The Chance You Won't Return Read Online Free Page A

driving, but instead Josh asked, “You know Jim Wiley?”
    All three of them looked at me. “Yeah,” I said. “Everybody knows Jim. He drove into his house, remember?”
    “No, I mean,” Josh said, “like, are you friends?”
    I balanced an apple in my palm before taking a bite. “Not really. I mean, I saw him on the way to school yesterday.”
    “What’d you do?” Theresa asked, grinning. “Hook up in the woods?”
    “Yeah, it was really romantic,” I said. “Bugs and wet leaves. I’m super outdoorsy.” My mind flashed to Jim’s perfect mouth and how I bet he would be an amazing kisser. “If Jim Wiley wanted to hook up in the woods, that’s what I’d be doing right now.”
    “Like Tarzan and Jane,” Maddie said. She took out a pen and started drawing purple flowers on her hands. “Except fewer gorillas, more squirrels.”
    I looked at Josh. “Did Jim say we were friends?”
    Josh explained that he had been in Spanish class when people started talking about me, the car, and the football field. And then Jim said, “Like you guys are any better.” I thought that was surprising enough, but Josh went on to describe Nick Gillan arguing with Jim about me, Nick saying I was some dumb bitch and they were going to lose the game because of me. “So Jim goes, ‘Whatever. You sucked to begin with.’ Nick’s face got all red and he tried to jump out of his desk, which didn’t really work because he’s too big. Jim was, like, staring him down. I totally thought Nick was going to flip desks over or something, but then Señor Oria came in, so everyone had to shut up and sit down.”
    Maddie nodded. “Jim Wiley totally stood up for you.”
    I chewed a bite of apple and tried not to smile. “Yeah, well, he demolished part of his house. He probably thinks messing up the football field is so minor compared to that.”
    A few tables away, Jim Wiley was sitting with his senior friends but didn’t seem to be saying much. He hadn’t been in school long enough after driving into his parents’ house to deal with any of the rumors. Some people had claimed he drank a whole bottle of Jack Daniel’s. Others said he hated his family, and another group insisted that he snorted coke with the lacrosse team in the boys’ bathroom. Whatever he’d done, it was cooler than freaking out behind the wheel.
    I swallowed a bite of sandwich, but it was hard in my throat. I barely knew Jim; the first time he’d said more than “hey” to me had been that morning in the woods. Except now he was sticking up for me when most of the student body thought I was an idiot. I hoped the rumors about him weren’t true. I hoped he was mostly an okay person. That suddenly seemed important.
    Just after last bell, Mr. Kane caught me in the hall. I thought he was going to tell me about more imaginary people I’d killed, but he’d calmed down a little since driver’s ed. “Alex,” he said, exhaling heavily. It was as if he’d been practicing how to say my name without swearing.
    “Mr. Kane,” I said.
    “I just spoke with your mother about your situation. Your parents and I are going to have a conference and discuss our options. I really don’t want to fail you, so be prepared — it’s probably going to have to be a lot of extra work.”
    I could already imagine the lecture — how I wasn’t applying myself, how I was totally capable, and how I had to get over it already. “What did my mom say?” I asked.
    “She’s concerned, obviously,” he said. He paused, frowning at his clipboard, and then met my gaze. His voice was softer. “She said she’d been feeling a little out of sorts, so please let her know that I can work around her schedule if she’s under the weather.”
    “Right,” I said, remembering how my mother had glazed over at breakfast. It was nothing, I told myself. Not like when she’d been sick — or that’s what we called it — years earlier. “She’s fine. You can meet whenever.”
    “Excellent. Until