Earthbound Read Online Free

out from behind the curtain.
I don’t have to hide
, I rationalize,
I’m not the one doing something wrong
.
    But though I stand at the window staring down for several minutes, nothing stirs, nothing moves.
    He’s gone.
    I’m so confused. I don’t know this guy—I’ve never seen him in my life before today.
    So why do I
miss
him?

CHAPTER FOUR
    I don’t see Benson when I enter the library—not entirely unheard of; he does
occasionally
have to do actual work. But despite my homework, the real reason I came here was to see him, to talk to him, and my nerves are so frazzled that when I don’t immediately catch sight of him, my still-recovering brain finds it impossible to formulate a plan B.
    “Oh, Tavia dear.” Marie’s soft voice scares me so badly I spin with an audible gasp. I have
got
to simmer down. “Benson’s back in the file room. Would you like me to get him for you?”
    Marie is the head librarian and technically Benson’s boss. She’s about as strict as a bowl of whipped cream, and Benson adores her. Which means that she adores him back—and who wouldn’t?—but also that she often hovers when we’re working and pays me extra attention because I’m
Benson’s special friend
.
    And she
always
pronounces my name wrong. We’ve had the conversation—Tave, it rhymes with
cave
, not
mauve
—but it never sticks.
    “Y-yes please,” I answer, hoping she didn’t notice the stutter. She just smiles and heads toward the back of the library at a maddeningly slow pace, her silver, wavy hair bouncing as she walks.
    I suppose it’s not a particularly complimentary testament to my social life that my only friend is a library intern, but considering I’m attending high school online and don’t have a classmate within a hundred miles, I can hardly be choosy. After missing four months of school for physical and neurological recovery, online was pretty much my only option if I didn’t want to be a “super senior.”
    Besides, Reese and Jay thought it would be better for me to get a whole new start out here, a thousand miles away from my old life. At first I assumed they just didn’t want to move, and I didn’t blame them. But in the end I think they were right. I like being someplace new—where I’m not immediately labeled the poor girl who lost both her parents. Broken and orphaned. Something tells me there’s no going back to normal after either of those, much less both.
    Plus, classwork gives me an excuse to get out of the house almost every day to come here and see Benson. Not that I
need
an excuse, but I don’t want Reese and Jay to think I’m trying to get away from them.
    And I’m not … exactly. It’s just weird to be in the house with Reese all day long every single day. I’m eighteen; I should be out doing high school stuff. Football games, school plays, hanging out at McDonald’s eating my weight in french fries. The kind of stuff I used to occasionally let my friends drag me out for, back in Michigan. The kind of stuff I’d decided to do more of my senior year at my new art school. Maybe even with a guy—a nice, artsy guy.
    And then my plans crashed along with the plane.
    Things like that don’t interest me anymore. I’d accepted that I would have a secluded senior year when an English assignment sent me to the library for the first time a couple months ago and Benson Ryder was the one who introduced himself to me.
    Then taught me how to use microfiche. Friendship at first sight.
    Literally.
    I slip into a chair at our usual table and knead the muscles on my right leg—they’re always a little tender after the half-mile walk here—before glancing around the sparsely populated library. It generally isn’t too busy between nine and four, unless one of the local elementary schools is having a field trip. It gets busier in the afternoon, when school’s out, but one of the advantages of online school is that I can go to the library anytime I want.
    Plus Benson is more likely to