Read Breakable for Free Online Page A

Couldn’t he hear it?  I shook my head.
    Whispers
rose on the other side of the door, then broke into hushed voices. Angry ,
hushed voices. His rumble, punctuated by her increasingly high pitched squeaks.
    If
I wasn’t so miserable, it would have been funny.
    Behind
me, Older Me sighed.
    “Stace,
I’ll take you home. Okay?” Mark sounded weary.
    I
took a breath and forced my voice to steadiness. “Go back to the dance, Mark. I
don’t want to go home yet. I’ll talk to you later.”
    “But–”
    I
cursed at the same time Karyn whined, “She doesn’t want you to!”
    I
almost changed my mind. Just to irritate her. Just to see if he’d do it. But
deep down I didn’t want to fight for him.
    I
feared I would lose.
    “Just
go. Please. I’ll be fine.” My voice sounded normal, even to me.
    A
few more hushed whispers, then Mark sighed. “Okay, but… if you decide you want
me to drive, just text me.”
    I
closed my eyes and sighed, remembering my phone, laying on the bed at home.
“Okay, thanks.”
    A
second later the squeak of his basketball shoes rose on the linoleum. Then
Karyn’s heel’s clicked rapidly down the hall, fading away until I heard the
faint thunk of the fire doors swinging closed behind them.
    I
was aware of Older Me in the mirror, frowning.
    “Stacy–”
    “Just
leave it, okay?”
    “I’m
not… Did you get hurt?”
    “I’m
fine. I tripped. Everyone laughed. End of story.”
    “He
tripped you, you mean?”
    “I
said, leave it alone!”
    “No!
You shouldn’t have to live this way! Why don’t you talk to the teachers again?
Or…or just avoid him?”
    I
gaped at her then. “Seriously? Did that work for you?”
    Her
face tightened but she didn’t speak.
    I
rolled my eyes. “It doesn’t work to just “avoid” them, because they find me.
And it doesn’t work to tell the teachers, because Finn and his friends just get
more careful and get more mad at me. So until you have a better idea,
shut your face.”
    “I’m
trying to help.”
    “Well,
you aren’t.”
    She
dropped her head in her hands. I turned away, pacing the tiny room, suddenly
full of pent up energy. She didn’t get it, which was crazy. How had she had it
so much easier when we were living the same life? And why did she refuse to
tell me about the future, except in the vaguest terms?
    The
tiny, twisting fear I’d always had suddenly clicked into place. “Maybe I’m nuts
after all.”
    “Don’t
you ever say that!” Older Me hissed.
    I
whirled. “Why? Because your precious husband thinks you’re cuckoo?”
    “Don’t.”
    She
hated when I brought that up. Her husband had had her committed last year. But
they only held her for three days. It had scared her though. And to be fair,
she was right – I didn’t want to think about that happening to me. That I might
not be able to convince professionals I was sane.
    So,
why wasn’t she helping?
    I
stormed back to the mirror, finger aimed at her chest. “No matter how much I
ask, you don’t tell me what’s coming. No matter what I go through, you won’t
explain anything until it’s already happened. What good is it being able to
talk to you if you can’t even help ?”
    “I
help you all the time!”
    “That’s
crap!”
    “I
helped you understand what happened with Dad! I told you everything I knew
about why Mom was so screwed up.”
    That
much was true. She’d helped me through Mom’s constant jibes, and when Dad
stopped showing up for visits – or even sending birthday cards… But how did I
know I hadn’t just picked that stuff up somewhere else? Twisted it in my mind
to make it come from her?
    I
shook my head. “Maybe you’re just the voice of my subconscious. A complete
figment of my imagination.”
    “Don’t
talk like that.”
    “Maybe
you aren’t really my future. Maybe you’re just some wacky idea of what my brain
is scared I’ll become. So it’s putting you in front of me to taunt me–”
    “Stacy–”
    “–because
it doesn’t