “Those teeth!”
    “There’s nothing wrong with her teeth.”
    “She has an overbite.” Mom stuck her teeth out at my father. “Like this.”
    “She doesn’t look like that.” Maybe Nicki had a little overbite; I’d never really noticed. My mother had gone gargoyle with her imitation.
    “Thank God you never needed braces. Although, I don’t know, your bottom teeth are slightly uneven. It doesn’t show much, but sometimes I think we should have done that little extra bit—”
    “Ryan doesn’t need braces,” Dad cut in.
    “No, he doesn’t need them, but it would be an enhancement.”
    “I don’t need to be enhanced, thanks,” I said.
    We all went back to chewing. The thought of seeing Val tomorrow made me want to fly right out of my chair. It was the same feeling I’d had at the edge of the quarry—how I wanted to jump, to fall without landing.
    “You’re awfully quiet tonight,” my mother said to me after a long pause.
    Before Dr. Briggs went on vacation, we’d had a family session where my mother complained that I never told my parents anything, and they wanted to know what was going on with me. So I said, “I was thinking about skydiving. I’d like to try it.”
    Their forks froze. Their mouths paused in midchew. I wasn’t sure, but they might’ve stopped breathing, too.
    “I know it’s expensive. But I was looking it up online today, and it only costs two hundred bucks for a one-day session. Less per person if you can get a group.” Not that I had any idea who would want to join a skydiving group with me. “Maybe I could do it for my birthday. They’re open all year.”
    “No,” my father said.
    “Are you out of your mind?” My mother’s fork clattered to the table. “You think we’re going to let you jump out of a plane ?”
    “Absolutely not,” Dad said. His face was gray and rigid. Concrete.
    “Don’t they have an age requirement?” Mom asked.
    I hadn’t checked. But now that she brought it up, it wouldn’t surprise me if they did.
    “There’s no way I would allow that. What kind of parents would let their children jump out of airplanes? It’s insane.” Mom’s face went pink on the last word.
    “Where did you get this idea?” Dad asked, frozen lipped.
    “I was—” I stopped before I could mention the quarry. The way they were acting right now, I was sure they would forbid me to go there if they knew. “I was thinking it would be fun.” It was the truth, but I choked on the word “fun” because they looked so horrified. “Mom was asking what I wanted, a