Page 12 of The Breaking Point

I waited but didn’t hear anything else. I eventually went to my window that faced the part of the yard where our tree house was located. I watched as Brady tried to climb the tree and then fell on his butt.

I stifled a giggle. Didn’t he know there was a ladder you could pull down? I watched as he tried a second time and failed.

When I approached him at the tree, Brady was wiping dirt off his backside.

“Why do you keep following me around?” he said, annoyed.

“You know there’s a ladder, right?”

He just stared at me. I reached up and pulled said ladder down. It clicked when it reached the ground.

“Huh.” Brady shook his head. “I didn’t see it.”

“It’s dark out.” I wanted to make sure he didn’t feel embarrassed.

He didn’t protest when I climbed up after him into the tree house. He didn’t say much, either. We sat in silence, listening to the sounds of twilight.

“I come up here to write,” I said. “In my journal.”

Brady looked around. “Is your journal in here?”

I laughed. “No way. Ben would read it if he could. And I’d never let him.”

Brady just grunted.

“Do you want me to leave you alone?” I asked quietly.

Brady, to my surprise, shook his head. “It’s fine. It’s your tree house after all.”

“I’m not a scaredy-cat,” Brady said suddenly. “About swimming, I mean.”

I blinked in surprise. “What?”

“I mean, I’m not afraid of the water. Not exactly. But every time I try to learn how to swim, I think about how my mom’s boyfriend threw me into the ocean. A riptide caught me, and I thought I was gonna drown.”

“Your mom’s boyfriend threw you?” I was horrified. “How old were you?”

“Uh, three? Four?”

“What!”

Brady shrugged. “I mean, it’s whatever. I didn’t die. But ever since then, I can only take showers. I don’t swim.”

“Did anyone try to help you?”

Brady was incredulous. “What, like Rick? Rick was laughing when I got to shore. My mom was drunk, passed out somewhere. Rick told me he’d never seen anything funnier.”

I felt so sad for Brady right then. Had no one ever protected him? Loved him? No wonder he didn’t know how to swim.

“Well, if you keep practicing, that won’t happen to you again,” I said.

“We can’t practice again. Your dad told me to leave you alone.” Brady grimaced. “You should probably leave before we get in trouble.”

My dad had told Brady to leave me alone? I was outraged. He didn’t even know Brady!

“That’s stupid,” I said. “And besides, my dad is gone by eight o’clock Monday through Friday. Tomorrow’s Friday, so we can keep swimming after my dad is gone.”

Brady just stared at me; then he let out a laugh. “Seriously? You don’t care about getting into trouble?”

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