Page 4 of Falling Too Late

Poverty Flats, as we called it.??

I didn’t know what it was with her and controlling everything I did when she was never home in the first place. I was seventeen now and had been taking care of myself since Dad died.??

To cover the bills, she started working doubles at a diner. The tips were better at night, so she preferred to work then. She left for work when I get off school and came home while I was eating breakfast.??

As soon as she got home this morning, she started harping on me about my grades. She got my report card in the mail andwasn’t impressed with the D average I had been maintaining all year.??

I didn’t care enough to try. I hated school. I hated the teachers who didn’t care enough to help me when I had asked for it. All’s they cared about were the students who were in sports or cheerleading. They didn’t care about the rest of us.??

The outcasts. We were a menace to them. You could see it in the way they looked down their noses at us. I didn’t have the nicest clothes. I didn’t always have a clean and fresh haircut. My hair stayed longer than the others, and without fail, some teacher had to make some comment about it.?

It’s time to get a haircut, Alex.??

You should talk to your mom about getting a haircut.??

A haircut cost about fifteen dollars plus tip.??

Fifteen dollars that could’ve gone to the power bill or be our laundry money.?

I cut through an alleyway and found myself on the sidewalk about a half mile from school. I rushed out so fast that I was going to be a half hour early. I slowed my pace as the wooden fence ended and opened to the irrigation canal that ran through the city. Soon, it would dry up when the city turned off the water.?

Right as the fence ended, somebody turned the corner and ran into me.??

“Hey!” I stumbled backward, catching myself last second, but the person who ran into me didn’t, a plume of dust forming.??

They were on the ground on their knees scrambling to the edge of the canal. “Shit! My book!” they said, and I heard the distinctKERPLUNKsound of something falling into water. I looked down at them to see a plastic bag torn open and their things on the ground.

They rose up onto their knees, head tilted down, shoulders shaking.??

“You okay?” I reached down, offering my hand to help, but the person—a girl with long black hair—stared at my hand, leaning away from it. She pushed herself up and walked to theedge of the canal where the bank sloped down and all we could see was the water rushing under the road.??

I waited for her to yell, to scream to tell me it was my fault, but it never came.??

“That was my biology book,” she stated, still staring down at the canal as if she could pull it back if she looked long enough.??

I looked on for another minute before I pulled my backpack off my shoulders and took out my biology book. “Was it this one?” She nodded. “Here,” I shoved the book in her direction, “take it.”??

Her face screwed up in confusion. “But don’t you need it?”??

I shook my head as I handed it over. “Nah. I don’t really care either way.” I zipped my backpack up before picking up all her things. “You know, if you check the lost ’n’ found, there's always a couple backpacks in there that you can claim.”?

“But they aren’t mine.” She reached for her things, and I passed them to her, shrugging my shoulders.??

“Someone lost them and then you found them. It becomes yours.” My eyes fell to the plastic bag on the ground, understanding passing between us.??

We came from the same situation. Lack of money. I could see it all over her. It looked like she was wearing men's clothes, probably her dad’s or her brother’s. Everything she was wearing was too big for her. Other kids our age were getting their licenses and driving to school. We were footin’ it.??

“You’ll get into trouble if you don’t return your book.”??

“Don’t worry about it.” I brushed the comment off. We started heading to school. She followed a few steps behind me. I didn’t know her name or recognize her from any of my classes. It wasn’t not a big deal though, our school was so big, with kids jam packed into every class, that it only made sense to not know every face. We hit the school grounds, and I didn’t miss her breaking away and heading in the opposite direction.??

“Alex!” I redirected to my name being shouted across the parking lot. Jonathan, my best friend since grade school, wasstanding by his white Audi, talking to Chance, who drove a fucking BMW to school. Their dads worked together, so those two made sense as to why they were friends. “Hey, do you want to hit Teddy’s party this Friday?”??

“Yeah. Sounds like a plan.” The one benefit from my mom constantly taking night shifts was that she was never around to keep me from going out.??I could go out, get drunk, come home, shower, and sleep the hangover off, and she never knew.

If she had known, it would have broken her heart.

“I’ll pick you up.” I didn’t miss the way Chance snickered at that comment.??

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