Gravity Read Online Free Page B

without a single identifiable cause?  You’re nuts!”
    “Peyton, I’m serious.  I’d better not catch you anywhere near him, or—”
    “Or what?” I interrupted defiantly.  “You’ll ground me?  You’ll take away my phone?  You’ll take away my driving privileges?”
    “I mean it, Peyton,” he growled.
    “I’m sure you do, Brady, but if you think you can dictate who my friends are, you’re crazier than I thought you were.”
    “As your older brother, I—”
    “Older by what?  Six minutes?”
    “It doesn’t matter.  You’re my little sister, my responsibility and you’re supposed to listen to me.  Even Julia has always left me in charge of you.”
    I couldn’t stop the snort of derision that bubbled out.
    “Julia?  You’re playing the Julia card?  That’s what you’re gonna go with?  Seriously?”
    We looked at one another, each of us undoubtedly thinking how ludicrous that sounded, and we laughed.  It was actually a good thing, though.  A much-needed tension-breaker.    
    Aunt Julia was the only parental figure we’d had since we were three months old, if one could consider her “parental” in any way.  She had come to stay with us when our parents had disappeared on their anniversary trip to New York shortly after our birth.  To say she was not happy with the situation would’ve been a humongous understatement.  She’d taken to rearing children about as well as a shark takes to flight. 
    Over the years, as Brady and I had gotten older, the three of us had come to the mutual agreement that Brady and I would raise ourselves and Julia would sign things and pose as the person in charge.  She was all too happy to go along with that arrangement and it had worked out surprisingly well.  It hadn’t taken long for Brady and me to realize that we liked being in control of our own lives, that we liked it best when Julia was merely an absentee authority figure.  We’d learned to rely on no one but each other and, thus far, no person and no thing had ever come between us or threatened that in any way.  Until now.
    “Alright, so maybe that was weak, but Peyton I’m telling you, you have to listen to me on this.  It has to be this way.  I can feel it in my gut.”
    “Brady, that sounds—”
    Brady sighed loudly, cutting me off.
    “I know how it sounds.  But promise me anyway.  Promise me you’ll stay away from him.”
    “Brady, I—”
    “Promise me, Peyton.”
    As I sat looking at his face, I knew that he wouldn’t give up until I’d done as he asked.  And, even though he was basically forcing me to say the words, something about saying them soured in the pit of my stomach like spoiled milk.  The whole experience didn’t set well, probably because even as I spoke the words, I knew I was lying to my brother.
    “I promise.”
    He exhaled and his tense expression immediately relaxed.
    “Okay.  Thank you,” he breathed.  “Now was that so hard?”
    I smiled, but said nothing, feeling as though I had just betrayed the two most important people in the world, even though that sounded as ridiculous to me as it likely would to anyone else who knew the history of my relationship with Trace.  Somehow, in the course of one short night, he’d gone from a crush that I’d basically admired from afar, figuratively speaking, to someone I felt like I’d give up my life and everyone in it to be with.  It made no sense whatsoever.
    Brady chatted for a few minutes about inconsequential party-related things, none of which I cared about or really listened to.  My mind was still stuck on Trace and how I’d just told my brother a colossal lie.  Even though I felt some strange new connection to my sibling, to the blood that we had in common, I also felt a strange new connection to Trace and there was not a single fiber in my body that really thought I’d be able to stay away from him if he decided to pursue me.  In fact, I knew without a doubt that I didn’t even want to