Read Wherever You Go for Free Online Page B

side of the intersection and reached out for her arm, stopping her. She whirled on him.
    "What?" Her face was angry as she untangled herself from his grasp.
    "I, uh..." Jason's tongue felt thick, stumbling for what to say. "I'm sorry about what happened on Saturday at lunch. And, well, I guess for a long time now, I've wondered how you're doing."
    Holly's mouth was set in a grim line like she didn't believe him. Now he felt like an idiot for chasing her down. Felt like an idiot if what he was trying to do didn't mean anything to her.
    Holly shifted on her feet, stepped back from the corner a little to let a lady with a rolling grocery caddy by. "You care about how I'm doing?" she asked, adjusting her backpack on her shoulder.
    "Yeah. Listen, I don't know why I waited so long to talk to you," he said.
    Holly raised her eyebrows. "Well, you said what you wanted to say. Was there anything else? I really have to be somewhere." She didn't wait for his answer, just turned and starturned and ed down the sidewalk again.
    He considered just letting her walk away. After all, he'd tried to say what he needed to, and now maybe life could continue and this feeling of responsibility nagging at him would dissipate. But it wasn't going anywhere at the moment, that was for damn sure. "Holly, don't be like that," he said, following her.
    "Do we have to do this now or ... ever?" she said, her voice steady, robotic. "We're cool, all right?"
    No. Not good enough.
Jason couldn't leave it like that. He couldn't leave something so messed up. "That's crap," he said.
    She stepped closer to him. "Fine. I'm not cool with you or your friends."
    "Our friends are idiots," he said.
    "Your friends were never my friends," she replied in a low voice. "You tolerated me because I was with Rob. We both know that."
    Jason let Holly walk away. "I was your friend," he called after her.
    She turned and gave him a look over her shoulder. One that made him feel guilty, ashamed. He was sure he'd been kind to Holly while she'd dated Rob, but maybe she was right. Maybe his friends hadn't given her a chance, let her in the circle for real. And when she needed them, they'd ditched her so easily, so quickly.
    "Some friends," he muttered. He turned and walked back the way he'd come, taking his time, mulling over what Holly had said.
    Mark was waiting by Jason's car in the nearly deserted parking lot. "What's your deal?" he said. "I've been here for ten minutes waiting for your lame ass." Mark's parents had probably grounded him as usual and taken away his car.
    "You getting in or what?" Jason replied, clicking the locks open. He started up the car, and the two of them flew down the side streets. They passed Holly a few blocks away, her head down, her footsteps quick. Another pang of guilt hit him and his foot eased off the gas.
    "You gonna pick up a hitcher?" Mark said, jabbing him in the side.
    "Dude. Shut up." He pressed harder on the pedal and sped toward the hills.
    ***
    "Sorry!"
    Grandpa Aldo winked at me from under his gray cap. "Hello there."
    "I didn't mean to be late today." I took a seat next to him on the bench, knowing that I had to let the stress of my walk home and the strange conversation with Jason go.
Everything is fine
. "When did the senior center bus drop you off?"
    He gestured with upturned palms toward what little landscaping existed out in front of our crappy building. "Been watching the birds."

    I peered at him, trying to judge his coherence. "So you haven't been here too long?"
    "I don't mind sitting in the sunshine." He gave me a kind smile, and his blue eyes lit up.
    I didn't have a watch, so I pulled his left wrist over to me and checked the time on his big silver-faced one. Three fifteen. Lena's bus would be pulling up to the corner in a few minutes.
    When I tried to let go of my grandfather's hand, he grasped mine tighter. "It's good to be with you, Holly. Isn't this nice?"
    I let out a sigh of relief. He was having a good day. There hadn't been