Page 48 of Room to Breathe

“Generally,” I said.

“Where’s the fun in that?” he returned, a twinkle in his eye.

“Is it safe?”

“The safest.” He put the board down again and held his hand out to the side as if to sayYour chariot awaits. I hesitated but then stepped on. It immediately shot out from underneath me, but he grabbed me by the waist before it got away. “Whoa there,” he said, stabilizing me.

I bent my knees a little, grounding myself into the board.

“Take a half step forward,” he said.

I did. Then he was behind me, one foot on the board, the other pushing off the ground. My back was pressed to his front.His hands were still on my waist as he steered us through the open-air hallways, around people and buildings. He wasn’t as careful as he should’ve been. People often had to jump out of the way, and twice my arm brushed along a pole he’d hugged too tight.

But my stomach was in my feet, wind blew through my hair, and a smile was on my face.

“You passed my class,” I said as he zipped by the door to the C building.

“What?” he asked, resting his chin on my right shoulder.

“My class. C building,” I said.

“Oh,” he said, and stopped the board. He held on to my waist until I stepped all the way off. “See you later, Jonesy,” he said.

“Not a fan of the name,” I told him as I walked away.

He ran up behind me and planted a kiss on my cheek, then was skating away.

I barely made it into my seat as the late bell rang. Beau looked over at me from where he sat on my right. He popped his eyebrows up in judgment. Suddenly my nerves were on high alert again as I remembered we were taking a test today. I would’ve normally been poring over flash cards this morning, but I hadn’t looked at them once. I felt entirely underprepared for this.

Mrs. Dulaney was already passing out the booklet. It was a show-your-work type of test, not multiple-choice. I hated that for me.

We hadn’t even started and sweat was beading at my temples and along the back of my neck. I dug a hair tie out of my bag and gathered my hair into a messy bun at the crown of my head. Mrs. Dulaney gave instructions as the test was placed in front of me andthen the timer was starting. Not an official timer or anything, just a countdown until the end of the period, the seconds ticking away on the wall clock.

My eyes went to the first problem. I solved it, along with the second and third. But then I slowed down. I couldn’t remember the formula to solve the fourth. I skipped it, along with the fifth. I completed several at the end. And then I was back to the ones I’d skipped in the middle. There were six of them? Had I really skipped six of them? I didn’t remember. It was only a fifteen-question test. Six questions was too many to get wrong.

I could remember the formula. I closed my eyes for a second…or two or three. My brain was foggy, tired. My face felt hot, my palms sweaty. My head fell forward and I jerked it up. Had I fallen asleep? My eyes shot to the clock on the wall. I had twenty minutes left. I’d lost fifteen minutes somewhere. Twenty minutes for six problems. That was…three minutes for each? A little more than three minutes. I could do them if I could remember the formula.

To my right, Beau was done and double-checking his work. I looked at his page, telling myself I was just double-checking his work too. Then I realized I had seen his answer, his formula. I blinked. Had I meant to do that? It would help me with questions four and five. I must’ve meant to because I kept my eyes on his answers as he flipped to the next page I needed.

I scanned the page.Of course, how could I have forgotten how to do that?I felt relief for one second until Beau’s hands moved over his answers and my eyes shot to his. He was looking at me with a confused expression. I averted my gaze and finished the test…with his formulas and answers.

I tried to make myself feel better by telling myself that if I had just had my textbook, I would’ve gotten the same answers. If I’d had better sleep last night. If my dad wasn’t in the middle of some very serious allegations. If my family wasn’t falling apart…then I wouldn’t have cheated.

Chapter 21

Now

“What’s it about?” I asked.

We’d played Go Fish until we were tired of it, and then Speed, which didn’t work well with paper cards. They ended up crumbled or ripped. Now Beau was back to reading and I was trying to think of another game we could make out of paper. I settled on a cootie catcher—also a game from my childhood. Well, not exactly a game, but it would be entertaining. I folded the paper, not sure if I remembered exactly how to do it.

“The book?” he responded. He was leaning up against the wall next to me now, instead of on the counter.

“Yes,” I said.

“Haven’t you read a couple of chapters?”

“I didn’t absorb them. I was just reading the words and then falling asleep.”