The Truth About You & Me Read Online Free

day!”
    But it was my lucky day, because friends didn’t come that easy to me, and yet that’s exactly how it seemed with her. I really was different, in college. I was changing and evolving, even on that second day.
    â€œStarburst?” she asked, fishing a piece out of the front pocket of her backpack.
    You watched me unwrap it. You watched me put it in my mouth. And then you looked away from me and stood up.
    â€œOkay, guys, before we start let’s go over a few ground rules for safety in the lab. Rule number one,” you said with an amused sort of lilt to your voice, “absolutely no food or drink.”
    Katie and I shared a look, and she shoved the still-wrapped candy she was clenching in her hand into her backpack.
    I used my tongue to push the Starburst to the side of my mouth, and I’m not even sure why because you’d already seen it.
    Why did you watch me eat that candy and not stop me, Bennett? Were you letting me get away with it, or were you being playful with me?
    â€œRule number two: there are no make-up labs. Missed labs are simply going to show up as zeros, and that’s going to hurt your grade. If you miss a lecture day, you can read the textbook. If you miss a lab day, you miss the lab. Period.”
    You walked around the room, passing out little packets of stapled paper. You wore nice shoes that day: pretty brown leather ones, not quite boots, not quite loafers, but something between. I liked the way those steel-gray slacks brushed the soles.
    You dressed so differently than the boys at my high school, boys who wore nothing but ripped jeans and faded T-shirts. You cared about the way you looked, and it showed.
    Katie shuffled our packet in front of me, and I trained my eye on the paper as she leaned toward me. “Teachers should not be allowed to look that good,” she said.
    I giggled. “ Seriously, ” I whispered.
    Y ou returned to the front of the room, and your shaggy hair slid into your eyes as I looked up at you. “Today’s lab is really quite simple, but it will provide you with the tools for future labs. We’re working on the basics of any goo d experiment: maintaining an adequate control group, creating reasonable hypotheses, and so forth. Please read over the material and then get to work. If you have any questions, please do see me, either during the lab today or during my office hours, which are outlined on the class syllabus. Today they’re noon to two,” you said.
    Katie and I leaned together so closely our heads nearly touched and she read the instructions out loud, quietly. “I can grab the beakers,” I said when she was finished.
    â€œGreat. I’ll get the food coloring.”
    We shoved our chairs back and walked to opposite ends of the room, me to a bay of drawers right next to that closet housing your coat.
    In high school, boys wear letterman’s jackets, or fleece pullovers, or North Face snow jackets if it’s super cold. I wondered, as I fished out a cylinder and two beakers, what your coat looked like.
    When I walked back to our table, you were standing there, asking Katie what our hypothesis was. She was stammering something about a rainbow, and when I approached, her eyes looked up at me, pleading.
    â€œWe’re hypothesizing that each of the colors, combined with water, will boil at the same temperature,” I said, brushing past you to take my seat. It was a silly lab. A high school lab. But it accomplished what you wanted from us.
    â€œGood. Very good,” you said, your eyes meeting mine in a way that made it feel like a spark zipped between us. “I’ll leave you to it,” you said, going to the next table.
    It went like that for the rest of the morning, with you floating around the room, me always aware of precisely where you stood, who you talked to.
    Although Katie didn’t know a dang thing about science, she was a good partner. She did exactly what I told