Read The Price of Falling for Free Online Page B

might smile at me but he didn’t. That made me even more nervous.
    It was Thursday before I had a good reason to actually talk to Jason.
    In between class I was walking through the main quad, weaving around other students, everyone hurrying to their next lesson. I was busy lost in my own thoughts, so I barely noticed this smaller guy who had been walking past me, suddenly stop and turn around.
    ‘Hey,’ he said, catching up beside me. ‘It’s Mike, right?’
    ‘Huh?’ I realized he was talking to me and stopped to look at him. He had long hair but wasn’t someone I immediately recognized.
    One of the pot-heads? I didn’t recall.
    He must have noticed my blank look as he smiled and said, ‘I’m AJ, Jason’s friend. Met you at Eddy’s.’
    ‘Oh,’ I said, fighting the rising heat I could feel all over my skin. I could place him now, he was the boy Jason had been talking to, the one with a lot of jewellery. A quick scan showed he wasn’t wearing as much jewellery today.
    ‘Er, hi,’ I said. ‘Sorry, I’ve got to...’ I gestured vaguely in the direction I had been travelling.
    ‘Oh, sure man,’ AJ said easily. ‘Are you coming to Eddy’s again?’
    ‘Er, maybe...’
    ‘Cool! You should come down.’
    ‘OK,’ I said, trying to walk away.
    ‘I think you should take me out next time,’ AJ said.
    His words made me freeze on the spot and I looked at him again.
    ‘Huh?’
    ‘Take me out,’ he repeated with a smile. ‘I’m much better than Jason and I won’t overcharge you.’
    My heart was hammering and I could feel my face getting hotter. I tried to take in what he said, tried to make sense of the hundreds of questions that were screaming inside my head.
    All I could get out was a quiet ‘What do you mean?’
    ‘Well I guessed you must be pretty new to this or you wouldn’t have paid that much,’ AJ said. ‘I’m sure you and me can work out a better deal.’
    His dark eyes looked into mine, playful, dancing. This was too much for me. I opened my mouth to respond and after a couple of seconds finally managed to say, ‘I’ve er, gotta go.’
    I couldn’t get away fast enough.
    ‘Think about it!’ I heard AJ call after me.
    I sat in class in a daze. The teacher’s words faded as my panicked thoughts grew louder. All I could think was, what the hell? How did he know? Does anyone else know?
    What if other people knew?
    I looked at my class mates. No-one looked at me. Did they know? What if that guy tells them?
    Oh my God. I had to talk to Jason.
    And then my panic subsided a little. I had something to talk to Jason about. Now I just had to find him.
    I had football practice after school. I was too restless to want to practice but I knew it was good to get rid of my nervous energy. When we were showering afterwards I was conscious about keeping my eyes to myself. I didn’t want anyone to get the wrong idea. I suddenly felt weird about looking at my team mates naked.
    ‘Hey Mike, why do you keep looking down at the floor?’ David asked me. ‘You seen something offensive?’
    ‘Oh, I’m just like, thinking...’ I addressed David’s feet.
    ‘Don’t go doing too much of that!’ Allen laughed as he pushed past me in a friendly shoulder nudge.
    ‘Thanks,’ I said, quickly dressing. I had to get out of there. Where the hell would Jason be now? It was past dinner time but still light.
    I knew of a few places that the pot-heads were likely to hang out; behind the bleachers on the field, out in the parking lot, the town park, the mall or Eddy’s. I didn’t think they’d go out to the cliffs on a week day.
    I figured the only way to find Jason was to go around these places one by one.
    I tried the bleachers first. There was a small group of pot-heads there, but no-one I recognized. Luckily I had been clever enough to bring an excuse to go there; I had the big bag of footballs with me, so it looked as though I was out there gathering balls.
    They ignored me anyway.
    Next I tried the