Read A Density of Souls for Free Online Page B

wouldn’t dare think in the halls of Cannon School.
    An unseasonably cold winter stained the air. The sky was a flat gray and the oaks of uptown New Orleans stood out in a ferocious shade of green against the stone-colored clouds. After the final bell, Kate had snuck her a Marlboro Light she had stolen from her father’s hidden pack. Kate was taken aback when Meredith put the cigarette in her coat pocket and said she wanted to smoke it alone.
    By the time she was fifteen, Meredith did not feel awe for many things. The Mississippi River was one exception. Staring at the river from where she sat on the 4-Runner’s hood, her cigarette smoldering between her fingers, Meredith thought of a poster Mr. Carter had on his classroom wall—a drawing of a man in a black trench coat poised on the edge of a cliff, staring out at a stormy sea. She thought the man was supposed to be a poet but she wasn’t sure. Now she felt slightly like the man in the picture: the thought occupied her mind and eased the lingering burning sensation in her lower jaw. Only the wind wasn’t strong and the Mississippi was quiet and sluggish.
    Meredith and Greg had not said a word about the note in the month since Greg had written it and Brandon had taped it to Stephen’s book bag. The night before, she and Greg had been studying, which usually consisted of looking sidelong at their books for a while, and then falling back onto Meredith’s bed, where Greg would lift up her shirt and start gnawing her nipples through her bra, then manage to yank the cups down over the bottom of her breasts before finally undoing the hooks and taking it off. He had taken his shirt off, which made it better than usual.
    But then Greg had started in. Baby, baby, baby—over and over again, in low breathy moans. She had finally retaliated with an impatient, “What?”
    “Huh?” Greg gasped, his mouth still pressed against her breasts.
    “Baby . . . What?” Meredith asked.
    He hopped off the side of the bed and retrieved his T-shirt, which was dangling on the back of Meredith’s desk chair. He stabbed an arm through one sleeve. “You don’t have to be a bitch about it. If you don’t want to, then just say so . . .”
    “I didn’t say that,” she answered, her head hitting the pillow again.
    “No. You were just being a bitch!”
    The Falling Impossible
    35
    “You know what, Greg . . .” Meredith began and then stopped, bringing both hands to her forehead. Greg shot her a look of baffled frustration. Five more seconds and she knew he would be angry.
    “Whatever,” she whispered.
    “So you think I’m some moron?” Greg asked.
    He had read her mind. For an instant, Meredith thought that she might be wrong about him. Greg knew things the way she did, but he just couldn’t articulate them. Maybe she and Greg often shared the same thoughts, but neither of them could know for sure because they were always too afraid to express them.
    “Yeah, whatever!” Greg was getting breathless with fury. “You know, like, since we started high school you’ve become, like, this totally different person. It’s like you think if you’re as bitchy as Kate then you’re going to . . .”
    “I am not a different person!” Meredith cut in, jumping off the bed.
    “Jesus. Just go before my mom comes in.”
    “Meredith, if you think being a bitch is going to make you homecoming queen in four years, then just forget it because—”
    “What the hell is that supposed to mean? Homecoming queen?” Her anger was rising uncontrollably. She had been reaching for her bra, but now her arm had drifted to her side and she no longer cared that her breasts were still exposed. Greg had cut deeper than he realized. She liked to think that there was still a part of herself that was sanctioned off, a small portion that still connected her to the girl she had been before entering Cannon. She was outraged that Greg would be the one to try to convince her that her connection to the past did not