Read Push and Shove: The Ghost Bird Series: #6 (The Academy) for Free Online Page B

you tell Max to jump on me that night?”
    Kota’s head ducked slightly, his shoulders hunching. “I might have said something...”
    My eyes widened. I couldn’t believe it. I attempted to recall what he’d told me when I was trying to run off for the night to escape my parents and Max jumped on me. “You’d said the lead was old.”
    “It was old,” he said, gently tapping the wet cotton ball to my toes.
    “And that it broke...”
    He cringed again. “It might not have broken that much.”
    “Kota!”
    He held onto my foot, cupping around the top and smoothing his fingers over it. He turned partially to look back at my face. “You looked like you were running away.”
    I darted my eyes away to avoid his. I didn’t like the term running away , even if it was probably accurate. “How did you know I was out there? I mean, it was dark.”
    “I’d just gotten back from some Academy work and I noticed you standing there in your drive. I thought you were going to change your mind and run back into your house like you usually did. But then I saw the book bag you were carrying. So I grabbed Max...”
    “Wait, wait,” I said, holding out a hand onto his shoulder. “What do you mean, ‘like I usually did’?”
    His cheeks brightened. One hand released my leg to hook into the collar of his shirt and tugged. “Um...”
    “Kota?”
    He ducked his head a bit. “I might have seen you around the neighborhood a few times before that night.”
    I tilted my head back, surprised. “You knew who I was? You were watching me?”
    He spun around until he was on his knees in front of me. He planted his hands on either side of my hips and his eyes locked with mine. “Yes,” he said quickly. I sensed he was done tiptoeing around the subject. “I did. I saw your family move in, your parents, you and your sister. Your sister basically disappeared into that house and never came back out again, as did your mom. You would creep out the back door and race off into the woods like you didn’t want anyone to notice. I didn’t understand at the time why you made it look like you were trying to avoid being seen.”
    My cheeks were on fire. I didn’t know how to respond. He’d noticed me, when I thought I was still the invisible girl. “So you had your dog run me over?”
    “I’d tried to approach you before,” he said. His fingers stretched toward my face, capturing a lock of my hair, tucking it behind my ear. His fingertips slid down my cheek. “I tried to approach you when you walked through the woods. I thought it’d be easier if I just happened to cross your path and said hello. You’d change direction before I got close. If I tried to cut you off, you’d dart through a patch to avoid me and race back to your house again. You were impossible to approach. You never just walked out in the open.”
    My mind flickered to the memory of hearing rustling in the woods when I used to go for walks. While I hadn’t seen who it was, I never waited to find out who, either. I knew I wasn’t alone on the street, and that other people probably used those paths, and I’d done my best never to run into anyone. I was too shy. “I just... it’s what I was used to.”
    “I didn’t want to run after you and scare you,” he said. He sat back on his heels. “When I saw you out that night, I just pieced a plan together. I didn’t mean for Max to hurt you like he did.”
    I sat back, pushing a palm against my forehead. “I can’t believe you knew...”
    Kota’s palms slid over until his hands were warming my outer thighs. “Sang? You’re not mad, are you?”
    “Why?” I asked.
    Kota blinked at me. “Why what?”
    “Why me? Why did you bother?” Maybe it was stupid to ask, but I really didn’t understand. I was no one to him at the time. I was being an idiot that night and he’d stopped me from doing something unbelievably foolish.
    Kota’s eyes fell until he was gazing at my knee. His palm slid over the top of my thigh,