Waterways Read Online Free

way…”
    It worked. His mother gasped and leaned closer. “Where?”
    He showed her the spot. “Oh, Kory,” she said. “It’s swelling up. Let me get an ice pack.”
    The rest of the dinner was spent with her fretting over him, because those municipal pools might be full of disease, you never know. He let her worry, not pointing out that he hadn’t broken the skin. The ice did help, really, and the banana cream pie (from the market, not homemade) was delicious. He was in a somewhat better mood when he swam back to his room and lay on a towel on the floor to dry off.
    Nick surfaced and rested his arms on the floor, his nose only a foot from Kory’s. “You went to the municipal pool because of the poem, didn’t you?”
    “Shut up, Nick.”
    “Hey, I think it’s cool,” his brother said. “I couldn’t do it.”
    “Nick…”
    “Why do you care what those dipwads think?”
    Kory rolled over and stared up at his ceiling, where he could just see the glow-in-the-dark stars he’d put up when he was seven. “It’s complicated,” he said. “You’ll understand when you get to high school.”
    He knew that would irritate Nick. He hoped it would end the conversation. Instead, he heard a huff, and then Nick kept talking. “Well, I think it’s dumb. What happened with Jenny?”
    “Nick…”
    “Come on, Kory. I liked her. Why’d you dump her?”
    Kory closed his eyes. “I didn’t, okay?”
    “Oh,” Nick said, his voice small.
    “Please, Nick,” Kory said, resting a paw over his closed eyes.
    “Yeah, sorry, I…” Kory felt his brother touch his arm gently. “I’m gonna go to bed. Hope you’re okay.”
    “I’m fine,” Kory said, and then felt bad. “Thanks, Nick. I’ll tell you about it later. Just don’t feel like it now.”
    “Okay.” He heard the soft ripples of water as his brother slid down and swam back to his room.
    The truth was, Kory had thought he’d be relieved to be broken up with Jenny. They’d had a nice summer together, then slept together a few times, and that had changed their relationship. Suddenly she wanted to talk about other people’s relationships, like how Sal and Allie were doing, and things Jake Conly had said to Amanda that Amanda didn’t understand, and what did Kory think of all that? He didn’t care, truthfully, and apart from their double dates with Sal and Allie, he started making excuses to avoid Jenny unless it was in a public place like the pool. He’d retreated to an online book group, until he looked forward to logging on in the evenings more than he looked forward to seeing Jenny.
    So he’d thought he wouldn’t be upset if she dumped him; in fact, he was almost trying to get her to do it so he wouldn’t have to. But he hadn’t expected her to do it Saturday, when he wanted to talk to her about the previous week of school, when he really needed a sympathetic ear. Instead, it had been all about her, and how this was really too much, and she’d been talking to Chris Stafford—Chris Stafford!—and he’d asked her to the prom and she’d said yes.
    He was surprised by how hurt he’d felt. No, he didn’t want to be dating her, but he wanted to be the one to decide to stop. He’d been in a funk for most of Sunday, except when he’d been swimming, and when he’d been talking to Samaki.
    The violet eyes and easy smile of the black fox crept back into his thoughts. If their engaging talk had been any indication, Samaki would enjoy the online book group too. He turned his cell phone over thoughtfully and wondered if Samaki would really call him. He could call the fox; he had his number and it wasn’t even seven o’clock yet. Would the fox be eating dinner? Maybe it was a little too soon to be calling.
    Too soon? Kory laughed at himself and set down the phone. It wasn’t like he wanted to date the fox.
    Though… come to think of it, he wondered now if the fox wanted to date him. He’d certainly been very friendly considering they’d just met.